James Saxon, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ running back whisperer

[polamalubeast]

James Saxon is the unspoken hero of the Steelers’ offense.

The Steelers have a vaunted offense. We all know this to be true. This year might just be the best offense out of all the elite offenses of the past five years, though. Randy Fichtner has come in and has changed the red zone and third-down fortunes for the Steelers. The WRs continue to shine under Darryl Drake. Richard Mann may have retired, but Mann looks to be a rather good WR coach as well.

Of course, Mike Munchak is the praised assistant coach, and rightfully so. Munchak is the best assistant coach in football and churns out elite OL like they are a dime a dozen. He has turned guys like Ramon Foster into pro bowlers from UDFAs, and his first rounders become all-pros.

However, there might be an elite position coach that gets lost in the shuffle behind the shadow of Munchak. He is Steelers’ RB coach, James Saxon. I have no clue how he gets lost in the shuffle so easily. This guy churns out productive running backs like Munchak does OL.

Let’s take a look into the impressive history of James Saxon, who you might not have known was this good.

His first tenure was with the Kansas City Chiefs, in which he had three great RBs, Priest Holmes, Larry Johnson, and Tony Richardson. From 2001-2007, he had an 1250 yard rusher each year, including the year where Holmes set the NFL TD rushing record at 27. His RBs combined for a total of 71 100-yard performances and combined for 7 pro bowls. He developed Johnson and helped Holmes elevate his game to an even higher level.

Then, Saxon headed to Miami where he met the backfield of Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams. Saxon was an innovator of the wildcat, in which Ronnie Brown ran incredibly well. Brown made a pro bowl, and Williams had a career revival when he topped 1,000 yards in 2009.

After that, he headed to Minnesota and united with Adrian Peterson. That, to say the least, was one of the deadliest pairings I have seen. He helped AD get back on his feet and rush his way into an MVP award in 2012 when he returned from his torn ACL. I should also mention that he developed an all-pro fullback there in Jerome Felton.

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[st33lersguy]

Great RB coach. The Oline and Ben should have some credit, but him coaching up the other RBs should be part of the credit as well

[tube517]

Saxon gets no credit at all.