Where does McFarland fit into equation behind Harris? taken on the South Side (Steelers)

CAITLYN EPES / STEELERS

Anthony McFarland runs with the ball at practice.

At some point Wednesday, the Steelers will announce the activation of Anthony McFarland off the injured reserve list.

Who stays on the 53-man roster to make room for the second-year running back and who goes remains to be seen -- though it's not guaranteed to be a running back who goes. 

One thing that is not in doubt is that the Steelers could use a boost in production from their running backs not named Najee Harris as they head into Sunday's showdown with the Browns in Cleveland.

Benny Snell and Kalen Ballage have combined for 14 carries for 36 yards playing limited snaps to spell Harris, the team's first-round draft pick. They've failed to catch any of their three targets in the passing game.

Six games into the season, the Steelers (3-3) are getting just over 2 carries for 6 yards from their backs not named Harris.

There might not be a sharper contrast to that than the Browns (4-3).

Starter Nick Chubb has rushed for 523 yards despite missing the past two games with a knee injury. He's expected to be back this week against the Steelers. Kareem Hunt made one start in place of Chubb before going on injured reserve with a calf injury. He's rushed for 361 yards. Third-string back D'Ernest Johnson started last week against the Broncos with both Chubb and Hunt sidelined and rushed for 146 yards on 22 carries.

Anyone have any hope that any running back on the Steelers' roster not named Harris could make anything close to that kind of impact?

Even Mike Tomlin doesn't know.

"I haven’t had a lot of exposure to our running back depth," Tomlin said Tuesday. "A lot of the reasons have to do with things that don't necessarily involve them. There have been some weeks where we haven’t had a lot of fluidity in terms of our run. Like we've talked about throughout the course of this thing, that minimizes opportunity. That's less opportunities not only for Najee, but for others. Last week, I thought we got some things from KB (Ballage) and we had enough fluidity in our run game where you were able to see some of the depth things and the division of labor at that position."

The Steelers weren't running the ball much early in the season. But in the past two games, they've dedicated themselves to being more persistent with their running game. Three weeks ago against Denver, Harris had 23 carries for a career-high 122 yards. Snell had five carries for 20 yards, while Ballage had two for six. In their last game prior to their bye last week, the Steelers had 30 carries for 119 yards, with Harris handling 24 of the rushing attempts.

But with Snell nursing a wrist issue suffered while covering a kick, he didn't get a carry. Ballage had two attempts for 15 yards, while the rest were split up among Diontae Johnson, Ben Roethlisberger on two kneel downs and a goal-line run for a touchdown by tight end Eric Ebron.

The Steelers have to be concerned with the heavy workload being handled by Harris. The rookie's 57.2 snaps per game leads NFL players at the position and are four more than the next closest player, the Cowboys' Ezekiel Elliott. In fact, just five running backs in the league are averaging 50 or more offensive snaps per game, and two of those -- the Rams' Darrell Henderson and Dalvin Cook of the Vikings -- have already missed time because of injuries.

Losing Harris, whose 22.7 touches per game are tied for fifth in the NFL, would be a big loss for the Steelers, especially since the players behind him haven't shown themselves to be capable of coming close to replicating his production.

That's where the speedy McFarland could fill some kind of role. Like many of the league's rookie running backs a year ago, McFarland, a fourth-round draft pick, struggled to find footing a year ago thanks to the lack of a preseason. The rookie running back class as a whole in the league was a bit of a crapshoot because coaches just didn't know if they could hold up in pass protection and weren't willing, unless forced, to press them into action with the potential to get their quarterback hit.

As a result, despite the Steelers' struggles running the ball a year ago, when they finished dead last in rushing, McFarland got just 33 carries for 113 yards.

But the Steelers also seemingly had a plan for him coming into the 2021 season. Throughout the course of training camp, they lined up with both Harris and McFarland on the field together at the same time, using one in the slot and the other in the backfield.

"We’re bringing him along, health-wise," offensive coordinator Matt Canada said of McFarland. "We’ll try to utilize his skillset the best way we can."

McFarland's skillset is speed, the one thing that could be considered just average in Harris' game. McFarland ran a 4.44-second 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine in 2020 and displayed plenty of home run speed in his college career at Maryland.

At 5-foot-8, 193 pounds, McFarland couldn't be more different than the 6-foot-2, 230-pound Harris. But that might not be a bad thing.

The Steelers just need to figure out how to mix him into the package as they try to figure out what their depth is like behind Harris.

"Hopefully, as we continue to grow and trend in the right direction in terms of our run game, I'll be able to better answer that question about the quality of our depth and the components of our depth that round out our group," Tomlin said. " We've just had some challenges at the early stages of the journey that really make that a difficult question to answer directly.

"I think the week's work will determine if there's a role (for McFarland) and, if there is, what that role is."

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