After letting running back Najee Harris walk and head to the Los Angeles Chargers, the Pittsburgh Steelers could use a running back. They signed Kenneth Gainwell to give them depth, yet with no true workhorse in the backfield, could the team still look to free agency?

ESPN’s Bill Barnwell sees the Steelers as an ideal landing spot for Chargers free agent running back JK Dobbins. Dobbins death with a knee injury that cost him time in 2024, but when he did play, Dobbins played at a high level.

“Since 2020, the list of backs with 300 carries who have averaged more yards per rush than Dobbins’ 5.2 consists of De’Von Achane and Jahmyr Gibbs. After returning from the Achilles injury last season, Dobbins averaged 4.6 yards per tote while racking up a career-high 195 carries,” Barnwell wrote. “He didn’t fumble for the third consecutive season and generated 115 rush yards over expectation, which ranked 13th among all backs.”

Dobbins had a blazing-fast start to the 2024 season with over 200 yards of rushing in those first two games. However, following that, his stats mirrored Harris’ almost perfectly. Still, he is a workhorse and that could be appealing to Mike Tomlin.

“At the same time, Dobbins’ best two games of the season were the initial two, during which he racked up 266 yards. From that point forward, he failed to top 100 yards in a single game, averaged 3.8 yards per carry, and generated minus-25 RYOE. Most of that was an absence of big plays: He had three runs of 40- plus yards over those first two games and none over the ensuing 16 weeks.”

Dobbins remains a free agent with giant medical questions over his career. He has suffered multiple severe injuries, including a multi-ligament knee injury and a torn achilles. That has sapped some of his explosiveness that he once had when he was coming out of Ohio State, but Dobbins proved last year he has quality play in his game left.