James Conner will miss Week 14 vs. Raiders due to lower leg sprain

Pittsburgh Steelers running back James Conner left Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers after sustaining a lower leg injury late in the fourth quarter. Conner went down hard and stayed down for some time, before being helped off the field with assistance from team trainers. Head coach Mike Tomlin told reporters after the game Conner suffered a lower leg contusion. He’d later downgrade Conner’s condition from “contusion” to “sprain.”

Although there is no official word beyond that, the injury is not expected to be serious but will keep the second-year back out of Week 14’s tilt against the Oakland Raiders.

Conner was quickly escorted to the locker room for further testing. He was then listed as questionable to return. Veteran running back Stevan Ridley and rookie Jaylen Samuels are Conner’s primary backups on the depth chart. Right after Conner’s injury, Samuels caught two passes, including a 10-yard touchdown that tied the game.

That was the Steelers’ final drive — the Chargers marched down the field for a game-winning field goal as time expired. Conner did not return.

Conner has been a breakout player in his second year with the Steelers, effectively filling the role of Le’Veon Bell in a way that absolutely nobody (except perhaps Steelers coaches) could have predicted. He runs well and he’s a lethal receiving target for Ben Roethlisberger — just as Bell was before his holdout — and has had a healthy workload all season.

This season, Conner had carried the ball 201 times for 909 yards (4.5 yards per carry average) and 12 touchdowns while catching 52 passes for 467 yards and a touchdown. Pittsburgh’s second-leading rusher is Roethlisberger with just 94 yards, so any missed time for Conner would be significant for a team in the midst of a playoff race.

Fortunately, the game he’s slated to miss in Week 14 is against a 2-10 Raiders club seemingly intent on tanking its way to the No. 1 pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. Oakland has allowed opponents to rush for 5.0 yards per carry this fall, paving the way for Ridley and Samuels to be effective in Conner’s absence. They’ll need the backup duo to avoid an upset loss; a defeat on the West Coast Sunday would effectively squash Pittsburgh’s hopes of a first-round playoff bye while giving the Ravens an open window to sneak away with the AFC North title.