Should I Pick Up Jaylen Warren? Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Outlook

The Pittsburgh Steelers are one of the few NFL teams left that has not gone to a committee backfield approach. Historically, head coach Mike Tomlin likes to lean heavily on his starting running back.

That being said, Najee Harris has struggled in 2022, averaging just 44.4 rushing yards per game while scoring just two total touchdowns through five games.

Enter rookie running back Jaylen Warren, Harris' backup, who turned in a solid fantasy outing in a Week 5 loss to the Bills. Is Warren worth adding off of the waiver wire heading into Week 6? Let's take a look!

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What Did Jaylen Warren Do In Week 5?

As the strict backup to Harris, Warren came into Week 5 with just 14 carries and three catches over the first four games of the season. As mentioned earlier, Harris has struggled in 2022 but his grip on the lead-back role has remained unchanged thus far, even if some of the Pittsburgh faithful would like to see a bit more even split in the backfield.

Jaylen Warren has been better at running, receiving, and blocking than Najee Harris...

But Harris was a first-round pick, so we will never see a paradigm shift.

— Tommy Jaggi (@TommyJaggi) October 11, 2022

Warren turned in his best performance as a pro last week, carrying the ball five times for 24 yards while catching four of his five targets for another 39 yards.

In all, Boone was on the field for 38 of 75 snaps, good for a season-high 50.7% snap share. That brings his season-long snap share up to 32.27% through five games.

Should I Add Jaylen Warren Off the Waiver Wire in Fantasy Football?

An undrafted rookie out of Oklahoma State, Warren did not garner much buzz during draft season despite breaking out for 1,216 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns as a junior in 2021, his first year after transferring from Utah State.

Warren has a solid profile, highlighted by an above-average 4.55 40-yard dash. Take a look at his profile below, courtesy of Player Profiler.

There's a lot to unpack here surrounding Warren's situation. It is important to note that the Steelers were blown out by Buffalo in Week 5, falling behind 31-3 at halftime. Almost all of Warren's Week 5 production came during garbage time in the fourth quarter when the game was well out of reach.

The portion of the game where Warren's production occurred puts a bit of a damper on his final stat line as Harris certainly would have seen most of the work in the fourth quarter if the game was close. There are a few things to consider here, as the Steelers don't appear to be a very good team in 2022. That could lead to more blowouts, although starting a backup running back in hopes of garbage-time production is not generally a recommended course of action.

Even though he is still a backup at this point, Warren does have value as a handcuff to Harris. Harris dealt with a foot injury during the preseason and that same injury forced him out of Week 1's contest early. Even if Harris stays healthy moving forward, there is a chance Warren could carve out a larger role moving forward. This Mike Tomlin quote from the other day is interesting, to say the least.

Tomlin says they are going to overturn every stone to change outcomes.

Jaylen Warren is averaging 4.9 yards per carry.
Najee Harris is averaging 3.2 yards per carry.

One of those stones has to be at least an even split in the carries per game between them.

— Matt Koll (@MKoll15) October 10, 2022

Warren needs to be rostered in leagues of 12 teams and larger. A 15-20% bid of your remaining budget is a good starting spot, maybe a bit more if you are desperate at the running back position.

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