Steelers Coaches Get Honest About RB Kaleb Johnson

Pittsburgh Steelers rookie running back Kaleb Johnson has had a less-than-ideal start to his NFL career after being picked in the third round of the 2025 draft, with his special teams gaffe against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 2 still remaining a point of conversation.

In that contest, Johnson failed to field a ball that bounced over his head in the landing zone and found its way to the end zone, where the Seahawks recovered it for a touchdown in the fourth quarter before going on to win by a score of 31-17.

Johnson had logged 11 snaps as a kick returner and racked up 190 yards on eight attempts before his game-changing mistake, but he hasn't gotten an opportunity on special teams since.

While meeting with the media at the start of the team's Week 5 bye, Steelers special teams coordinator Danny Smith revealed he didn't react to the play in real time and instead waited to deal with it while watching film.

“Connor Heyward was telling him, ‘we go over that all the time,’" Smith said. "That was before I got there. I didn’t say much on the field to him. We replaced him, and he wasn’t ready to go back out there. I dealt with it in a tape session."

Fellow running backs Trey Sermon and Kenneth Gainwell have handled all kick returning duties since the start of Week 3 while Johnson has sat and seemingly continued learning from his error vs. Seattle.

Johnson's offensive role had been minuscule over the first three weeks of the season while playing behind Jaylen Warren and Gainwell, logging just two carries for -1 yards over that span, though he finally saw an increase in his touches while the former was ruled out in Week 4 against the Minnesota Vikings due to a knee injury.