James Conner

James Conner is an American football player for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL). He was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, on May 5th, 1995.

Conner attended McDowell High School in his hometown of Erie and earned a reputation as one of the state’s best running backs. After playing three seasons with the Trojans, he was named All-State and selected by USA Today as Pennsylvania’s Player of the Year.

He then went on to play college football at Pitt from 2013-2016 where he set several school records and cemented himself as one of Pitt’s most legendary players. During his four year tenure there, Conner tallied 4,521 rushing yards which ranks fourth all time in school history while also setting single season records for both rushing yards (1,765) and total touchdowns (26). In 2014 he won ACC Player Of The Year honors after leading Pitt to its first 8 win season since 2009.    

Conner declared for the 2017 NFL draft but wasn’t selected until round 3 when he was taken 105th overall by Pittsburgh Steelers. He saw limited action during his rookie year due to a knee injury suffered late in preseason that caused him to miss half the regular season. Despite missing out on significant game time early in his career Conner still managed to make an impact throughout 2018 behind Le’Veon Bell with 973 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns over 13 games started including two games over 100+ yardage mark before suffering another injury ending his 2018 campaign prematurely yet again.                
          In 2019 however things really took off for Conner when he became an every down starter filling Bell’s role while continuing to prove why many thought so highly of him back at Pitt University; coming into week 17 having made 16 starts for Pittsburgh totaling 1128 rushing yards along with 7 TD’s helping lead them all way up top AFC North division standings heading into playoffs that same year.. While 2020 did not see quite as much success due to more injuries it can be argued that James has established himself among some very elite company within Steelers franchise becoming only second running back since Jerome Bettis(1995)to have consecutive 1000+ Yard campaigns under head coach Mike Tomlin proving just how talented of an athlete this young man truly is !