Conner is not the guy

[DesertSteel]

I've reached the conclusion that Conner is not the guy at RB. He's a nice guy to have in the RB room, but he can't carry the load... too fragile. Next year in the draft I'm going RB/WR in the 2nd/3rd round. Doesn't matter which is taken first. As they say, the best ability in the NFL is avail-ability.

[Moose]

I agree. Conner is a 'china doll'......very breakable. Good WHEN he's on the field.

[Fire Goodell]

I'm starting to think he's a good RB as a RB2 in a rotation, probably what his intended role was (being a change of pace to Bell). Unfortunately we didn't count on Bell being as stupid as he was.

Likely why they drafted Snell, but they didn't count on BOTH of them being injured.

[AtlantaDan]

Safe to say he will not be getting a long term deal going into the last year of his rookie deal in the 2020 season

This from Bill Barnwell at ESPN in an article on RBs looking for the big contract

Conner is a talented back, and the Steelers would surely prefer to get ahead of the curve instead of letting an extension linger and creating another Bell situation, but I don't see how the Steelers can realistically offer Conner a market-value deal this offseason given his injuries. Pittsburgh also has just $5.7 million in cap room in 2020, a figure that rises all the way to $95.6 million the following year. For those reasons, the Steelers should (and likely will) let Conner play through the final year of his deal in 2020.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/28121690/all-nfl-running-backs-get-paid-2020-why-recent-deals-look-disasters

[Edman]

Wonderful story and a great person, but is unfortunately way too fragile to be a dependable workhorse.

[JimHarbaugh'ssoakedtissue]

I've reached the conclusion that Conner is not the guy at RB. He's a nice guy to have in the RB room, but he can't carry the load... too fragile. Next year in the draft I'm going RB/WR in the 2nd/3rd round. Doesn't matter which is taken first. As they say, the best ability in the NFL is avail-ability.Agree we need to go rb and wr early. Would love to have Conner around on the cheap but he is not the answer,

[steelreserve]

I actually think a backfield of Conner and Samuels works just fine.

But, it does NOT work when we have a crippled passing game that lets the opponent load up within 5 yards of the line.

But also - having a better running back will not change that. We could have the best RB in the league, and he would still get stuffed all day, as long as the defense can get away with murder because we have no passing game.

[Steelerchad]

I don't really want "The Guy" at RB anyway. I think in today's NFL, you are better off with 3 avg. RB's for $1M-$3M each than 1 feature $10M+ RB. Guy 1 goes down, plug in guy 2 and 3 to share the load with minimal drop off. I'd draft a RB around the 3rd - 4th round every year. As soon as someone wants paid more than $5M, see ya and move on to the next. Ask the Rams, Cowboys, Jets if the heavy RB investment the last 2 years was worth it. Loved Bell, but not at $15M.

[vasteeler]

If the o line dosent wake up nobody's going to be the guy

[DesertSteel]

I actually think a backfield of Conner and Samuels works just fine.

How often are they both healthy and playing in the same game?

[j-d-s]

Any RB is just as good as the OLine. I remember when we had Bell and he was suspendend/injured his replacements (like Blount and DeAngelo) would fill right in and rush for over 100 yards.

We really need Munchak back. Why did he go to Denver in the first place?

[smokin3000gt]

Hasn't Connor's injury been the same shoulder that keeps getting reinjured?

[86WARD]

Any RB is just as good as the OLine. I remember when we had Bell and he was suspendend/injured his replacements (like Blount and DeAngelo) would fill right in and rush for over 100 yards.

We really need Munchak back. Why did he go to Denver in the first place?

He went to be closer to his family.

Systems make players. Very few players can go from one system to another And be successful (see KC last season). Also very few RBs can run behind a shitty O-Line and looks successful doing so (Barry Sanders).