87 players have scored 50 rushing touchdowns in NFL history, and four of them are Pitt Panthers.
Tony Dorsett, Curtis Martin, LeSean McCoy and now James Conner are all Pitt stars who have scored 50 rushing touchdowns. Conner’s seventh rushing touchdown of the season — a 29-yard rushing touchdown in the third quarter of the season finale against the Seattle Seahawks — gave him 50 in his career.
And with a 27-carry, 150-yard, 1-touchdown performance, Conner hit the 1,000-yard mark for the first time in his NFL career.
Conner racked up 200 scrimmage yards against the Seahawks to finish the 2023 season on a high note. He recorded 208 carries for 1,040 yards (5 yards per carry) and seven touchdowns — adding 27 receptions for 165 yards and two more touchdowns.
Conner set a career-high in rushing yards, rushing yards per carry, rushing yards per game despite missing four games in the middle of the season due to injury.
Conner, who started his NFL career with the Steelers after a standout career at Pitt, has racked up 1,125 carries for 4,876 yards (4.3 yards per carry) and 50 touchdowns — adding 234 receptions for 1,803 yards and 10 touchdowns through the air.
He’s now through three seasons in Arizona, his seventh season in the NFL, after being drafted by the Steelers in the third round of the 2017 NFL Draft.
Conner has one more season on his contract, and he will hit free agency in 2025 as a 30-year-old running back without too much tread on his tires. And he will — potentially — be coming off back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons in the NFL.
As he nears his eighth NFL season, coming off perhaps the best season of his NFL career, it’s a testament to his remarkable willpower in overcoming the roadblocks in his life on the way to a very successful NFL career.
