The Green Bay Packers have added depth to their running back room on Sunday, as they’ve traded for former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Kaleb Johnson. Johnson, a 23-year-old, was a third-round pick for the Steelers coming out of Iowa last season.
Johnson ended up buried on Pittsburgh’s dept chart, though, following the team’s signings of Rico Dowdle and Travis Homer behind starter Jaylen Warren. As a rookie, the former All-American carried the ball just 28 times for 69 yards (2.5 yards per attempt)
in the regular season, good for the third-most attempts on the team behind Warren and Kenneth Gainwell.
Funny enough, he was actually fourth on the Steelers in rushing yards last year, as tight end Jonnu Smith had nine carries for 70 yards and a touchdown. Smith, who previously played for head coach Matt LaFleur when LaFleur was an offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans, was signed by the Packers earlier this week.
Johnson played 11 snaps of special teams in 10 games, with 8 of those snaps being kickoff returns on which he got his hands on the ball. It doesn’t seem like he has much of a background on teams other than as a kickoff returner, something that will probably go to receivers Skyy Moore and Savion Williams during the regular season. He had a long of 29 yards on his eight returns last year.
The Packers have released running back Pierre Strong Jr., according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tom Silverstein. It looks as though Green Bay will enter the regular season with four backs on its roster: Josh Jacobs, MarShawn Lloyd, Chris Brooks and Johnson.
So far, there have been no reports on the compensation that the Steelers will receive for Johnson, be it a player or draft pick.
