The topic of Najee Harris versus Jaylen Warren for the top running back spot on the Pittsburgh Steelers was a big one heading into the 2023 season. No amount of talk from the team about needing both players did anything to really quiet the discussion, whether in the fan base or in the media.
Unfortunately for Harris, neither his performances through the first two weeks nor Warren’s has done anything to make the discussion go away. That discussion came to a head for Mike Florio and Chris Simms on Pro Football Talk Tuesday as they discussed the Steelers’ 26-22 come-from-behind win over the Cleveland Browns Monday night.
“I’m a big Najee Harris guy,” Florio said. “I love Najee Harris, very engaging, very charismatic. I thought he was going to have a big year. He’s missing something. I don’t know if he’s injured and not telling anybody. He has no burst, he has no acceleration. They try to run him outside, he can’t get to the edge. He cannot outrun anyone to the edge. They try to run him up the middle, he can’t bust through the hole… I don’t want to be critical because I love the guy, but Jaylen Warren is clearly the better option.”
As Florio said, he’s been in Harris’ corner previously. Earlier in the offseason, he went on record as saying he thought Harris was going to force Pittsburgh to pick up his fifth-year option with his 2023 performance. However, whether through his own lack of high-end speed or play calling, Harris isn’t producing at a level that would cause the Steelers to do so. While he is currently averaging 4.6 yards per carry, by far the best mark of his career, he has only logged 16 carries in total through his first two games. His performance in the passing game is essentially none as he averages 0.7 yards per catch with three receptions on five targets.
So what about Warren? Should he be playing more than Harris? Well, at first glance, Warren has actually been less effective in the ground game on average in 2023. He’s only averaging 2.9 yards per carry, two full yards per carry less than his rookie season in 2022. However, Warren has been excellent in the passing game, hauling in nine receptions on 12 targets for 78 yards, 8.7 yards per reception. That’s 1.1 yards per reception more than last season and eight yards more per catch than Harris right now.
That’s a whole lot of numbers that seem to suggest Harris is actually running the ball better than Warren while Warren has been much more effective catching the ball. In fact, that seems to fall in line with what coaches and players have been saying all along, that both are needed. However, when you compare numbers from Week One to Week Two, the two players are going in a different direction.
In Week One against the San Francisco 49ers, Harris had six carries for 31 yards, an average of 5.17 yards per carry while catching two passes for two yards. In Week Two, he had 10 carries for 43 yards, an average of 4.3 yards per carry while catching one pass for no yards. While his yards per carry dropped, 4.3 is still quite good. However, 21 of his 43 yards came on one carry. That means he covered 22 yards on his other nine carries, an average of 2.4 yards per carry. Wait, you might say, you can’t discount his big run. He still earned all 21 of those yards. That’s fair, but that one run also masks that he was largely ineffective on his other nine carries.
Meanwhile, Warren improved from his Week One performance. He averaged only two yards per carry on three rushes for six yards while averaging only 2.4 yards per reception on five catches for 12 yards. In Week Two, Warren had six carries for 20 yards, 3.33 yards per carry, while he had four receptions for 66 yards, 16.5 yards per reception.
Through two weeks, Warren has outgained Harris 104-76 in all-purpose yardage while improving from Week One to Week Two. When you factor in the fact that Warren was more explosive in both the run game and passing game than Harris in 2022, it’s easy to understand why Florio is now talking up Warren.
You can watch the entire discussion between Florio and Simms below.
