Two weeks removed from a terrible kickoff gaffe and one week removed from a goose egg on the snap count sheet, Pittsburgh Steelers rookie RB Kaleb Johnson could get a chance for redemption this weekend. Speaking to reporters Friday, Mike Tomlin opened the door for Johnson to see the field against the Minnesota Vikings.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes when you have mistakes, you gotta take a step back,\u201d Tomlin told reporters via Steelers.com.<\/a> \u201cBut really pleased with his approach to business and work. It\u2019s more about the day-to-day for a young player. And so I think he\u2019s positioned himself to be a contributor this week.\u201d<\/p>\n Johnson\u2019s last snap came against the Seahawks, failing to recognize the rules and field a kickoff that bounced through his hands and into the end zone. Seattle jumped on the ball for a touchdown, taking a ten-point lead that proved to be a true turning point in Pittsburgh\u2019s lone loss of the season. While Johnson dressed and was active for last Sunday\u2019s game against the New England Patriots, he failed to play a single snap on offense or special teams.<\/p>\n Tomlin\u2019s comments suggest the door\u2019s back open for Johnson to get work. But he confirmed it won\u2019t come returning kicks.<\/p>\n \u201cHe certainly won\u2019t be back there on kickoff returns,\u201d Tomlin said.<\/p>\n Last week, running backs Kenneth Gainwell and Trey Sermon served as the team\u2019s kick returners. Gainwell returned one kick for 27-yards while Sermon took a knee on the one he fielded. Presumably, the same pairing will handle kick return duties Sunday against the Vikings. That would require Sermon to be elevated off the practice squad as he was last weekend.<\/p>\n Jaylen Warren\u2019s knee injury leaving him questionable<\/a> for the game could open the door for Johnson even more. Warren\u2019s status isn\u2019t fully clear for Sunday though odds are he\u2019ll suit up. If his workload needs managed, Gainwell and now possibly Johnson could rotate in for extra work. Minnesota\u2019s run defense has been a weak point and their schematics allow<\/a> for teams to win on the ground, playing two-high shells that invite the run.<\/p>\n Through three games, Johnson has two carries and four offensive snaps. A far cry from what he and probably the team expected after drafting him in the third round. A jumpstart in Dublin could parlay its way into a bigger role after the Steelers\u2019 bye. But Johnson will have to prove he can make one play, and then some more, to get back into the offense\u2019s weekly plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two weeks removed from a terrible kickoff gaffe and one week removed from a goose egg on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[31110,3966,349,1321,99,3795],"class_list":["post-185015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-kaleb-johnson","tag-mike-tomlin","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-sports","tag-trending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}