James Conner is Outperforming Le'Veon Bell
By Kyle Koster
Meanwhile, the Steelers have survived early-season bumps and sit atop the AFC North at 4-2-1. Bell’s replacement, James Conner, has been solid in fill-in duty. Actually, better than solid. And better, statistically, than Bell was in 2017.
Per Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk:
Conner is now on pace to finish this season with 1,369 rushing yards, 738 receiving yards and 21 touchdowns. Bell finished last season with 1,291 rushing yards, 655 receiving yards, and 11 touchdowns. https://t.co/pl9r0vt4j8
— Michael David Smith (@MichaelDavSmith) October 31, 2018
That hardly seems possible, but it’s true. Bell put up his numbers by leading the AFC in both rushes (321) and touches (406) in 15 games. Conner is on pace to carry the ball 338 times and receive 421 touches. So it’s not as though the Steelers have had to work around not having a workhorse. Scoring has also gone up. Pittsburgh is averaging 29.1 points/game in 2018 after putting up 25.4 last year.
No one seems to know if and when Bell will show up. No one can confidently say what type of shape he’ll be in when he returns. Maybe at this point it doesn’t really matter. It sounds crazy, but maybe the Steelers are just fine — or possibly better — without arguably the best running back in the league. At least on paper.