Now that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2023 season is getting underway after the team finished above .500 but failing to make the postseason last year, we turn our attention to the next chapter of Steelers football and everything that entails. One thing that it means is that some stock evaluations are going to start taking on more specific contexts as we get into the season, reflecting more immediate plusses and minus rather than trends over long periods. The nature of the evaluation, whether short-term or long-term, will be noted in the reasoning section below.
Player: RB Najee Harris
Stock Value: Even
Reasoning: The third-year veteran has had a modest, quiet training camp thus far. Although that’s a significant upgrade from a year ago when he spent the vast majority of it sidelined with a Lisfranc foot injury, he has not turned many heads on the practice field.
The Steelers did not draft Najee Harris out of Alabama to be an explosive player, so it would be disingenuous to fault him for not delivering those sorts of plays, either in the past two seasons or during the current training camp period.
It’s also important to note that most of the drills in which he would be participating as a runner are not live tackling drills, so he would not be benefiting from his ability to break tackles and produce yards after contact, a significant component of his game.
With that being said, it certainly doesn’t sound as though he has done anything noteworthy since training camp started. Arguably the most attention he’s received in Latrobe has been for his comments about the running back market.
But what does this mean and how much does it matter? Well, maybe we’ll have a better idea of that by tomorrow morning after he gets his first preseason work since his rookie season. Head coach Mike Tomlin said that the plan is for all healthy players to play, so that would include him.
According to Alex Kozora’s training camp charting, Harris rushed for 68 yards in the first 10 practices on 25 carries, averaging only 2.7 yards per carry. He did get into the end zone twice. He only caught two passes on two targets for a total of 10 yards.
Since many will be inclined to compare, Kozora has Jaylen Warren down for 64 rushing yards on only 15 attempts and a healthier 4.2-yard average. Rookie Darius Hagans has produced 96 yards on 22 carries, albeit with some fumbles. Anthony McFarland Jr. only has 25 yards on 12 carries, but has impressed as a receiving outlet.
I shouldn’t have to say it, but I will anyway: take training camp statistics with a couple pounds of salt. These are not football statistics. The context is significantly and meaningfully different. But the fact remains that we are still waiting to see him do anything first-round-like this camp. Even his blocking has been a disappointment, if anything, based on his backs-on-backers results.
