As The Rolling Stones once sang, you can’t always get what you want. But you get what you need. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ mission was clear. Protect Najee Harris. Which meant limiting how much he was to be tackled during training camp and reducing his snap count for the team’s three preseason games. Harris may have wanted more carries but the Steelers were only willing to give him what he needed. Heading into Week One, he’s confident he saw enough work this summer to be ready for the fall.
Speaking to reporters earlier Saturday, Harris acknowledged that while he didn’t play much this month, he’s ready for Week One.
“I got what I needed,” he said via the team website.
Across the team’s three preseason games, he saw only 16 total snaps. Seven of those came in Thursday’s finale against Atlanta where he saw his most significant action. With the offensive starters only playing the first two series, Harris carried the ball four times for 18 yards and a one-yard touchdown. He also got involved in the passing game, taking a screen pass 16 yards down the left sideline.
“Letting our ones play a lot more,” Harris said of what Tomlin told the team ahead of the finale.
In the first two games, Harris saw just a handful of snaps and even fewer touches. In the opener, he caught one short pass and in the second game against Buffalo, he received only two carries for six yards.
Pittsburgh’s careful approach stems from what happened a season ago. On the first padded practice of 2022, Harris suffered a toe injury that bothered him throughout the first half of the year. Over that span, he played with a steel plate in his shoe, which sapped him of burst and lateral agility. He looked sluggish behind a work-in-progress Steelers’ offensive line and his numbers weren’t pretty. At the bye week, Harris had just 361 yards rushing, an average of 3.3 per carry, with just one rushing score.
Things improved as he got healthy and Harris and the Steelers’ offense turned things around after the bye. From Week 10 to Week 18, his average jumped nearly a full yard to 4.1 yards per carry and he found the end zone seven total times, six rushing and one receiving, the latter a game-winning touchdown to beat the Baltimore Ravens.
All the Steelers cared about this year was not to repeat what he and the offense went through last summer. Pittsburgh will be focused on having a strong and steady running game with Harris and Jaylen Warren and need both healthy to shoulder the load. Their first test will come on September 10 against a stout San Francisco 49ers’ front, one that was among the NFL’s best against the run a season ago. Harris has gotten to the finish line, he is healthy, though the end of the summer just brings the start of the fall. Now, his real work begins.
