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The Pittsburgh Steelers are supposedly set to get Le’Veon Bell back in a couple of weeks. If and when he does return, questions will inevitably be raised about James Conner’s role moving forward. But Ben Roethlisberger knows what he wants to happen.
Big Ben told 93.7 The Fan on Tuesday he believes Conner should still be a part of the offense even when Bell returns to the fold.
“The good thing is that I'm not the coach, right? I don't have to make that decision. What I would say is, I don't think we put [James] on the shelf by any means,” he said, via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
“Now granted, I think Le'Veon's one of the best in the business, I think we all understand that and can agree on that. But what James needs to understand — and he's gonna say the right things, and he should [as] a younger guy with a veteran, awesome football player ahead of him — but when Le'Veon comes back, in no way, shape or form should James just say, ‘OK, it's all yours. I'm gonna sit back and when you need me, use me.'”
Roethlisberger also said he’ll push for Conner to get as much playing time as possible because he’s been doing so many great things in all phases of the game.
Conner hasn’t quite been as consistent as he’d like to be this season, but he’s come up with a couple of huge games already. He had 192 yards from scrimmage with two touchdowns in his first career start against the Browns, and he came close to matching that with 185 total yards and two scores Sunday against the Falcons.
Conner’s time as the Steelers’ starter could be coming to a close if Bell does report during their Week 7 bye. But as far as Roethlisberger is concerned, Conner shouldn’t stop being a key contributor on the Steelers offense regardless of Bell’s return.
