FOX Sports’ Ralph Vacchiano believes Dowdle “should end up as the workhorse” in the Steelers’ backfield after speaking with head coach Mike McCarthy.
That is massive for fantasy football. Dowdle is coming off back to back 1,000-yard rushing seasons and could now be stepping into a run heavy Pittsburgh offense designed to take pressure off 42 year old Aaron Rodgers. If the workload tilts heavily toward Dowdle, his current fringe RB2/FLEX price could look downright silly by October.
Jaylen Warren isn’t going anywhere, but fantasy managers shouldn’t ignore the smoke surrounding Dowdle. A true lead-back workload could turn Dowdle from a late round afterthought into a weekly fantasy weapon and potentially one of 2026’s biggest RB steals.
Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jaylen Warren (shoulder) ...
Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jaylen Warren handled 11 ...
ESPN's Dan Graziano believes that Pittsburgh Steelers ...
Head coach Mike Tomlin praised Eli Heidenreich on Tuesday, highlighting his natural instincts and positional flexibility. The seventh-round rookie out of Navy commands an intriguing dual RB/WR designation on the team’s official depth chart after averaging 6.8 yards per carry and 17.2 yards per reception during his final collegiate season.
While Heidenreich remains a long-shot for immediate fantasy relevance, his multi-phase versatility and 4.44 speed give him significant PPR appeal and has moved from watchlist candidate to must-draft in dynasty league rookie drafts.
The Pittsburgh Steelers drafted a satellite-plus weapon at No. 230 in Eli Heidenreich, who pairs a rock-solid 27.5 BMI with a 44.5% College Target Share (100th-percentile) that nearly breaks the standard prospect model. Heidenreich is a verified metric unicorn who averaged a massive 6.5 College Yards Per Carry while generating a dominant 18.5 Yards Per Reception at Navy, generating frequent comps to Christian McCaffrey.
For dynasty players, consider Heidenreich a late round flier that could be interesting should if there were to be some injuries in the Steelers’ backfield, particularly to Jaylen Warren.
The Steelers and running back Jaylen Warren have agreed to a 2-year deal that will pay Warren $7 million with $12 million guaranteed. Warren is the veteran in the backfield. The team added Kaleb Johnon in the 2025 NFL Draft in round 3.
With Najee Harris leaving via free agency to the Los Angeles Chargers, there is opportunity for Warren to be the lead back. While most believe Kaleb Johnson will take the Harris role, Warren can provide plenty of pop out of the backfield. Warren was 13th in yards per touch in 2024 with 5.2 and 6th in yards per route run at 2.50. Warren is a year removed from posting 61 receptions.
While this is a nice deal for Warren, it shouldn’t dissuade fantasy gamers from acquiring or drafting Kaleb Johnson. Warren ranked 46th for opportunity share in 2024 and is an undersized back at 5’8’’ and 207 pounds. Take this news as a chance to trade for Kaleb Johnson.
Author: Jeremiah Retzlaff (@coachretzlaff1)
Per Brooke Pryor: Earlier today, Mike Tomlin voiced his confidence in Warren as RB1: “I certainly feel comfortable with his ability to do so. He got hampered by injury some in 2024. He appears to be ready to answer that.“
The Steelers let Najee Harris walk in free agency, and haven’t made many moves in terms of replacing Harris’ major workload this offseason. Harris handled 299 touches in 2024.
Warren handled a career low 4.3 yards per carry and 158 touches, and finished as the RB38 for fantasy.
While Tomlin’s coachspeak is positive, the reality is that Warren isn’t built to handle a majority workload. Expect the Steelers to draft a running back in the first three rounds.
Author: Bradley Stalder (@FFStalder)
Jaylen Warren has put together impressive spot performances for Pittsburg, especially for an undrafted free agent walk-on. It’s easy to be captivated by efficiency metrics such as his 5.2 yards per touch (#13 last year), or 4.17 yards created per touch (#9 LY) and project those into a monster season post Najee Harris departure. However, reading the tea leaves and looking at historical data should really temper those expectations.
Pittsburg has hosted 30 pre-draft visits with potential rookies, 9 of those have been running backs. The list of backs include: TreVeyon Henderson, RJ Harvey, Ollie Gordon II, Omarion Hampton, Bhayshul Tuten, Kaleb Johnson and Dylan Sampson. Thinking critically through this list, any of those backs could supplant Warren and keep him in a secondary role. Add to this Coach Tomlins propensity to feed his primary back when he has a stud on his hands, and the frequency of which NFL teams have completely abandoned UDFA running backs even after productive seasons – Jalen Warren should be a stay away in Dynasty at this point in the process.
Author: Lukasz Stec (@Lukasz_FF01)
