Steelers Need to Keep DeAngelo Williams Involved Though Le'Veon Bell Is Back

Le'Veon Bell is back with the Pittsburgh Steelers after serving a two-game suspension to start the 2015 season. He will reprise his role as the Steelers' lead running back, which means DeAngelo Williams will be relegated to backup duty after proving he was more than capable of being the team's No. 1 back in Bell's absence.

In fact, Williams' two-game performance was so good that the Steelers need to make sure he remains involved in the offense even with Bell handling the team's lead back role.

Through two games, Williams has rushed 41 times for 204 yards and three touchdowns and is averaging 4.98 yards per carry. He had 127 yards in Week 1 against the New England Patriots, and though his rushing total dropped to 77 yards against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 2, he earned all three of his rushing touchdowns against them.

Week	Atts.	Yds.	YPA	TD	YCo	MT	Tgt.	Rec.	Yds.	TD
@ NE	21	127	6.05	0	81	8	1	1	5	0
vs. SF	20	77	3.85	3	34	0	5	4	15	0
Total	41	204	4.98	3	115	8	6	5	20	0

The 32-year old Williams has looked like a 22-year old over the past two weeks and is running the ball as well as he ever has.

He's Pro Football Focus' No. 2 running back on the year, not just for the yards and touchdowns he's earned, but also for his 115 yards after contact and the eight missed tackles he's forced. He also ranks eighth in Pro Football Focus' "elusiveness rating," which determines "a runner's success beyond the point of being helped by his blockers."

Williams' downhill style is a perfect complement to Bell's speed and finesse, which gives the Steelers offense a one-two punch in the run game. This isn't a LeGarrette Blount situation, though it shouldn't be a perfect timeshare between the two, either. It's more about maximizing the strengths of Williams and Bell in situations that suit them best in order for the Steelers to get the most out of both men.

But if the Steelers did want to have a 50-50 playing time split between Bell and Williams, Williams has also shown he can handle the workload. As the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's Chris Adamski noted, Williams' 53 and 61 snaps played in the two games this year are more than he's had per-week since at least 2007.

Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

Williams would be more likely to take carries away from Bell than passing targets. Though Williams caught five of six passes thrown to him over the past two weeks for 20 yards, that pales in comparison to Bell, who regularly saw seven or more pass targets per game in 2014, earning him an average of 53.38 receiving yards per game.

Because of their disparate skill sets, there is more than enough room for both Bell and Williams to be major players in the Steelers' offense, instead of Williams taking a clear-cut backseat to Bell. Bell's rushing and receiving prowess certainly adds another dimension to Pittsburgh's offense, but the Steelers also need to be careful not to eliminate the dimension that Williams adds in his own right.

The goal for the Steelers is to have the NFL's top offense in 2015, and they are well on their way. And Williams was a major part of that success over the first two weeks of the season.

Bell is back, but Williams' contributions cannot be pushed aside. Instead, Williams needs to keep seeing carries all season long, because ultimately, that will prove best for business for the Steelers—that business, of course, being winning.