{"id":956513,"date":"2026-07-27T03:33:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T03:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/956513\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T03:33:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T03:33:25","slug":"charlie-batch-thinks-rico-dowdles-presence-could-elevate-jaylen-warrens-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/956513\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlie Batch Thinks Rico Dowdle&#8217;s Presence Could Elevate Jaylen Warren&#8217;s Game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Pittsburgh Steelers have one of the best running back duos in the league with Jaylen Warren and Rico Dowdle. While training camp will go a long way toward deciding the workload between the two, former Steelers OL Trai Essex pointed out that Dowdle is in a good situation due to the history of Steelers\u2019 backups in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>Warren backed up Najee Harris before getting a crack as a starter. Kenneth Gainwell entered last season as a backup, then had a strong season and cashed in on a new contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.<\/p>\n<p>In response to Essex, former Steelers QB Charlie Batch said he believes Warren will be more motivated entering camp knowing that Dowdle has a chance to surpass him and earn a bigger opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re Jaylen [Warren], you know that. You\u2019re like, \u2018Hey man, three, four years ago I was that guy.\u2019 So guess what? Now you\u2019re hungrier coming into camp because now I have somebody looking over my shoulder who could potentially do the exact same thing that I did,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FJRLgwDJ94k\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Batch said on The Snap Count podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>To be fair, it\u2019s hard to say right now whether Dowdle or Warren will be the starter. Whoever does start should expect a pretty even snap share with two talented backs. Dowdle ran for over 1,000 yards in each of the past two seasons, but Warren is a solid all-around back who also excels as a pass protector.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a chance that Warren <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersdepot.com\/2026\/07\/fittipaldo-expects-jaylen-warren-to-pick-up-where-kenneth-gainwell-left-off-hes-really-good-at-that\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">is the one in the Gainwell role<\/a> this year, but the point Batch is making is that competition could help him elevate his game. It\u2019s a situation Warren has been in before, but this year. it\u2019s with a new coaching staff that has prior ties to Dowdle. Warren may wind up being extra motivated to prove himself and show that he wants the starting job.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of who starts and who has more of the third-down role, the Steelers\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersdepot.com\/2026\/07\/steelers-rb-duo-named-one-of-nfls-best\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">backfield should be a strength<\/a> and a big reason for the offense\u2019s success. It\u2019s rare that a team has two backs with the prior production of Dowdle and Warren. The two players should form an impressive tandem that could take the Steelers offense to another level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers have one of the best running back duos in the league with Jaylen Warren and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":956514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[19747,7,1736,6,520,57,2360,7152,426,59246,35858],"class_list":["post-956513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-charlie-batch","tag-football","tag-jaylen-warren","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-pittsburghsteelers","tag-rico-dowdle","tag-steelers","tag-the-snap-count","tag-trai-essex"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116989840773831687","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956513","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=956513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/956514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=956513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=956513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=956513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}