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DB’s Scouting Report: New RB Kaleb Johnson Perfect Fit for Steelers
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- DB’s Scouting Report: New RB Kaleb Johnson Perfect Fit for Steelers
Kaleb Johnson, Iowa Athletics
Entering the weekend of the 2025 NFL Draft, we all knew that the Pittsburgh Steelers were taking a running back at some point; we just didn't know when they would pull the trigger. We ended up not having to wait long for the Steelers to pull the trigger on Iowa running back Kaleb Johnson .
After landing Derrick Harmon on Thursday night, they fulfilled their biggest need on the roster aside from the obvious gigantic quarterback void . After back-to-back years of heavy investments in the trenches, the offense has a clear vision of winning with their bigs up front in the trenches. Unfortunately, they finished 2024 ranked 26th in rushing success rate despite running the fourth-most rushing attempts in the NFL.
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Enter Johnson, an underclassman from Iowa who exploded on the scene by eclipsing over 1,500 rushing yards and a whopping 21 touchdowns in 2024. After an ankle injury derailed his sophomore campaign, the Hawkeyes tailback returned for his junior season with a vengeance, with the most impressive single-season statistical output in program history . Johnson to the Steelers is a pairing that I've been wishcasting since the middle of fall, and unsurprisingly, the organization did a ton of homework on him by meeting with him formally at the NFL Combine and inviting him to UPMC Rooney Sports Complex for a pre-draft visit in April.
Considering he finished as my third-ranked running back in the class and 38th overall player with a second-round grade, it was surprising to see him still available at this stage of the proceedings. So, what exactly are the Steelers getting in their newest weapon on offense?
For starters, Johnson has the size (6-foot-1, 221 pounds) that this franchise typically covets for the position. He's a long-striding glider with excellent vision and a perfect balance of patience and decisiveness. Rarely do you see him miss an open crease through the defensive line, but what makes him so special on outside zone concepts is how he sets up his blocks with an innate ability to steer second-level defenders out of position. He finds cutback lanes that most backs cannot. Next, Johnson has very good contact balance to absorb blows, maintain his footing, and continue his momentum upfield. His 4.42 yards after contact per rush ranked second in the class among backs with 200 carries, behind only Ashton Jeanty .
Johnson has an effective stiff arm, pushes the pile by running his feet on contact and consistently finishes reps by falling forward to create hidden yardage. His acceleration through the hole is solid, and when given a runway, he was able to create a ton of chunk plays, including 28 breakaway runs of 15+ yards in 2024 per PFF . He's a consistent, reliable ball handler that takes care of the football (0 fumbles on 240 carries), and his tip-top conditioning seemingly allows him to get stronger as the game proceeds, averaging 8.2 yards per carry in the fourth quarter. In his third season, he was given more chances in the receiving game and flashed soft hands with the capacity to catch the ball away from his frame.
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While he possesses plenty of easily translatable skills, his resume does leave evaluators with a quandary, simply because there are things he wasn't asked to do a lot of in college. Iowa's offense was so heavily dependent on the zone rushing game that we didn't get to see him run many downhill gap concepts. Speaking on small sample sizes, he only amassed 62 pass blocking snaps over the duration of his career. There were a couple impressive blitz pickups that showed good mental processing but the physicality needs to be kicked up a notch, and he will need time to develop from a technical perspective.
Johnson's skill set isn't suited towards running routes out split away from the core, but his development as a receiver out of the backfield will go a long way in determining his ceiling. Johnson is a good athlete who lacks elite physical traits, and it's likely that some of the home runs he hit in college are reduced down to more doubles in the league. His rushing style requires a bit of a runway to get rolling. When defenses were able to knife into the backfield for early penetration and cause him to stop his feet, his lack of elusive jump cut ability showed up.
Overall, this is such a sensical pairing on all fronts, both from a team and prospect standpoint. The Steelers were desperately searching for a back that excelled at their primary rushing concepts in Arthur Smith's wide/mid-zone dependent attack. While at Iowa, Johnson played in an under-center, multi-tight-end system that required him to navigate through heavy box counts without any semblance of a passing attack to speak of. Still, he carried them on a weekly basis and Pittsburgh could need that sooner than later without a quarterback solution currently on the roster.
Johnson's scheme specificity and mediocre 40-yard dash time are two of the more likely causes of his fall on draft weekend, but he couldn't have handpicked a better landing spot for his skill set. He's a back that projects as an early down contributor right away while he gets up to speed from a pass protection standpoint. My stylistic comparison for him as a runner was former Houston Texans standout Arian Foster , who ran wild in Gary Kubiak's wide zone rushing attack. In order for him to reach those lofty heights, Johnson would need to become a much more dynamic receiver, but it's certainly not hard to imagine him ripping off multiple 1,200-yard campaigns in the black and gold.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now : DB's Scouting Report: New RB Kaleb Johnson Perfect Fit for Steelers
