Over the last two seasons, the Pittsburgh Steelers have developed quite a two-headed monster in the backfield with Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren at running back.
The two complement each other perfectly, with Harris serving as the thunder between the tackles, while Warren is more of the lightning player, one who can rip off 70-yard touchdowns in the blink of an eye. Both represent the Steelers well, too, fitting the mold of a Steelers running back perfectly given their never-say-die mentality with the football in their hands.
Entering the 2024 season, expectations are high for both Harris and Warren in new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith’s run-heavy offense, especially behind a rebuilt offensive line. There are some concerns about being able to split the workload as evenly as possible to ensure that both are efficient running backs for the Steelers, but Smith isn’t all that concerned.
Speaking with reporters Tuesday during minicamp at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on the South Side, Smith said that there are “plenty of carries to go around” for Harris and Warren.
“Ultimately it’s a fine line. You have your beliefs, but you’re not so rigid. You’re trying to play to their strengths and enhance things year after year to try to get them an approval on. But both Najee and Jaylen have had a lot of success in this league,” Smith said, according to video via the Post-Gazette on YouTube. “And so, as they fit in there, you break it down, give or take 17-game season, you hope to have 1,100-plus plays. And if you’re balanced offense — nobody, even Derrick Henry, we didn’t ask him to carry the ball 550 times. So there’s plenty of carries to go around, whether that’s traditionally or non-traditionally.”
Smith has worked with some workhorses in the past, particularly Henry in Tennessee. The most carries Henry had in three seasons with Smith as offensive coordinator were the 378 he had in 2020, which led to Henry rushing for 2,027 yards and 17 touchdowns.
Needless to say, Warren or Harris won’t be seeing 378 carries, let alone touches, in 2024. With the two-headed monster, there would be no need to have that number of touches for one player.
Ideally, in a 1,100-play season offensively, which is what Smith says is what he hopes for, that could break down to roughly 550 runs and 550 pass attempts, if Smith wants to be truly balanced. Of course, it’s not going to break down that way and there will likely be more passing attempts than rushing attempts for the Steelers in 2024.
But there will still be plenty of carries to go around for both Harris and Warren, enough to keep both happy, engaged and fulfilled as running backs.
