{"id":134481,"date":"2025-08-10T13:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T13:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/134481\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T13:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T13:55:10","slug":"hoke-really-like-what-i-see-from-kaleb-johnson-after-first-preseason-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/134481\/","title":{"rendered":"Hoke: ‘Really Like What I See From Kaleb Johnson’ After First Preseason Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the past four years, Najee Harris held down the running back position for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was a consistent player, rushing for at least 1,000 yards every season. However, he left the Steelers this offseason, creating a void in their backfield. To fix that, they spent their third-round pick on<\/a> Kaleb Johnson.<\/p>\n

Coming out of Iowa, Johnson is a powerful runner. In the Steelers\u2019 first preseason game, that was on display. Former Steelers defensive lineman Chris Hoke recently shared his opinion on Johnson\u2019s first NFL action.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the one sack earlier in the game, Mason [Rudolph] wanted to check it down to him and he stayed in to protect,\u201d Hoke said Saturday on the KDKA Nightly Sports Call.<\/a> \u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of talk about \u2018Can Kaleb Johnson protect?\u2019 That\u2019s a big part of why he needs to be out there getting these reps, because he needs to protect Aaron Rodgers in the regular season. He stayed in there too long, didn\u2019t leak out for the safety valve but Kaleb Johnson broke tackles.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times when you are a running back and you get to a hole, you are going to have a guy there,\u201d Hoke continued. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to make the first guy miss. He stiffed-arm, he got outside, got some positive yardage when a lot of times we saw last year running backs were going down on contact at the first guy. So, I really like what I see from Kaleb Johnson.\u201d<\/p>\n

Against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Johnson recorded eight carries for 20 yards and one catch for six yards. Unfortunately, he didn\u2019t have much of an impact, but he made some plays, like when he displayed his power on a seven-yard run. The Steelers\u2019 run game as a whole was one of the most disappointing parts of the preseason opener, though.<\/p>\n

The stat sheet isn\u2019t the only way to judge Johnson\u2019s game. Like Hoke says, one of the biggest questions about Johnson is his ability to pass protect. That was a more underrated part of Harris\u2019 game. Having a running back who can make plays is good, but it\u2019s also important for them to help protect the quarterback.<\/p>\n

In that department, Johnson didn\u2019t have a perfect first outing. However, it\u2019s important to remember that this is his first time playing in the NFL. He\u2019s got things to work on, but that\u2019s the point of training camp and the preseason. That\u2019s an area he\u2019s been working on diligently.<\/a><\/p>\n

There are still two preseason games left, so we\u2019ll see if Johnson improves as a pass protector. He flashed his powerful abilities as a runner in his limited opportunities. One of the biggest critiques of Harris was that he wasn\u2019t very explosive. While Johnson isn\u2019t the fastest running back in the world, he\u2019s got great burst in the open field.<\/p>\n

Also, it\u2019s important to note that Johnson isn\u2019t the Steelers\u2019 starting running back yet. Jaylen Warren will likely hold that title once the regular season begins. However, if Johnson can earn the Steelers\u2019 trust as a pass protector, his workload could increase sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, he\u2019ll develop fast and give the Steelers another playmaker on offense. That unit is still questionable, but Johnson could give them a solid boost and<\/a> help take the pressure off Aaron Rodgers\u2019 shoulders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During the past four years, Najee Harris held down the running back position for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":134482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[81292,8017,2790,81293,1232,1545,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-134481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-chris-hoke","9":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","10":"tag-kaleb-johnson","11":"tag-kdka-nightly-sports-call","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115004815698113973","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}