This is part 2 of a series on the Steelers All Time All Rookie team, to get us through the dead zone between the draft and the preseason.
Three Hall of Famers started their careers elsewhere: Jerome Bettis with the Rams, John Henry Johnson with the 49ers, and Marion Motley with the Browns , but he was originally a Giant.
Meanwhile, Walter Abercrombie, Rashard Mendenhall, Rocky Bleier, Barry Foster, Frank Pollard, James Conner, Merril Hoge, Willie Parker, Jon Dwyer, and Amos Zeoroue combined for 830 yards as rookies.
Finally, since his days may be numbered, I want to put a gold star on Jaylen Samuels for his herculean effort against the eventual champion Patriots in 2018, where he rushed for 143 yards in a 17-10 upset — the only 100 yard game of his entire career, including high school and college.
Franco is still the only Steelers rookie to rush for 1000 yards in a season .
As an historical note, this was the first touchdown any Steelers player had ever scored in a post-season game in the team’s history, and it was sealed the Steelers’ first ever post-season victory in team history.
Future Supreme Court Justice Byron “Whizzer” White lead the league in rushing and yards from scrimmage during his rookie season.
He’d go on to be NFL MVP in 1946, after leading the NFL in rushing, interceptions, fumble recoveries, and punt returns, while also serving as the Steelers kicker, punter, and primary passer.
In 1942, Dudley’s 696 rushing yards were the 10th highest total in league history, and remained the Steelers team record for eight years.
Lattner had been a college football star at Notre Dame, winning the 1953 Heisman, and the 1952 and 1953 Maxwell Awards, before the Steelers drafted him at #7 overall.
Impossible to know what kind of career he’d have had — a return specialist who never factors on offense, like Desmond Howard? A great all-purpose player, like Gayle Sayers? We’ll never know.
A let-down as a 1st round draft pick — after leading the SEC in rushing and being named consensus All American at Georgia — Worley still led the Steelers with 770 rushing yards in 1989.
He fumbled nine times as a rookie, on only 210 touches, then added fumbles in both playoff games that season as well .
Largely forgotten today, Morris and Barry Foster nearly became the second Steelers duo to both top 1000 yards in the same season during their one year together.
Those problems also did some damage to Bill Cowher, who’d just jettisoned Worley a few years earlier over similar issues, and kept believing Morris’s claims that he’d cleaned up.
Ultimately, Rogel’s rookie production was overwhelmed by his own teammate, All Pro quarterback Joe Geri, who rushed for team record 705 yards in 1950.
Heller’s 528 rushing yards and 624 yards from scrimmage were both “Pirates” team records, and both clocked in at the 9th highest totals in league history at the time.
They finished the season at 2-10, being shut out six times and losing by an average of 17.2 to 4.25.
Heller was one of the few bright spots on that squad, but it should be noted that he also led the league in interceptions thrown.
In any case, It took Snell half a season to find his way onto the field in 2019, but with Mason Rudolph and Duck Hodges scaring absolutely no one, Snell rushed for 426 yards on a team that had zero right to be competing for a playoff spot, but was.