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: Up
Reasoning: The veteran running back had his most productive game of the season last Sunday, rushing for 100 yards while the game was still competitive before losing one to finish with 99. He had two explosive runs and a touchdown, his third in the past four games after having just one in the first seven.
The running game has come alive in a big way during the second half of the season. While the inclination has been to credit RB Jaylen Warren, or even T Broderick Jones, Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals was a reminder not to take RB Najee Harris and what he does for granted.
The Steelers needed his hard, physical running during a day on which the Bengals seemed to have a better game plan against Warren than most of their recent opponents have. At the end of the day, they work best as a duo, but whoever is on top will vary with every game.
On Sunday in Cincinnati, it was Harris. He averaged 6.6 yards per carry on 15 rushing attempts for 99 yards. He actually hit the century mark following back-to-back chunk runs totaling 35 yards to close out the game. Then as the Steelers were closing out the finishing drive to make it a two-score game, he was hit for a one-yard loss.
Needless to say, there isn’t a huge difference on a practical level between a 14-carry, 100-yard game and a 15-carry, 99-yard game. You don’t want that one negative play, but it doesn’t detract from the work that was put in during the first 14.
And boy did he work. Not only does Harris lead the league in explosive runs, he surely also leads in hard-fought ones because he earns his chunk plays. On one of them, he dragged half the defense most of the way for just 20 yards. He also had a grind-out 22-yard run, now with seven yards of 20-plus yards—though none of 30-plus—on the season, tied with Raheem Mostert for the NFL lead.
Harris now has 598 rushing yards on the season, averaging 4.2 yards per attempt, with four touchdowns. The running game is now in its stride, so it will be interesting to see how much damage it can do in the final six weeks of the regular season…and into the postseason, beyond that.
