One of the bigger surprises involving the Pittsburgh Steelers last season was that RB Najee Harris was not named a team captain. Harris was voted a captain in his second season, but last season, Kenny Pickett took on the title for the offense as captain. Appearing on The PM Team on 93.7 The Fan yesterday, The Athletic’s Mark Kaboly believes that the Steelers tried to push Harris into a leadership position too early and they shouldn’t have pulled back on that decision last year.
“I think they might have thrown him into that leadership [position] a little bit earlier than he was ready for, and it wasn’t good for them to pull back on that last year. They portrayed him as that guy moving forward after his rookie season, and all of a sudden, that did not really pan out last year, of course, when Kenny Pickett was there.”
Harris was thrust into a leadership role as a young player, and Mike Tomlin discussed the significance of being voted captain so early in his career at the time. Last season, with Pickett entering his second season, he took over the role, something Harris said he had “no issue” with at the time.
It was an interesting decision not to have Najee Harris be a captain or even a co-captain as he was with Mitch Trubisky in 2022, but the team clearly felt Pickett was ready for a bigger role and maybe didn’t feel the need to have Harris also in that captaincy role. I think Kaboly’s point is probably valid. Harris was put into the captain role as a leader earlier than he was likely comfortable with, and then the team rolling it back was a decision that caused some problems for them.
It’s hard to take on a leadership role as a young player in a room full of established veterans, and the Steelers really tried to make Harris one of their leaders in just his second season. While we don’t have much of an idea of how he handled his captaincy or showed off his leadership ability, he seemed and still seems to be a well-liked guy among his teammates, even if he’s a little bit surly with the media, something Kaboly acknowledged.
“You just don’t know him very well. Not too many people know him very well, so it’s very hard for me to speak intelligently on a guy that you don’t really know or talk to,” Kaboly said.
With Najee Harris’ fifth-year option declined, this could be his last season in Pittsburgh. We’ll see if he takes on more of a leadership role this season.
