Steelers Seriously Almost Landed Ollie Gordon II Over Kaleb Johnson In 2025

The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2026 offseason has been extremely busy. New head coach Mike McCarthy and his staff are looking to get the organization back to its winning playoff ways and do so in short order. While the front office brought in several new faces to round out their current roster, decisions will need to be made by him and his staff for the 2026 season. The team added some help at the running back position by adding Rico Dowdle, but one younger running back has his work cut out for him.

Pittsburgh selected running back Kaleb Johnson 83rd overall in the 2025 NFL Draft. However, he made a crucial mistake on special teams in a game that led directly to a Seattle Seahawks touchdown in the 2025 season. According to a recent interview with one NFL running back, it is apparent the franchise almost did not select him, but instead went in another direction.

Ollie Gordon II, who was selected by the Miami Dolphins in that draft, recently was on a podcast with Terron Armstead and discussed how the Black and Gold almost took him. Had that happened, they would not be going into this season looking to give Johnson a fresh start at the position following his 2025 blunder. However, one moment changed the direction of the draft for Gordon and his NFL career, and Miami took him instead.

“I would say it was out of the Dolphins and Steelers,” Gordon said. Because those were my last two 30 visits I had. It happened to be that I had just gotten to Pittsburgh and Miami contacted my agent and they were like, ‘Let’s bring him out for a 30 visit.’”

That phone call with Miami changed the landscape of the draft last year for Gordon and Johnson was brought to the Steel City. Fortunately for Johnson, the franchise seems to be willing to keep working with him, despite the belief he may not get many looks after the signing of Dowdle. Even with that offseason signing, it could allow Johnson to ease into some playing time and show some flashes of what he can bring to the team on the field. It may also help his cause, especially with the team seeming to want to use him in lower pressure situations.

Steelers’ Patience With Johnson Could Absolutely Pan Out

While this may be a make-or-break type of season for the former Iowa Hawkeyes running back, a fresh change of scenery in terms of the coaching staff may prove to do him some good for the 2026 season. Should it provide any good in the upcoming year, that also bodes well for the franchise by giving them a depth option at the running back position. While 2025 was certainly a season to forget for him as a rookie, the talent is in there and it showed during his college career.

In 2024, he exploded for the Hawkeyes, rushing for 1,537 yards and an impressive 21 touchdowns on the ground, while also catching two touchdowns on top of that. That rushing total also saw him average 6.4 yards per attempt during that season. While Pittsburgh may truly have been trying to target Gordon, there is talent in the second-year running back they currently have.

The best thing Johnson can do to help his NFL career and become the best version of himself at this level is put that 2025 blunder far back in the rearview mirror. While it did lead directly to a Seattle touchdown and he saw limited playing time last year afterwards, rookie mistakes are not uncommon as players try to make the transition from college. Things would be far different if not for the phone call Gordon mentioned, but the talent is there in the former Iowa running back and a new coaching staff may be the perfect recipe for him to get another chance to prove himself at this level.

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