{"id":649857,"date":"2026-01-03T04:59:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T04:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/649857\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T04:59:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T04:59:15","slug":"pittsburgh-mvp-would-love-to-come-back-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/649857\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh MVP &#8216;would love to come back&#8217; in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nfl\/pittsburgh-steelers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> face a <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nfl\/pittsburgh-steelers\/steelers-bold-predictions-for-must-win-week-18-game-against-ravens\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">must-win game against the Baltimore Ravens<\/a> in the regular season finale. Pittsburgh could claim its first AFC North title since 2020 or miss the playoffs altogether.<\/p>\n<p>With DK Metcalf set to miss the second game of his two-game suspension, the <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nfl\/pittsburgh-steelers\/steelers-news-jaylen-warren-kenneth-gainwell-achieve-feat-not-seen-31-years\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Steelers duo of Kenneth Gainwell and Jaylen Warren<\/a> should factor heavily into Week 18\u2019s matchup. Gainwell was voted team MVP during a breakout campaign for the fifth-year rusher. And regardless of Week 18\u2019s outcome, he <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/matthewluciow92\/status\/2007223545789923461\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">hopes to be back<\/a> in Pittsburgh next season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis experience has been amazing to me. It\u2019s definitely something that I would love to experience again,\u201d Gainwell said, via Matthew Luciow. \u201cThis is exactly something that I would love to come back to and be a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kenneth Gainwell enjoys career-best season with Steelers<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3653967\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Kenneth-Gainwell.jpg\" alt=\"Pittsburgh Steelers running back Kenneth Gainwell (14) runs with the ball against the Baltimore Ravens for a touchdown during the first half at M&amp;T Bank Stadium.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\"  \/>Mitch Stringer-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nfl\/pittsburgh-steelers\/steelers-news-signs-saquon-barkley-understudy-away-from-eagles\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Steelers signed Gainwell<\/a> to a one-year deal over the offseason. The former fifth-round pick spent the first four years of his career with the Philadelphia Eagles. But he\u2019s reached new heights in Western Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n<p>Gainwell has set new career-high marks in carries (109), rushing yards (527), receptions (65), receiving yards (422) and total touchdowns (7) through 16 games in Pittsburgh. And he\u2019s complimented Warren well.<\/p>\n<p>The Steelers lost Najee Harris to the Los Angeles Chargers in free agency. So the team pivoted to Warren as the starter and added Gainwell for depth. The move has worked well as both backs have enjoyed career-best campaigns<\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh could re-sign Gainwell after his strong performance. But the Steelers may be a very different team next year if they lose to the Ravens on Sunday. Some NFL observers believe <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nfl\/nfl-stories\/nfl-rumors-espn-insiders-debate-mike-tomlin-john-harbaugh-futures-week-18\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Tomlin\u2019s future with the team is uncertain<\/a> if Pittsburgh misses the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>The Steelers had a chance to clinch a postseason berth and win the division title with a victory over the Cleveland Browns in Week 17. But Pittsburgh came up short, setting up a winner-take-all showdown with Baltimore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers face a must-win game against the Baltimore Ravens in the regular season finale. Pittsburgh could&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,1736,14451,1255,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-649857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-jaylen-warren","10":"tag-kenneth-gainwell","11":"tag-mike-tomlin","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-pittsburgh","14":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","15":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","16":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115829405698297798","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649857","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=649857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}