There have been 257 picks within the NFL Draft and Yahoo Sports activities analyst Matt Harmon’s favourite one was RB Kaleb Johnson to the Steelers. Extra particularly, Harmon was selecting what player-team match was his favourite from the 2025 NFL Draft and rapidly selected the Johnson-Pittsburgh pairing.
“I’ve been speaking about [this] actually because the mix, let’s get this man to the Pittsburgh Steelers,” stated Harmon. “He’s a pure zone runner. They ran zone ideas on the second-highest charge… I believe he’s simply going to smash on this offense. It wouldn’t shock me if he’s the second best rookie this yr.”
That’s large reward for the Steelers third-round working again out of Iowa, who Harmon thinks will solely be outpaced by Ashton Jeanty.
Being a productive, workhorse again is nothing new to Johnson. He carried your entire Hawkeyes offense on his again in 2024. He led the Large Ten final season in dashing yards with 1,537, and touchdowns with 21, whereas averaging 128.1 yards per recreation. On high of that, Johnson proved he might be a featured again, logging 240 dashing makes an attempt on the season, which was eleventh within the nation.
So far as a match, it’s arduous to think about a lot better. As Harmon eluded to, Johnson ran a really related dashing idea in school, thriving off of wide-zone runs. His persistence and burst play proper into the scheme’s hand, one thing Arthur Smith will certainly be enthusiastic about. Johnson additionally presents an ideal working mate with Jaylen Warren. Warren, a smaller, fast working again pairs properly with the 6010, 224-pound Johnson.
Charles McDonald and Nate Tice, two different Yahoo Sports activities analysts, have been additionally very complimentary of Johnson. In actual fact, McDonald went as far to match him to former four-time Professional Bowler Arian Foster.
“I appreciated it quite a bit,” stated McDonald. “Once I watched him run, a variety of the surface zone stuff regarded like Arian Foster simply the best way he glides, he’s a much bigger again. Possibly not the quickest man however sees it and units it up effectively.”
General, the Yahoo Sports activities crew appears to be fairly excessive on the Johnson signing, going as far to say that if Aaron Rodgers indicators, Johnson and a few of the different Steelers additions may make the crew attention-grabbing.
