If you are looking for something of substance to track Thursday night in the Pittsburgh Steelers preseason finale, I’ve got two pieces of advice.

1) Find something else to do with your time.

2) If you can’t, watch the running backs.

There may be some practical application to doing so. And boy, that’s a challenge when it comes to this annual end-of-August slog against the Carolina Panthers.

Here’s why.

At the start of training camp, both head coach Mike Tomlin and offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner inferred that part of the reason why the run-pass ratio was so skewed last year (an AFC-high 67.3% passing) was a lack of faith in the Steelers backup running backs after James Conner on the depth chart.

Hence, they didn’t run Conner as much as they could have early in 2018 because they were afraid of what might have happened if he got hurt.

This year, at the start of practices at Saint Vincent College, the sense was that the Steelers coaching staff was optimistic that Jaylen Samuels and fourth-round draft choice Benny Snell would take care of that problem.

Samuels has done his part. He has totaled 63 yards on just 10 carries over the course of three preseason games. Add those numbers to a touchdown on the ground and three catches for 20 yards.

In my opinion, Samuels continues to show he can be more than just a halfback gadget guy. He began to illustrate that with his breakout performance (142 yards rushing) against New England last year.

“Just get the ball in the right spot, and once I do, make something happen from there,” Samuels said at his locker following a recent practice. “If I’ve got a defender in my face in the open field, make that one guy miss and then gain yards from there.”

The question appears to be Snell. He began offseason workouts with high expectations and much acclaim. Given his 3,873 yards and 48 touchdowns at Kentucky, many were wondering if he may even steal a few carries from Conner throughout the year.

But in preseason games and at times in Latrobe, Snell hasn’t shown a lot of burst when trying to turn the corner and has barely flashed on special teams. He’s averaged only 2.9 yards per carry on 20 rushes.

Plus Snell was injured going into the Tennessee game last week and couldn’t participate as a result.

There have even been some rumblings that the Steelers may try to stash Snell on injured reserve and keep Trey Edmunds on the active roster instead.

On Tuesday, though, Snell claimed he was 100% and expected a heavy workload.

“Benny Snell Football. You take workload every game,” Snell said. “Every chance you get.”

Yeah. We all know Snell likes the third person. Unfortunately, Benny Snell simply becoming the third running back is my greater concern right now.

And frankly, the greater good may be served if Snell becomes No. 2. Because even as Samuels continues to do what is asked of him, I wonder if the coaching staff still views him as merely a third-down pass-catcher.

“Every carry that I take, I try to go through my details of every run,” Samuels said. “Just try to put that ball in the right place every time. Don’t make a wrong read.”

Whatever the case, the more production from the running backs on Thursday night, the better.

With a shifting passing game minus Antonio Brown, I’d prefer to see the offensive coaching staff have enough faith in the ground game so the pass-run split narrows from last year.

Or, at this point, at least that it doesn’t get wider.

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