He has performed like he’s a once-in-a generation player, and if the shadow of Le’Veon Bell weren’t still hanging over the Steelers, James Conner might be celebrated that way.
The Steelers are halfway through the season, and the consistent excellence of Conner is no fluke. He has performed as one of the best running backs in the National Football League and the continued Bell narrative should not detract from that.
Conner leads the AFC with 706 yards rushing and 1,085 yards from scrimmage (rushing plus receiving), second in both categories in the NFL only to Todd Gurley of the Los Angeles Rams, who has played nine games to Conner’s eight. His scrimmage yards are just one off Bell’s best half-season pace of his career in 2014.
Conner has outdone everyone but Gurley, including Saquon Barkley, Kareem Hunt, Ezekiel Elliott and Adrian Peterson. His eight runs of 20 yards or more lead the NFL, as does his five 100-yard games.
He runs, he catches, he blocks and he celebrates touchdowns — he leads the AFC with nine rushing — by shaking hands with his offensive linemen.
Bell tweeted “Fairwell Miami” Monday afternoon. If and when he reports to the Steelers, he’s not going to replace James Conner. He’s going to replace Jaylen Samuels, who played six offensive snaps Sunday in Baltimore to give Conner a blow.
Fairwell Miami 👋🏾
— Le’Veon Bell (@LeVeonBell) November 5, 2018
Whatever juice Bell had over his Steelers career has been usurped by Conner, who is on pace to outrush and outscore Bell in his best season. Conner is on pace for 1,412 yards rushing. Bell’s best was 1,361 in 2014. Conner has nine rushing touchdowns, 10 total. Bell’s high for an entire season was nine rushing touchdowns in 2017 and 11 total, twice.
If the fans and media have not moved on from Bell, his former teammates have.
“Honestly,” guard David DeCastro said Sunday about Bell’s absence, “no one cares anymore.”
Bell could be an insurance policy in case Conner is hurt, but at this point, that appears to be the only way he could help the Steelers in 2018. If he does report by the Nov. 13 deadline, he is not going to take Conner’s job the way Mike Tomlin gave it back to him after his suspension and DeAngelo Williams was running so well.
Half the season is over, and Conner has won the locker room. If Tomlin turned it over to Bell without some good reason like an injury to Conner, it would be the coach who might lose the locker room. And they’re not going to run them onto the field at the same time.
“James! I’m not surprised. He’s been a baller since he’s been here,” said JuJu Smith-Schuster, drafted one round ahead of Conner in 2017.
The NFL has been discovering all kinds of firsts that Conner has achieved, and this is the latest — he is the first player in league history with four games of 100 yards rushing, 50 receiving yards and a touchdown in the same season. No other Steelers player has ever produced 1,000 scrimmage yards and scored 10 touchdowns in the first eight games of a season.
Last season, Gurley made first-team All-Pro as the lone running back and Bell made first-team All-Pro as the “flex,” or combination player, a new category. It would appear Conner has the inside track on replacing Bell there, too.
The story that began early in the season with the question of how much would Conner play once Bell reports, has now been answered: Most of the time.
It was Bell’s agent, Adisa Bakari, who this year declared his client a “once-in-a-generation player.” It’s surprising how quickly the next generation came along.
Ed Bouchette: ebouchette@post-gazette.com and Twitter @EdBouchette.
First Published: November 5, 2018, 8:12 p.m.
