Pittsburgh Steelers running back Kaleb Johnson did not seem to know the rules when he failed to corral a kickoff against the Seattle Seahawks that led to a free touchdown.
Johnson failed to receive a ball kicked in the landing zone by Seahawks kicker Jason Myers. Johnson thought if it rolled into the end zone, it was a touchback, but the rule states if it lands in the landing zone, the ball is live.
Seahawks running back George Holani ran down the field and recovered the ball, giving the team a free touchdown. After the game, Johnson said it was a mistake.
“If I wasn’t sure, if I was sure, (it) doesn’t matter,” Johnson said. “I still gotta do what I gotta do, and I still gotta go in there and execute the way it needs to be executed.”
After his failure to get the football, former NFL general manager Ran Carthon, who was with the Tennessee Titans and San Francisco 49ers, says that he would bench Johnson for next week’s game against the New England Patriots.
“For me personally, knowing that he’s not a big piece of the offense, he would sit next week. He would be inactive, and we’ll get guys back there that know the rules, that understand the rules, that understand how to play this game because it’s a game of inches,“ Carthon said on CBS Sports.
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers says Johnson is a good kid who needs to shrug it off, and use that as a learning experience for the future. Special teams captain Miles Killebrew talked to Johnson after the play, and reiterated that message.
“He’s going to be hard on himself,” Killebrew said. “And we just have to make sure that everyone knows that as a unit, we got each other’s backs, and we believe in him. He’s a great player. I was just sharing with him that there’s parts of our game that all of us wish we could have back today because we didn’t get it done collectively.”
The Steelers have Warren listed as the third string kickoff returner on their depth chart with Johnson and Gainwell as the starters, but that is likely to change moving forward.