Pittsburgh Steelers’ Najee Harris is one of the more polarizing running backs in the NFL. Some people really like him and think he can have a bounce-back year this season, while others think he was a waste of a pick and that his backup, Jaylen Warren, is better. Despite some may believe, Harris is and will be the starting running back for Pittsburgh barring injury this year, and therefore could be the NFL’s rushing leader.
Today on GMFB, former New England Patriots DB Jason McCourty was told to give his argument for why Harris will be a dark-horse to be that leader.
“Yes, his quarterback Kenny Pickett will be in his second year, which means he’ll have more knowledge, more explosion coming out of this offense,” said McCourty. “So as everyone is backing up all you got to do is hand the ball off to say Najee Harris. You see him all the time on ‘Angry Runs’ when he’s stiff-arming people and he’s bumping them off the grass as they’re popping back up. Najee Harris, a beast to jump over you, run over you, run around you, run through you.”
Last year, the NFL rushing leader was Las Vegas Raiders running back Josh Jacobs. who ran for 1,653 yards. Harris, though banged up early last season, ran for only 1,034 yards. He has a long way to go if he wants to win the rushing crown, but it is certainly possibly given the run0first offense Pittsburgh wants to play this year.
Steelers beat writer Ray Fittipaldo said betting on Harris to win the crown isn’t a bad idea given the amount of touches he will likely see this year. Last season Harris had 272 rushing attempts and this year there is a chance it can increase even more with an improved offensive line. Throw in improvement from Pickett, which will make defenses respect the pass more, and Harris could improve in the most important area: yards per carry.
The only way Harris does lead the league in rushing is if he greatly improves his yards-per-carry numbers. In his short two-year career, he has yet to break 4.0 yards per carry. To win the crown he will likely have to average at minimum 4.3 but will likely have to average even higher than that.
The question is can he? Harris obviously hasn’t shown the ability to yet, but he was also playing with a bad to middling offensive line. With the additions of LG Isaac Seumalo and possibly LT Broderick Jones the line should be the best Harris has had since he was drafted. However, even with that can Harris really impoverished his yards per carry by half a yard? Throw in the fact that Warren will be taking some snaps away from Harris and even if he surpasses 300 carries it is unlikely he will total close to 340 like Jacobs had last season.
But not leading the league in rushing doesn’t mean Harris will have a bad year. In fact Harris is in good position to have his best season of his career.
