Le'Veon Bell is expected to return to the Pittsburgh Steelers soon, which likely means James Conner will be relegated to reserve duty.

If Ben Roethlisberger has a say, the second-year running back will continue to touch the football when Bell returns.

"The good thing is that I'm not the coach, right? I don't have to make that decision. What I would say is, I don't think we put [James] on the shelf by any means," the quarterback told 93.7 The Fan.

"Now granted, I think Le'Veon's one of the best in the business, I think we all understand that and can agree on that. But what James needs to understand -- and he's gonna say the right things, and he should [as] a younger guy with a veteran, awesome football player ahead of him -- but when Le'Veon comes back, in no way, shape or form should James just say, 'OK, it's all yours. I'm gonna sit back and when you need me, use me.'

"And I will push for James to get as much run as we can because we've seen some great things from him in all phases of football. He's picking up blitzes, he's catching the ball, he's running hard and making plays and playing with a passion, so we need to keep using that."

Conner is one of only four running backs with 300-plus yards rushing and 200-plus yards receiving through five weeks.