Player: RB Najee Harris
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: The Steelers are building their offense around the ground game in a style befitting Najee Harris. He lacks Derrick Henry’s burst, but offensive coordinator Arthur Smith is likely hoping to find some of the same success with Harris he had with Henry in Tennessee. On top of that, Harris benefits from Smith’s emphasis on blocking tight ends. He has Darnell Washington going into his second season, and they added MyCole Pruitt to help with the ground game.
While there’s still work do to, RB Najee Harris may be one of the biggest beneficiaries of this offseason. The Steelers are continuing to take steps that should cater to his success on the ground, in numerous ways.
The big-ticket item is obviously Arthur Smith, an offensive coordinator who always has a top-10 run game or better. He places an emphasis on blocking at the skill positions and preferences more heavy personnel. To that end, he brought with him one of his blocking tight ends, MyCole Pruitt.
Assuming he makes the roster, he should add a nice wrinkle alongside Darnell Washington. The latter, a 2023 third-round pick, could take a real step forward in Year 2 as well. Learning how to anchor at his height isn’t easy.
Harris now also has quarterbacks who excel in a play-action system, as does Smith. While you don’t necessarily need play-action to have a successful running game, it certainly helps. Going back well into Ben Roethlisberger’s tenure, the Steelers have shied away from play-action more than most teams do.
It doesn’t hurt that Najee Harris is coming off a season that ended on a high note. He capped another 1,000-yard rushing season by posting a season average above 4.0 for the first time. On top of that, he showed more explosiveness with a number of 20-yard runs. Some of his best games came late in the year, which gives them something to build off of.
With the addition of one or potentially two new offensive linemen in the starting lineup, things only get better for Harris and the running backs. Until the draft, this is still theoretical, but it’s hard to conceive them not adding at least one new starter.
As the season progresses, Steelers players’ stocks rise and fall. The nature of the evaluation differs with the time of year, with in-season considerations being more often short-term. Considerations in the offseason often have broader implications, particularly when players lose their jobs, or the team signs someone. This time of year is full of transactions, whether minor or major.
A bad game, a new contract, an injury, a promotion—any number of things affect a player’s value. Think of it as a stock on the market, based on speculation. You’ll feel better about a player after a good game, or worse after a bad one. Some stock updates are minor, while others are likely to be quite drastic, so bear in mind the degree. I’ll do my best to explain the nature of that in the reasoning section of each column.
