Two weeks into the 2025-26 campaign, the Pittsburgh Steelers sit at .500. Their 1-1 record highlights some positive moments, but also plenty of things to work on as the year continues.
One of the latter elements is special teams. Sunday’s loss to the Seattle Seahawks saw rookie running back Kaleb Johnson make a crushing mistake on kickoff duty. That helped swing the outcome in the road team’s favor, handing Pittsburgh its first defeat of the season.
Head coach Mike Tomlin wasn’t pleased following the game. That’s bled into the week, as he shared that he’s removing Johnson from returns for the time being.
Mike Tomlin Announces & Explains Decision to Bench Rookie RB Kaleb Johnson
Like he did on Sunday, Tomlin described Johnson’s gaffe as poor judgment.
“On special teams, certainly the lack of judgment by a young return man was a significant play in the game,” Tomlin said. “As I mentioned after the game, a lot of times when you’re in close ball games — particularly early in the year — there’s a play in that space, in that special teams space, that often shakes or turns a game. It helped us in a positive way with the play by Kenny Gainwell with the Jets, and certainly the game the other day was a negative outcome.”
Despite the Steelers’ depth chart listing Johnson as the second kickoff returner, Tomlin explains that it won’t be the reality this weekend. He hasn’t decided on a replacement for Week 3’s game against the New England Patriots, but change is coming.
“I’m certainly going to give him an opportunity to work his way back from that error,” Tomlin said. “I believe in his talent. He’s a sharp young man, he’s a hard worker. You leave the light on for him, you give him an opportunity to move on from it, but he has to do that. He has to display that with his daily work, and he’s got to earn himself back into the position to be participant. We’ll see where the roads lead us. I’m open to it, certainly.”
Tomlin Reveals How Johnson Can Earn Returner Spot Back
This is undoubtedly an instance of tough love from Tomlin. He’s been around the league long enough to embrace a no-nonsense approach while also nurturing his young players in appropriate ways. Johnson, a third-round pick, has a lot of growing up to do. One mistake doesn’t have to define his season, though, as it can instead be a turning point.
Tomlin dove into how Johnson can bounce back.
“Just as I described,” Tomlin said. “You’ve got to man up. You’ve got to acknowledge your shortcomings, and then you’ve got to work to move beyond it. It’s my job as a leader to provide that opportunity.”
The intent is there. Now, it must translate to real-time development in practice before getting into a game environment again.
“He hasn’t had an opportunity to physically respond,” Tomlin said. “Forget what you say. It’s about how you move forward in terms of your work, your level of detail and the consistency of it. We certainly will be watching that closely as we push into this week.”
In the Steelers’ two games thus far, Johnson’s logged four offensive snaps and another 11 on special teams. The former Iowa standout has 2 rushes for minus-1 yard and no touchdowns. He also has 8 kickoff returns for 190 yards, good for an average of 23.8 per bring-back. In Week 2’s loss, veteran Jaylen Warren delivered a nice dual-threat performance that caught the attention of Tomlin and quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
That, as well as the organization’s trust in Gainwell, creates an uphill battle for Johnson. The rookie has the belief of his head coach that he’ll overcome this adversity in due time.