As we’ve talked about before, the Pittsburgh Steelers have moved fullback Will Johnson to the tight ends group in a move that brought a glimmer to the eye of former team offensive coordinator Bruce Arians. They did so in an effort to give the soft-handed “h-back”, as he called himself yesterday, more opportunities on the field.
In previous installments of training camp, Johnson would be working with the running backs, which would have been more advantageous to him in Arians’ old offense. But with the increased usage of the no huddle under Todd Haley, it proved to be difficult last season to get him opportunities, and it showed in his stats compared to his rookie year.
So this season, he’s working with the likes of Heath Miller, Matt Spaeth, and David Paulson, learning to block and run routes as a tight end, which is typically as an in-line blocker rather than as a lead out of the backfield.
As I wrote yesterday, of course, the idea isn’t entirely foreign to the third-year man, but it is something that he has only done on a limited basis. There were instances last season, for example, during which Johnson lined up in-line as a blocker, or motioned out of the backfield as a receiver.
http://www.steelersdepot.com/2014/07...+Depot+Blog%29