Tim Benz: The complicated case of Steelers RB James Conner

If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Mike Tomlin and his dealings with the media, it’s this: If he doesn’t want to answer a question directly, he won’t.

He’ll no comment. He’ll respond but not really answer. He’ll talk around an inquiry. He’ll say a lot without saying anything.

If there is a bubbling storyline that Tomlin doesn’t like, he won’t give it legs by directly answering a question.

That’s why one direct answer at his season-ending press conference on New Year’s Eve really caught my attention.

When the Pittsburgh Steelers head coach was asked how he could evaluate James Conner’s season, given how often the running back was hurt this year, he did nothing to tamp down the growing frustration within the fan base about Conner’s frequent injuries.

“That’s a big component of (that evaluation),” Tomlin replied. “He didn’t spend a lot of time on the field healthy. But that’s as much a part of the game as blocking and tackling. We’ll assess it with him in an effort to minimize (injury) to what degree we can moving forward. But injuries are part of the game.”

They are. And they are happening to Conner too often. The running back’s constant battle against his own health is hurting personal production, as well as the team’s ability to game plan week to week.

And now, year to year as well.

Conner has one year remaining on his rookie contract. If the Steelers wanted to offer him an extension, this offseason would normally be the time to do it. By doing so, they would avoid a 2018 Pro Bowl player hitting free agency after 2020 ends.

Why would the team do that now, though?

They absolutely should not.

Conner has missed 11 full games over his first three seasons. That’s not to mention other contests — such as four this year against the New York Jets, Miami Dolphins, Los Angeles Chargers and Cleveland Browns — when he left early due to quad and shoulder injuries.

Tomlin and general manager Kevin Colbert should let Conner play out 2020 and decide at that point if he is worth keeping.

And not just because of injury issues. It’s a matter of effectiveness, too. Conner’s yards per carry dropped from 4.5 to 4.0 between last year and this one. His receptions went down from 4.2 per game to 3.4. His yards from scrimmage per game tumbled from 113.1 in 2018 to 71.5 in 2019.

The easy response to that critique is, “Well, teams were just loading up to stop Conner because the Steelers’ passing game was so bad in 2019.”

Some numbers debate that. NFL Next Gen Stats found 34 backs (with a minimum of 85 carries) faced an eight-man front more often than Conner did. In his 973-yard rushing season of a year ago, he was 11th in the NFL in that regard.

So that can’t be used as an excuse for Conner’s diminished production.

I wouldn’t cut Conner. With the way running backs get hurt in the NFL, he’s still a talented and cheap option to have in 2020. Via OverTheCap.com, Conner will only count $934,572 against the NFL’s salary cap. That’s 0.5% of the team’s total. Cutting him would save a measly $758,000.

Trading Conner at this point may not yield anything better than a third-day draft choice.

So the initial plan should be to keep him. At least through the draft.

But the Steelers may want to investigate acquiring another back via free agency or the draft, maybe even using their second-round pick.

If that happens, is Jaylen Samuels released so Conner can take on his pass-catching duties as a third-down specialist?

Or the franchise may want to move forward with Benny Snell as the team’s top running back instead of Conner.

“We are going to be defining that as we move forward in 2020,” Tomlin said. “What somebody’s role was in 2019, I’m not going to put them in a box and define them for 2020.”

Now that’s how you avoid a question.

“I’m not ready to talk about what 2020 looks like in terms of our agenda from a free-agency standpoint or a draft standpoint,” Tomlin said.

Talking about Conner with any whiff of criticism is a difficult endeavor because invariably you get responses like this one from a woman named Kathy.

She replied on Facebook to a recent episode of Madden-Benz Unfiltered, when Mark Madden and I were talking about Conner’s future.

“Go Conner! Go! Those of you putting him down. Have you ever had cancer? It takes a couple of years with conditioning. He’ll be back.”

Sorry, Kathy. And all the others who default to this response when the topic of Conner emerges.

His courageous fight against cancer can’t be conveniently used as a discretionary excuse if he is struggling with injury or playing poorly, yet simultaneously lauded as a battle he has conquered when he isn’t hurt and is playing well.

A year ago, no one was questioning Conner’s conditioning in relation to his diagnosis when he was en route to that Pro Bowl season. In fact, many — myself included — wanted to see him get the ball more.

And if lingering concerns about his Hodgkin’s lymphoma really are a problem, unfortunately the Steelers would have to bring that into the evaluation process like everything else before they extend him long term.

Whatever the reason for Conner’s injury issues, the Steelers can’t go into training camp assuming they can get 175 to 200 carries out of him. They need a contingency plan for him in 2020.

And they need a strategy for the running back position that may not involve him for the years beyond.