The Pittsburgh Steelers declined Najee Harris’ fifth-year option back in May. He won’t see another May in the Black and Gold, Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette believes. While the Steelers left open the possibility of an extension for Harris this fall, Fittipaldo doesn’t see it happening.
He hopped on 93.7 The Fan recently with Joe Starkey for his usual wide-ranging Steelers interview spot, touching on Harris. During a rapid-fire question-and-answer prediction session, he said both that Harris won’t sign an extension and that he is in his last year with the team.
That’s hardly surprising for a player once a team passes on your fifth-year option. Nor is it the first time Fittipaldo has said as much, in truth. But there are exceptions, among them very recent ones and ones close to the team. The Steelers re-signed Terrell Edmunds on a one-year contract in 2022, for example, after passing on his option. Then again, he is the only player they have re-signed so far after passing. Look at Jarvis Jones, Artie Burns, and Devin Bush. All of them left after their rookie contract expired without the fifth-year option. Harris is the latest, though also inarguably the best of this group.
A first-round pick in 2021 out of Alabama, Najee Harris has the distinction of rattling off three consecutive 1,000-yard seasons. No other NFL runner has done that over the past three years, and it has become a rare phenomenon generally. Only guys like Nick Chubb and Derrick Henry are pulling off such feats in this passing era.
Still, that minor acknowledgement only takes you so far. Harris still averages, 3.9 yards per rush with a 47-2-percent run success rate. On top of that, the Steelers already have another talented running back in Jaylen Warren. Warren will be a restricted free agent in 2025, and that will be more expensive than you might think.
They are bound to tag Warren at the second-round level since he is a former undrafted player, and the second-round tender projects to around $5 million. That’s not much cheaper than Najee Harris’ roughly $6.7 million fifth-year option.
The argument for extending Harris is simple enough: the Steelers are building a run-first offense, and you need two backs. Harris and Warren work great as a tandem, and one can argue that Warren isn’t a bell-cow back.
At the same time, you can also make the argument that you can cheaply replace Harris as the second runner with Warren as the top back getting about 250 touches per season through carries and receptions. You definitely don’t need to play somebody $5 million per season or more for that.
Personally, I don’t know that I agree with Fittipaldo’s speculation—or more accurately, I don’t think the Steelers know. I think they want to see how this year plays out between Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren before making decisions. The chickens come home to roost either way in 2025, and they’ll have to decide who to pay. And they want to see how it works under Arthur Smith and a new offensive line before chucking money around.
