His first two seasons in the NFL haven’t been all they were expected to be as a first-round pick, but Pittsburgh Steelers running back Najee Harris remains a high-level player from the 2021 NFL Draft, at least according to former NFL running back Maurice Jones-Drew.
Jones-Drew, who played nine seasons in the NFL with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Oakland Raiders, listed Harris as the No. 8 player overall from the 2021 NFL Draft on Tuesday, ahead of some eye-opening names like Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence and Philadelphia’s DeVonta Smith.
“Harris is no flash in the pan. He’s been every bit the durable, reliable running back the Steelers had been looking for when they made him the first running back off the board,” Jones-Drew writes regarding Harris’ ranking from the 2021 draft class. “Harris has carried the load for an offense going through transition, taking immense pressure off a past-his-prime Ben Roethlisberger in 2021 and rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett in 2022. Since entering the league, no other players has a higher percentage of team scrimmage touches (40.8 percent) than Harris. In fact, he leads the entire NFL in carries (579) and touches (694) during that span. Although his numbers don’t necessarily jump off the box score, Harris’ availability and reliability make him a huge commodity for Mike Tomlin’s squad.”
There is no denying Harris’ workload and overall durability.
Even while dealing with a Lisfranc injury to his foot early last season, Harris didn’t miss a game. He’s played in a total of 35 games (34 in the regular season, one playoff game) and has carried the football 579 times, adding another 115 receptions.
While the usage is there in abundance, the production isn’t what it was expected to be coming out of the University of Alabama.
Through two seasons, Harris has just 2,234 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns, with another 696 receiving yards and six touchdowns. The touchdown numbers are strong — an average of 10 per season — but Harris is averaging just 1,117 yards on the ground per year, and 348 yards through the air, good for 1,465 total yards from scrimmage.
That’s just 86.17 yards per scrimmage per game. Not great.
It hasn’t been all on Harris though.
The Steelers had a bad offensive line in 2021 and were in the final season of Ben Roethlisberger’s tenure with a new offensive coordinator, which limited what Pittsburgh could do. Then, there were more issues early in 2022.
The Steelers went through a transition from Mitch Trubisky as the starting quarterback in training camp, the preseason and then through the first four weeks, and the run game simply wasn’t good enough to provide balance to the offensive attack and take some responsibilities off Trubisky’s shoulders. Harris, who was dealing with a foot injury, was too often caught behind the line of scrimmage being too patient and dancing, trying to avoid contract, rather than leaning into his massive 235-pound build and punishing defenders downhill.
There were growing pains once the Steelers turned to Pickett as the starter at halftime of the New York Jets matchup in Week Four, but once Harris got healthy after the Week 9 bye, the Steelers’ rushing attack took off.
Pittsburgh went from one of the worst rushing attacks in football to the NFL’s No. 7 rushing offense in the second half of the season.
After the Week Nine bye, the Steelers averaged 141.8 rushing yards per game, a significant increase from the early-season struggles in the run game for Pittsburgh, which needed a new-look offensive line to gel under first-year position coach Pat Meyer.
In the second half of the season, Harris had five games with 4.5 or more yards per carry, including three of 5.0 or more. The rushing attack really took over in the second half of the season, and Harris looked like the first-round back he was expected to be. Pittsburgh only got better around him with the additions of Seumalo and Jones, two guys who excel as run blockers and bring a nastiness in that area.
Now, the 2023 season is shaping up to be a major one for Harris. With a rebuild offensive line in front of him, a third year under offensive coordinator Matt Canada and Pickett stepping into Year Two, Harris should find more running room and be much more productive overall. He has all the talent in the world and the traits needed at the position to be a great one. He just needs to put it all together.
That said, it’s puzzling to see him not only in the top 10 from the draft on MJD’s list, but also ahead of the names he’s in. We’ll see if he lives up to it in 2023.
