Jaylen Warren 2025 Season in Review

Jaylen Warren finished 2025 as the number 17 running back in total PPR scoring and the number 19 running back in PPR per game — solidly inside the back-end-of-RB2 conversation, but not the every-week anchor drafters paid for last summer. His year is the story of a committee that never tipped his way. Kenneth Gainwell ate 114 carries all season, and that ceiling cap is the single biggest reason Warren's per-game number landed where it did. Sixteen games, efficient on contact, a usable line almost every week — but Pittsburgh never handed him the bell-cow workload that would've pushed him into the top twelve.

Now let's dig into the numbers, because the efficiency case is genuinely strong. He ran 211 times for 958 yards, 4.5 a pop, with 6 rushing scores, and added 40 catches on 45 targets for 333 yards and 2 more touchdowns through the air — a 10 percent target share, real passing-down value for a back. The headline: plus 180.6 rushing yards over expected, eighth among qualified runners, and plus 0.9 yards over expected per carry. He was creating roughly a yard per attempt beyond what the blocking and box count predicted — against stacked fronts, with 32 percent of his carries coming against eight or more defenders in the box. And he was steady. He averaged 13.6 PPR a game and lived in a tight band, with fourteen of sixteen games landing between 6 and 20 points. Steady floor, not boom-or-bust, with exactly one true spike: 29.1 against Detroit in Week 16 on 143 rushing yards and two scores.

That Detroit game crystallizes the season. Fourth quarter, Steelers up 15 to 10, second and five from the Lions' 45 — Warren took it left end, untouched, 45 yards to the house. Later in the same quarter, up 22 to 17, first and ten from the same spot — 45 yards again, left tackle, touchdown. Two explosive runs from identical field position in one quarter, both finishing in the end zone. It was the only game all year Pittsburgh truly let Warren cook, and he answered with the kind of line that hints at what a full workload could look like. The rest of the season was the honest version: efficient touches inside a committee, capped by Gainwell's role and by an offense that ranked just 26th in yards per carry as a team.