Pittsburgh Steelers RB Najee Harris has faced criticism throughout his short career in the NFL. A first-round pick in 2021, Harris was drafted to turn the Steelers’ run game around, and while he hasn’t been a bad player over his first two seasons, he also hasn’t been a game-changer. Because of his simply average play, in a recent ranking of every starting running back Harris was came in painfully average at No. 19.
Last Word On Sports’ David Latham came out with his RB1 ranking earlier this summer and put Harris in the fourth tier titled, “Serviceable RB1.” In talking about Harris, Latham wrote that he can’t create on his own and is only as good as his blockers.
“Najee Harris touches the ball a lot, but he doesn’t do too much with his opportunities,” Latham wrote. “In many ways, his on-field play is a lot like an early-career Leonard Fournette: he’ll get what’s blocked for him, but he won’t make too many plays on his own. Considering the Steelers used a first-round pick to secure his services, Pittsburgh was probably hoping for a better return on investment.”
Latham has a point in a way on Harris not doing much with his opportunities. In his first two seasons, Harris had only seven runs over 20-plus yards with his longest being 37 yards. He simply isn’t an explosive runner, but he is a bell cow who when given the ball can wear defenses down.
As the 2022 season progressed Harris continued to improve, and down the stretch, he played some of the best football of his career as he was the driving offensive force on a team that won seven of its last nine games. Part of the reason for his improvement was that the offensive line began to gel and became an average unit.
While Latham believes Harris is only as good as his offensive line, that is only half true. Yes, Harris improved a lot as a runner last season when his offensive line was not a bottom three unit, but in his rookie season he proved he can still be an effective running back even with a horrendous offensive line.
In 2021 Harris only averaged 1.7 yards before contact and finished the year with 3.9 yards per carry meaning that he was able to gain an on average additional 2.2 yards after he was first met by a defender. For context on how good this is, last season Nick Chubb, arguably the best running back in the NFL, averaged 2.3 yards after contact.
Harris’ offensive line has never made anything easy for him and this year he will likely have the best line he has had in his NFL career. Because of this, he is poised to have a career year, which should propel him into being seen as a top 10 running back.
The back half of the 2022 season for Harris was really good, and if he can carry his momentum into 2023 he should be seen as one of the better running backs in the NFL once again. His and the Steelers’ rough start to last season really soured him to many analysts but Harris really turned his season around. After last year he isn’t a top-tier back, but he definitely belongs in the top 15. With a great season Harris can not only help the Steelers return to the playoffs, but also make many writers, and analysts like Latham, eat some crow.
