It was an impressive ascent to start Carson Steele's career.
To go from a transfer big back who profiled as an undrafted fullback hoping to make the leap to professional football, it was a very inspiring story to see Steele earn the majority of carries for a defending Super Bowl champ just a couple of games into his career.
It's the stuff underdog movies are written about.
Then it all came into question. Shortly after Steele's second costly fumble of a young season, the Chiefs coaching staff decided to largely turn him into a spectator in the team's win over the L.A. Chargers in Week 4. From that point, it looked as if Steele might be relegated to the sidelines on a permanent basis—at least as long as injuries didn't force his hand back into the lineup.
Carson Steele should feel quite encouraged when looking at the opportunities the Chiefs keep giving him.
A shift down the depth chart would have made sense for Steele given his lack of experience and the penchant for fumbling displayed thus far. Few would have expected him to have even made the team, let alone earn this much playing time. After all, this was someone who was passed over by 32 teams 7 times over just last spring.
But eight days after that opening drive mistake against L.A., it seems like Andy Reid and company are intent on encouraging Steele all the more.
Every rookie faces a steep learning curve. Every first-year player will make mistakes. Every freshman has his green moments. It takes time to make any adjustment and that includes trying to take away the job of other players who are elite athletes themselves. Nothing in the NFL was ever going to come easy for Steele.
It's a testament, then, to his potential that the Chiefs are viewing Steele as they are. On Monday against the Saints, they had every reason to turn to Kareem Hunt as a lead back and Samaje Perine as a tandem partner with some Clyde Edwards-Helaire reps thrown in for good measure. (Yes, Edwards-Helaire is back from the team's NFI list after missing the first four games of the regular season.) Instead, it was a mix of Hunt and Steele out of the backfield with Steele gaining more playing time in the return game.
The results on Monday weren't all that impressive from Steele, especially on offense, and it's not as if he got a whopping amount of opportunities either. He had 5 carries for 12 yards on offense for an anemic 2.4 yards/carry average. However, some of that came in short-yardage situations where those totals will be dwarfted by context.
The most notable stat from Monday in Steele's favor is that no other running back even had a carry other than Hunt and him. Perine was only targeted in the passing game. Edwards-Helaire didn't register a single touch (which was not surprising since he came in doubtful on the injury report). It was Hunt and Steele and that was the entirety of the ground approach.
Of course, this doesn't mean that Steele's opportunities will remain this prevalent going forward. The Chiefs are still learning how to use Perine, and Edwards-Helaire will get healthy. The team is also a few weeks from likely getting back lead back Isiah Pacheco, which will complicate the picture even further. At that point, sorting out carries is going to be anyone's guess.
But one important matter is clear for Steele: The Chiefs really like him. They like his potential. They like the wrinkle he adds to the offense. They trust him to get the job done. The investment they're making and the encouragement they're providing are very positive signs going forward that this team will ask much more of Steele as time goes on.
It didn't always look that way.
