You can practice all you want — watch game film, take mental reps — but you don’t know how you will react until you’re standing in the backfield with nothing between you and a horde of brawlers of your own.
Taking a handoff on the practice field is different than taking one amidst the choreographed chaos of a live game, especially when you are an undrafted rookie free agent like Kansas City Chiefs running back Carson Steele, and the field you find yourself on is one of the most iconic patches of grass in the history of the National Football League.
Steele admitted on Thursday that he felt nervous the first time he played under the bright lights of Arrowhead Stadium.
“Coming into everything, I didn’t really know what to expect,” said Steele in the locker room on Thursday, “especially coming into Arrowhead, too. It doesn’t help, but [now that I have] a couple of games under my belt— [I’m] really excited, really ready for it.”
Steele has had an up-and-down start to the year. After shining in the preseason, he was buried on the depth chart to start the year and logged only nine carries for 27 yards through the first two weeks of the season. He also had and had a crucial lost fumble late in the first half against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 2.
But when starting running back Isiah Pacheco went down with a broken leg, Steele stepped up in Week 3, toting the rock 17 times for 72 yards against the Atlanta Falcons. Unfortunately, the fumble bug bit him again this past week against the Los Angeles Chargers, as he put the ball on the ground again during the team's opening drive.
He only saw one more carry for the rest of the game because head coach Andy Reid chose to trust veterans Kareem Hunt and Samaje Perine with the bulk of the team’s workload.
The rookie running back has been working hard to fix his fumbling issues.
“Being a rookie, you got to fix some mistakes to get where I want to be, but another goal is just to go 1-0 throughout the week,” explained Steele. “That’s kind of like our big motto here, you know, kind of not thinking about down the line, so just got to keep going 1-0 and go from there.”
Having veteran teammates in the running back room has helped him process everything.
“They were all rookies once, so they already know how I’m feeling,” said Steele. “But, you know, the calmer you feel [in] this game, the better you’re going to have in the outcome. So I just got to calm down and execute my assignments.”
Steele said that Chiefs head coach Andy Reid echoed the same sentiments as his teammates.
“[Reid] said, ‘You know, relax. It happens, kind of move on, next-play mentality. So I’m just doing that and figuring out what my wrongs and rights are and go from there.”
Filling the void left by Pacheco’s injury has been a team effort and a next-man-up mentality. Whoever's number is called has to be ready to execute their assignment, including finishing drives in the red zone.
“That’s our big goal. You know, [I] love But (placekicker Harrison Butker), but he can’t kick field goals in the red zone, only extra points,” joked Steele. “We just gotta keep finishing drives, so that way we can really push our offense to the next level.”
In the meantime, Steele said that he is thankful the defense has been playing well enough to keep them in ball games while the offense works its kinks out.
“[They’ve been playing] lights out,” he said before continuing with a sly grin in his voice, “A lot of people don’t know defense wins games.”