{"id":787724,"date":"2026-03-02T23:11:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T23:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/787724\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T23:11:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T23:11:16","slug":"3-teams-named-as-competitors-for-steelers-rb-kenneth-gainwell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/787724\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Teams Named as Competitors for Steelers RB Kenneth Gainwell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steelers News<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"PittsburghPittsburgh Steelers running back Kenneth Gainwell carries the ball against the Detroit Lions on Dec. 21, 2025. — Ed Thompson \/ Steelers Now\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Pittsburgh Steelers are expected to have stiff competition for running back Kenneth Gainwell<\/a> in free agency. NFL insider Dan Graziano recently listed three teams who could swipe Gainwell away from Pittsburgh. <\/p>\n

\u201cTeams I expect to see gauge the free agent RB market include the Chiefs, Texans and Giants, among others,\u201d Graziano wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gainwell was voted as the Steelers\u2019 MVP, posting 1,656 all-purpose yards, which ranked sixth in the AFC. Spotrac tabs Gainwell as having the market value for a two-year, $5.9 million deal.<\/p>\n

Steelers general manager Omar Khan<\/a> provided an update at the NFL Combine<\/a> on upcoming free agents<\/a> and their contract situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what, I learned a long time ago that we are talking to some of our players, that\u2019s for sure, but to say that some of those deals will get done in the next couple days probably isn\u2019t accurate,\u201d Khan told reporters. \u201cI\u2019ve learned that these things kinda go to the deadline, to the start of free agency, but we\u2019re certainly talking to some of our players.<\/p>\n

Gainwell<\/a> is the biggest upcoming free agent on the Steelers\u2019 roster. Khan assured that they want the dynamic running back to remain in the black and gold.<\/p>\n

\u201cKenny was great to have around, and he knows we want him back, and we\u2019ve been in communication with his people,\u201d Khan said.<\/p>\n

\"KennethPittsburgh Steelers RB Kenneth Gainwell plays during the team\u2019s Week 18 win over the Baltimore Ravens. Ed Thompson \/ Steelers Now<\/p>\n

NFL.com\u2019s Kevin Patra put together a list of eight players who could be misvalued in this year\u2019s free agency crop, tapping Gainwell as one of them. If the market isn\u2019t robust, which could be the case give the nature of the running back position, Gainwell returning to Pittsburgh seems likely. The Steelers have plenty of cap space to compensate Gainwell but they\u2019re not going to overpay. <\/p>\n

The Steelers\u2019 cap situation is also significantly better<\/a> than the Texans, Chiefs and Giants.<\/p>\n

\u201cGainwell is coming off a career-best 537 rushing yards with five TDs, while splitting duties with Jaylen Warren in Pittsburgh,\u201d Patra wrote<\/a>. \u201cHis 47.4% success rate on rush attempts ranked sixth-best among all RBs (min. 100 carries). Gainwell proved his prowess as a receiving back in his first year with the Steelers, generating 486 yards \u2014 fifth-most among backs, behind only Christian McCaffrey, Bijan Robinson, Jahmyr Gibbs and De\u2019Von Achane \u2014 with three scores on 73 catches.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat dual-threat ability is extremely valuable. However, Gainwell could be overlooked on the open market. The reality that clubs don\u2019t generally want to spend on the RB position and the deep pool of backs ticketed for agency mean Gainwell could get lost in the shuffle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brendan Howe contributed. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article: Kenneth Gainwell<\/a> Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> Steelers<\/a> Steelers News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steelers News Pittsburgh Steelers running back Kenneth Gainwell carries the ball against the Detroit Lions on Dec. 21,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":742547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,14451,6,520,57,2360,426,2395],"class_list":{"0":"post-787724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-kenneth-gainwell","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","14":"tag-steelers","15":"tag-steelers-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116162114544152710","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787724","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=787724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}