In just three years at Kentucky, Benny Snell put his mark on the program. Rushing for 3,873 yards and 48 touchdowns – both career records at Kentucky – Snell is one of, if not the greatest running back in school history.
Drafted in the fourth round by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2019, Snell made himself RB2 behind James Conner, rushing for 426 yards, the second most on the team. In 2020, Snell held his RB2 duties but rushed for a lesser 368 yards.
Due to a lack of consistency in their running game, including Snell, the Steelers felt the need to draft one of the top running backs on the draft board, and that is what they did as they drafted Najee Harris in the first round.
This drastically changed Snell’s role and he was reduced to primarily playing special teams and had just a fraction of the carries. In fact, Snell had not a carry in the 2022 season at all.
That was until Monday night.
On one the biggest of the stages in football, Snell assumed the running back duties after Harris was ruled out with an abdominal injury at halftime against the Indianapolis Colts.
Responding with 62 rushing yards on 12 carries, Snell was the leading rusher on the team and even scored the game-winning touchdown.
Following the game, Snell made sure to thank everyone for watching Monday Night Football and catching his performance, and didn’t forget to include his key phrase “Snell yeah”.
Following the game, Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett had some praise for Snell. “He runs angry. He’s a detailed guy. Hasn’t gotten many snaps here but comes in and does his job at an extremely high level I have nothing but extremely great things to say about Benny and I’m proud of how he played. It was really awesome to see.”
Dating back to his Kentucky days, Snell has never shown any shortage of confidence when his number was called, and he answered again on Monday night.
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