Naturally, the Pittsburgh Steelers will want to utilize perhaps football’s best running back, Le’Veon Bell, in his first game back from a three-game suspension due to missed drug tests.
But Pittsburgh might not want to run him too far into the ground.
Even if Bell doesn’t have any rust to knock off after not playing in the regular season for almost a calendar year, the Steelers should still protect their franchise running back. Bell has already touched that ball 799 times in his three seasons and, in all three years, has had an injury of some sort.
It’s probably too soon to call him injury-prone; running backs getting at least minor injuries is pretty common in the NFL.
But why tempt fate?
Heavy workload for Pittsburgh’s backs is nothing new. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has shown a tendency to give his feature back a heavy workload.
In 2007, starter Willie Parker led the NFL in rushes-per-game for a starter. He ended up with a broken fibula and was never the same.
Rashard Mendenhall had almost 70 percent of the team’s carries in 2010 and, while his carry number eased up a bit the following year, tore his ACL in 2011. Like Parker, he was never the same.
Bell could be one more serious injury away from being a shell of his former self. Thanks to DeAngelo Williams, Bell could be saved from that kind of future.
With all due respect to running backs Isaac Redman and Mewelde Moore, the Steelers haven’t had a backup running back of Williams’ caliber since Jerome Bettis in 2005. And, even then, it might be a stretch to say Bettis then was better than Williams now.
Yet when Bell was healthy last year, Williams saw the field sparingly.
In the five full games Bell played last season, Williams touched the ball 17 times (16 rushes and one catch). Twice, he only had one carry per game.
It would be wise to use Williams more than that this season. Not only does it preserve Bell, it gives opposing teams one more option to defend.
Granted, Bell could suffer a freak injury on any play.
This isn’t to say he shouldn’t be the feature back or that the team shouldn’t give him a bulk of the touches.
Bell adds an element to the passing game unlike any running back in team history. Oh, and he’s pretty good rushing the ball, too.
Still, using Williams more keeps Bell from wearing down faster and decreases the likelihood that he suffers another season-ending injury.
Plus, it’s not as if Williams is just an average backup running back.
The 33-year-old back has looked as good as ever this season, running with burst and also being a key factor in the passing game. Williams looked good filling in for Bell the first two games of last season, too.
Saying Williams could have a Pro Bowl-caliber season if he was the team’s starter all year wouldn’t be a stretch. So why not use him more? Giving him a quarter of the carries seems much more practical than giving him 13 percent of the carries again.
No, he’s not Le’Veon Bell. But he’s DeAngelo Williams.
And he’s absolutely the best No. 2 running back in football.
Image credit: Keith Srakocic/PennLive
