The Pittsburgh Steelers officially have Jaylen Warren listed as their starting running back. Longtime Steelers correspondent Mark Kaboly isn’t buying it — not for long, anyway. Kaboly says Rico Dowdle will be the team’s unquestioned RB1 by the time Week 1 arrives, setting up one of the more intriguing position battles of Mike McCarthy’s first Pittsburgh training camp.
Kaboly, who covers the team for the Pat McAfee Show, laid out his case bluntly. “I think a lot of us were under the impression that Rico Dowdle was a bruising running back cut from the mold of Jaylen Warren. He’s that, but he’s much more, too,” Kaboly wrote, according to Draft Sharks. “Dowdle’s quickness, speed, vision and power make him much more than a platoon back. Even though Warren is very good, Dowdle will be the unquestioned RB1 when the season starts.”
That’s a bold call given the season Warren just put together. After Najee Harris left in free agency, Warren took over as Pittsburgh’s lead back and delivered a career year — a career-best 952 rushing yards, per Steelers Depot, to go with six touchdowns. He’s been one of the more efficient backs in the league since entering the league as an undrafted free agent, totaling 3,859 yards from scrimmage and 14 touchdowns over the past four seasons, according to Yahoo Sports.
Kaboly Isn’t Alone in Reading the Tea Leaves
Kaboly’s prediction isn’t happening in a vacuum. It lines up with fresh, independent reporting from the beat. Four practices into camp, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporter Chris Adamski posted on X that Dowdle had taken over as the practice-field RB1. Adamski wrote on X on August 1, 2026: “Now 4 practices into camp, a couple of offensive depth chart declarations seem clear: Rico Dowdle is RB1 over Jaylen Warren” — https://x.com/C_AdamskiTrib/status/1951420460606378216
Adamski based that call on something specific and measurable: who’s getting first-team reps in practice. SI.com’s Steelers site reported that Dowdle has been running with the top offense more often than Warren through the first week at Saint Vincent College, a shift from the offseason expectation that the two would split the No. 1 role evenly.
Kaboly, speaking on 93.7 The Fan, offered his own read on the same trend without going quite as far as declaring it settled. “Just guessing, just how they employ them on the field, rep-wise so far, it looks like [Dowdle’s] going to be the main guy,” Kaboly said, according to Steelers Depot. “Main guy doesn’t mean 90 percent of the snaps. Maybe more so 65-70.”
What the Official Depth Chart Actually Says
None of that has shown up on Pittsburgh’s paperwork yet. The Steelers released their initial 2026 preseason depth chart with Warren listed ahead of Dowdle, the team’s official site confirmed. That’s the same conclusion CBS Sports reached in its own breakdown of the chart, though CBS also noted the team is building toward a “1-2 punch” rather than a clean hierarchy.
Depth charts released in August rarely reflect how snaps will actually break down in September, and that gap is exactly where this story lives right now. Reps in padded practice, not a printed depth chart, tend to be the better early signal of a coach’s real intentions — and that’s the metric both Adamski and Kaboly are leaning on.
| Running Back | 2025 Team | 2025 Rushing Yards | 2025 Rushing TDs | 2025 Receiving Yards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jaylen Warren | Pittsburgh Steelers | 952 | 6 | ~300+ |
| Rico Dowdle | Carolina Panthers | 1,076 | 6 | 297 |
Why Dowdle Fits What McCarthy Wants to Run
The scheme fit matters as much as the raw numbers. Dowdle spent four seasons in Dallas under McCarthy before landing with Carolina last year, where he ran for over 1,000 yards for a second straight season. That familiarity with McCarthy’s zone-running concepts is a big part of why Kaboly and others expect him to see early-down work quickly, even in an offense that’s still install-heavy this time of year.
Warren’s calling card has always been contact balance and pass-game reliability out of the backfield — areas where he still holds an edge on paper. But Dowdle brings a bigger frame and a track record of closing seasons strong, which is part of what’s fueling belief he could push into early-down work fast.
What Comes Next
Pittsburgh opens the preseason on the road against the Green Bay Packers on Aug. 13, the first real look at how McCarthy is actually splitting first-team snaps between the two backs. The Steelers open the regular season at home against the Atlanta Falcons on Sept. 13.
Until pads come off in real games, this remains a prediction and a practice-field trend — not a confirmed decision. Whether it turns into a clean 1A/1B breakdown or Dowdle wins the job outright, as Kaboly is predicting, will play out over the next several weeks of camp and preseason snaps.
