The Pittsburgh Steelers rushing attack has not been as good as advertised this season, but that could change soon. As the weather gets colder, running the football becomes much more important, and luckily for Pittsburgh, RB Najee Harris thrives in the back half of the year.
Harris is a big running back who grinds away at teams. As players start dealing with more and more bumps and bruises as the season continues, and teams grow tired from the long season, Harris just gets better and inflicts more damage.
In fact, Harris’ numbers are night and day from the first eight games of the season compared to the last nine. Throughout Harris’ career, he averages a poor 3.59 yards per carry in the first eight games of the season, but in the final nine, his numbers jump to 4.15 yards per carry. Additionally, Harris also scores more rushing touchdowns in the back half, nine (without counting this year) compared to seven in the first eight games (including this season).
While one can argue that maybe the numbers are skewed by the Lisfranc injury Harris had at the beginning of the season last year, the stats are similar when isolating just 2021 when Harris was healthy throughout the season. In 2021, he averaged 3.61 yards per carry in the first eight games compared to 4.20 in the back half of the year as the Steelers scratched and clawed their way to the playoffs, in big part due to Harris’ rushing ability.
With this trend of Harris improving as the year goes on it would not be rash to predict the same happens the year. The Steelers want to run the ball. In last week’s win over the Tennessee Titans, they took a big step in the right direction, rushing for 166 yards as Harris pitched in 69 of them and ran for a score.
Both Harris and Jaylen Warren have shown to be effective running backs, and while Warren had a better game last week than Harris, it is clear that Harris is the number one running back on the team as he is out-carrying Warren 100 to 56. Harris is a durable back who does better with more workload, and as the weather gets cold and defenses wear down, it would make sense that he continues to see a bunch of carries.
Another reason Harris is poised for a strong back half of the season is that the Steelers aren’t playing many stout run defenses in their final nine games. In their final nine games, Pittsburgh will be playing six games against teams who are in the bottom 12 of the league in run defense (Cincinnati Bengals x2, Arizona Cardinals, Green Bay Packers, Indianapolis Colts, and Seattle Seahawks).
To win in the NFL you have to run the football, and the Steelers have one of the better power running backs in the league. Yes, Harris has his faults, but when defenses are worn down by the slog of a long season, he always plays his best ball and helps the Steelers be competitive.
