PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Dividing up the running back snaps. Who gets more carries? Who gets in more passes? Who is in in critical downs? For Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada, it doesn’t really matter if it’s Najee Harris or Jaylen Warren in the game at any one time.
He said it’s not a major focus to split the opportunities, other than to make sure they aren’t overworking one player because it’s a long season.
“We want to be balanced to a point, but obviously Najee is our guy,” Canada said. “He’s going to have the workload and the majority of carries in a lot of instances, but we think Jaylen is a great talent, does a lot of things. When he spells Najee, great things happen too.”
Canada added their skill sets compliment each other very well. Harris being the bigger, bruising back and Warren the smaller, explosive player. But that’s not entirely accurate, you can argue that Warren is as physical as Harris, especially when it comes to protecting the quarterback.
“Jaylen became Jaylen for us because of his amazing blitz pickup,” Canada said. “When you go back to last year as he came in here, a guy no one knew about. His ability to pick up blitzes is elite.”
In the Raiders game, on a third and seven, it was designed for Warren to block 6’1”, 229-pound linebacker Robert Spillane (a former teammate), instead Steelers center Mason Cole stayed on him and looping around was Maxx Crosby. The All-Pro is 6’5”, 265 pounds (at least) with a head of steam and Warren (5’8”, 215 pounds) picked him up as Kenny Pickett was able to complete a touchdown pass to Calvin Austin due to the time given.
“I actually like blitz pickup,” Warren said. “I like the physicality of it.”
Canada wanted to make sure everyone knew about that play. He said it needed to be acknowledged because as Mike Tomlin would say ‘it’s a varsity play’. Canada said he does it all the time, which in turn leads to more reps.
“All of a sudden, he does that and does well,” Canada said. “He gets the ball and shown he can be an explosive guy with the ball in his hand as well.”
It’s not that they dislike Najee. Canada referenced the 17-yard run in the six-play touchdown drive in the third quarter that so many are pointing to as the ideal offensive possession.
“Najee is coming on and doing what we ask him to do,” Canada said. “He’s hitting the holes. He had a couple of really, really big runs. All of those things are part of what Najee brings to the table. It takes a lot of people to bring him down.”
“We are all pushing to be better. We want everybody’s productivity to be great, but every game is different. When we leave the field, we want to win. We want to be better, more efficient, we want to have better numbers, but all we care about is winning.”
And for Canada right now that could be with either on the field.