Warren Hit 1,000 Yards. Now Look at Who's Behind Him.

The number that should be making Pittsburgh nervous isn't in the loss column. It's the depth chart at running back, where Rico Dowdle — listed as the team's starter — is currently questionable, and the names beneath him are Jaylen Warren and Lew Nichols.

Here's the structural problem: Warren finished the regular season with 1,001 rushing yards and six touchdowns across 17 games, a genuine breakout that earned him a place in any honest conversation about the AFC's best backs. He also caught the ball at a near-perfect clip, hauling in 41 of 46 targets for 337 yards and two more scores. That's a complete back operating at a high level. And the Steelers need him healthy in January more than they've needed almost anyone on offense. Which is precisely why the depth behind him should be alarming. The roster analysis is unambiguous: there is no viable depth behind Dowdle — and Dowdle himself is questionable. If Warren goes down, Pittsburgh's ground game runs through Lew Nichols.

This isn't a new vulnerability, but it's gotten worse. Najee Harris spent years as the workhorse back in this system before departing for the Giants in the offseason, and the organization chose not to replace him with anything resembling a proven option. Kenneth Gainwell showed up in the season stats — 557 yards, five touchdowns — but he's not on the active depth chart at running back in a way that registers meaningful playing time at the position. The gap between Warren and whoever comes next is not a step down. It's a cliff.

The timing matters because this is Aaron Rodgers' final season, by his own acknowledgment. The organization built this roster around a closing window, signed extensions, restructured contracts, and traded away pieces for capital — all in service of competing right now. A team that won 10 games despite being outscored for stretches, that went 7-3 in close games by executing when it mattered, does not have margin for a Warren injury. Their clutch execution last season papered over a lot of inefficiency. It cannot paper over an empty backfield.

My read is that Pittsburgh's front office understood the running back room was thin entering the season and made a calculated bet that Warren would stay healthy. That bet has held. But a questionable tag on Dowdle in the final week of the regular season, with the playoffs beginning, is the kind of moment where calculated bets start to feel reckless. The Steelers are a legitimate contender. They are also one Warren hamstring from finding out exactly how thin this roster truly is.