Big Ben Makes Case for Jaylen Warren to Be NFL MVP

Former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger thinks Steelers running back Jaylen Warren deserves to be in the NFL MVP conversation.

"This guy needs to start to be talked about in some MVP stuff. Like league MVP or offensive MVP. His numbers and some of the stuff he's doing is pretty impressive. His yards after contact have to be some of the highest in the league," Roethlisberger said on his Footbahlin podcast. "There's a lot of things that don't look good and then all of a sudden it's like, oh, he fell forward for three. Very rarely do you see him lose yards."

Warren has had a very impressive start to his 2026 campaign, and that continued in the team's Week 8 win over the Cleveland Browns. Overall, the Steelers rushed for 200 yards against the Browns.

It was Warren's fourth 100-yard performance of the season. Warren also has five games of 125+ yards from scrimmage this year.

Through the first eight weeks of the season, Warren has officially done something that hasn't been done in the past 10 years.

According to Kyle Borgognoni of the Fantasy Footballers , Warren's 6.9 yards per touch is the highest of any running back over the last decade through first eight games of a season.

Warren certainly has a good chance to be named first-team All-Pro this year.

And as Roethlisberger mentioned, don't count out NFL MVP or Offensive Player of the Year.

Winning NFL MVP will be awfully difficult, however. The last NFL running back to win the Associated Press NFL MVP award was Adrian Peterson, who won it for the 2012 season with the Minnesota Vikings.