{"id":933481,"date":"2026-07-01T05:15:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T05:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/933481\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T05:15:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T05:15:17","slug":"current-dolphins-rb-thought-there-was-good-chance-steelers-would-draft-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/933481\/","title":{"rendered":"Current Dolphins RB Thought There Was Good Chance Steelers Would Draft Him"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers spent a third-round pick on Kaleb Johnson last year, but he didn\u2019t have a great rookie season.<\/a> A costly special teams error early seemed to haunt him throughout the season. The Steelers were hoping he could help replace Najee Harris, but it\u2019s unclear how much work he\u2019ll get this year.<\/p>\n

But the Steelers realistically could\u2019ve ended up with a different running back in the 2025 draft. Miami Dolphins running back Ollie Gordon II recently revealed that Pittsburgh was one of the few teams he believed was seriously interested in drafting him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say it was out of the Dolphins and the Steelers,\u201d Gordon said recently on Terron Armstead\u2019s YouTube channel.<\/a> \u201cBecause those were my last two 30 visits I had. It happened to be that I had just [gotten] to Pittsburgh and Miami contacted my agent and they were like, \u2018Let\u2019s bring him out for a 30 visit.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Gordon went much later than Johnson, as the Dolphins selected him in the sixth round. He wasn\u2019t their lead back, with De\u2019Von Achane taking that spot. However, Gordon contributed at times, ending the year with 70 carries for 199 yards and three touchdowns.<\/p>\n

The Steelers showed a ton of interest<\/a> in Gordon, including a formal meeting with him at the Combine and a pre-draft visit. They did a lot of homework on running backs in the 2025 draft, and Gordon seemed like a legitimate candidate.<\/p>\n

Gordon fits the profile of rusher that Pittsburgh had shown interest in, too. He stands around 6\u20191\u201d and weighed in at over 220 pounds at the Combine. He isn\u2019t the fastest runner, posting a 4.61 40-yard dash, but he\u2019s a bruiser. It\u2019s easy to see why Gordon\u2019s tough, physical style put him on Mike Tomlin\u2019s radar.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only been one year, so it\u2019s tough to say how different the Steelers would be with Gordon instead of Johnson. Neither player has accomplished much in the league yet, though they have time to change that.<\/p>\n

Gordon figures to compete with 2024 fourth-round pick Jaylen Wright to be Achane\u2019s primary backup this year. Meanwhile, Johnson seems firmly planted behind Rico Dowdle and Jaylen Warren in Pittsburgh. Both of them might have trouble getting on the<\/a> field in 2026. However, we\u2019ll see in a few years if the Steelers made a mistake by choosing Johnson over Gordon.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers spent a third-round pick on Kaleb Johnson last year, but he didn\u2019t have a great…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":933482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2049],"tags":[217,7,216,251,2087,6,1182,57,595],"class_list":["post-933481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami-dolphins","tag-dolphins","tag-football","tag-miami","tag-miami-dolphins","tag-miamidolphins","tag-nfl","tag-ollie-gordon-ii","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-terron-armstead"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116843021865782960","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933481","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=933481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/933482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}