{"id":135766,"date":"2025-06-17T01:25:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T01:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/135766\/"},"modified":"2025-06-17T01:25:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T01:25:13","slug":"kaboly-kaleb-johnson-looks-like-a-star-in-the-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/135766\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaboly: Kaleb Johnson Looks Like A ‘Star In The Making’"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Pittsburgh Steelers allowed Najee Harris to leave in free agency, it was clear they\u2019d need another workhorse for Arthur Smith\u2019s offense. In the third round of this year\u2019s draft, they found one in Kaleb Johnson. Through rookie minicamp, OTAs and now mandatory minicamp, Johnson has managed to impress a lot of people<\/a>. One of those people happens to be Steelers insider Mark Kaboly.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe looks like a star in the making, man. I mean, just the body size, and everything to that. I mean, let\u2019s see\u2026 He\u2019s totally different than Najee Harris. And I think he will make a good compliment to Jaylen Warren out of the gate, but I think eventually he\u2019s gonna take over. I think he can do just about everything,\u201d Kaboly said Monday while speaking on 93.7 The Fan.<\/a><\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s earning a lot of praise this offseason, and it may be important to temper expectations<\/a> a little. He\u2019s a third-round pick and wasn\u2019t one the first couple of running backs off the board this year. While it\u2019s something he can improve, he doesn\u2019t offer much as a pass-catcher or in pass protection. Because of that, the Steelers will rely on Jaylen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell on passing downs, at least to begin the year. Warren\u2019s role as a runner will be prevalent, too. He\u2019s more than familiar with the franchise and should get just as many, if not more carries as the season begins.<\/p>\n

Kaboly expects Johnson to take over \u201ceventually\u201d and he\u2019s probably right. Johnson is an excellent fit for the zone scheme Arthur Smith wants to run. With the way the offense looks this season, he could be in line for a big year.<\/p>\n

Although Smith says<\/a> they\u2019re going to throw the ball often, the ground game has been a staple of his offense for years. Getting a lot of carries isn\u2019t anything new for Johnson. For much of his time at Iowa, he was the main playmaker in the offense, running the ball 508 times in three years. If he gets off to a good start, Smith will likely give him more carries. That\u2019s something Johnson seems ready for. The lack of pass-catching options on the roster, plus Aaron Rodgers\u2019 age could play into that as well.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll have to see what the future holds for Kaleb Johnson. For now, there\u2019s a ton of excitement, and for good reason. If he can have the career many expect him to have, he\u2019ll be well worth the third-round pick the Steelers used on him back in April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Pittsburgh Steelers allowed Najee Harris to leave in free agency, it was clear they\u2019d need another…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8740,7,274,5241,6,691],"class_list":{"0":"post-135766","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-93-7-the-fan","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-kaleb-johnson","11":"tag-mark-kaboly","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-trending"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114696101922684956","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}