Johnson Running Out of Time in Pittsburgh

by Bo Marchionte
@bomarchionte | College2Pro.com
Published August 13, 2026, 10:00 PM

Pittsburgh, PA – During training camp, the first and second units worked on separate fields, but the personnel was hardly set in stone. Each day, a revolving cast of reserves earned opportunities to jump fields and steal reps with the starters.

One player who rarely made that move was second-year running back Kaleb Johnson.

Among a backfield featuring Jaylen Warren, Rico Dowdle, Travis Homer and Lew Nichols III, Johnson routinely appeared last in the rotation. He was often the final back to change fields when Pittsburgh shifted personnel.

That pecking order carried directly into Thursday night against Green Bay.

Johnson didn’t enter the game until late in the third quarter, after both Homer and Nichols had already received extended looks. In preseason football, usage can sometimes reveal more than the box score, and Johnson’s placement in the rotation was difficult to ignore.

A third-round pick out of Iowa in the 2025 NFL Draft, Johnson entered the league with a downhill profile, good contact balance and the frame to handle volume. But after an uneven rookie season, he is now auditioning for a completely new coaching staff with no attachment to his draft status.

Training camp offered the first clue. Thursday night offered another.

With Pittsburgh eventually needing to reduce its roster to 53 players, Johnson increasingly looks like one of the more notable veterans firmly on the roster bubble.

Photo Credit Frank Hyatt/College2Pro.com