Jaylen Warren relishes being only undrafted rookie to make Steelers’ initial 53-man roster

Pittsburgh Steelers teammates began approaching Jaylen Warren after Tuesday’s afternoon practice at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex.

“People were coming up saying, ‘Congrats,’ ” Warren said Wednesday. “I was like, ‘Appreciate it — but we still got, like, 20 minutes before 4 p.m.’ ”

Those 20 minutes leading up to the NFL’s deadline to trim rosters from 80 players to the regular-season norm of 53 elapsed — and Warren was one of three running backs left standing.

How did Warren find out he was the lone undrafted rookie to make the Steelers’ initial active roster?

“I guess when nobody came and told me I was off (the roster),” Warren said with a nervous-but-proud smile. “I was watching the time. ‘Got 15 more minutes …’ ”

Jaylen Warren is a happy man -he’s a rostered NFL player
(with a sweet tshirt too) pic.twitter.com/NyKWEIKHfw

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) August 31, 2022

The 5-foot-8, 215-pound Warren was the Steelers’ leading rusher in the preseason, and he repeatedly displayed hard running during training camp practices. It was enough that the coaching staff chose him to join four-year veteran Benny Snell Jr. as the backups for workhorse running back Najee Harris. Warren beat out, among others, third-year Anthony McFarland Jr. and fellow undrafted rookie Mataeo Durant.

“It was actually one of the first times I actually sat at the end of my bed, like, ‘Wow, it’s crazy — I actually made it,’ ” Warren said. “I’ve dreamt about this, and it came true.”

Warren began to open eyes during practices at Saint Vincent. He acknowledged that upon his arrival in Pittsburgh for organized team activities in May even he was not convinced he belonged at the NFL level.

“I would say I actually shocked myself,” Warren said, “to be able to compete with these guys, these great all-around athletes.”

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A little more than year ago at this time, Warren didn’t even know if he could compete at the Power 5 conference level. After playing junior-college football and two years at Utah State, Warren did not earn a significant role at Oklahoma State until Week 3 of the Cowboys’ season.

He ended up with 1,441 yards from scrimmage and 11 touchdowns for a top-10 team.

Now — barring some last-minute outside acquisition at running back — Warren will open this season as a complementary running back and special-teams piece for the Steelers.

Warren said he never played extensively on special teams in college — “My experience with tackling hasn’t been great; growing up I got juked a lot,” he said. For Warren to “get a hat” as gameday activation for the Steelers, he’s going to have to embrace covering (or blocking for) kickoffs and punts.

Warren could be a candidate for a third-down role at running back, too.

“Whatever they put me in, just do my job,” Warren said. “That’s what I am here to do.”

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