Pittsburgh Steelers RB Najee Harris is off to the best start of his career, but now it’s about finishing strong. He is not unfamiliar with strong finishes—in fact, that has been his pattern. The main difference this season is that he has, at least potentially, hit his stride sooner than normal. Either way, he has opened some eyes and impressed a lot of people.
“The running game is going. Najee Harris is where we thought he would be coming into it”, former Steelers QB Charlie Batch said on the DVE Morning Show. “He’s playing with a little fire underneath him because of his fifth-year option decline. He’s looking like the franchise back that everybody was hoping for. He’s playing for a contract”.
The Steelers drafted Najee Harris in the first round in 2021, but they opted not to exercise his fifth-year option. While they never said too much on the subject, some reports indicated that they wanted to see how he fit in Arthur Smith’s offense. If that is the case, then, the answer to that question appears to be “very well”.
Not only is Harris putting up good traditional numbers, he is also breaking tackles at a high rate and producing more successful runs. He is even breaking off more long runs, and longer long runs. Last season, he had eight explosive runs, but none longer than 25 yards. In eight games this season, he has six explosive runs, four longer than 25, including runs of 34 and 36 yards.
While he deserves considerable credit for his own success, even if he is reluctant to attribute any of that to dropping some weight this offseason, that does have to do with Arthur Smith, as well as the offensive line. The Steelers have made a lot of changes to their offense, and they appear to be hitting their stride now.
“This is all setting itself up”, Batch said of what Harris and the Steelers are doing offensively. “If they can now complement that defense in the manner that they’ve been doing so far, we should be expecting some good things here in the second half of the season”.
The Steelers hold a half-game lead in the AFC North race, but that battle is about to heat up. They play six divisional games in the next nine weeks, and all of their non-divisional games are tough assignments as well. While they have Russell Wilson at quarterback now, they will still have to lean on Najee Harris and the run game.
