Over the last three weeks, Pittsburgh Steelers running back Najee Harris is playing some of the best football of his career.
In the last three games, Harris has eclipsed the 100-yard mark, putting up impressive performances against the Las Vegas Raiders (106 yards), New York Jets (102 yards) and the New York Giants (114 yards). He sits at 592 rushing yards on 136 carries, good for a career-best 4.4 yards per carry. In the last three weeks alone, Harris is averaging 6.1 yards on 54 carries.
He’s on a heater right now, period.
Harris has been fantastic and looks very fluid with his movements, bringing a real explosiveness to the Steelers’ run game.
Entering the Week 9 bye week, Harris finally cracked the top-15 running back rankings from former NFL running back Maurice Jones-Drew for NFL.com. Harris landed at No. 13 overall, just ahead of Carolina’s Chuba Hubbard and Washington’s Brian Robinson Jr.
“Harris punished the Giants defense all game long on Monday night to the tune of 114 yards on 19 attempts. He has come on real strong in the last three games (all Pittsburgh wins) and recorded at least 100 rush yards in each of those contests, tied for the longest active streak in the league,” Jones-Drew writes in the latest RB Index for NFL.com. “Harris is a big reason why the Steelers have the fourth-best rushing attack in the league right now.”
Harris is a huge part of why the Steelers’ rushing attack is rolling right now.
Of course, the offensive line — which has dealt with significant injuries and lineup changes seemingly every week — deserves a ton of credit. They are blocking well, moving defenders off the spot and opening up lanes. But Harris deserves a lot of credit for taking advantage of it, too.
It helps that quarterback Russell Wilson has helped lighten boxes with his ability to push the ball down the field, but since a tough showing against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 4 in which he struggled to produce much of anything in the run game as the offensive line had issues, leading to a great deal of criticism, Harris has been very good.
He looks much more decisive working downhill, brings a good deal of explosiveness to his cuts and is seeing the field well. That has allowed him to get to the second level consistently and make plays for the Steelers’ offense.
Entering Week 9, the Steelers are rushing for 138.1 yards per game. That is 8th-best in the NFL, not fourth like Jones-Drew writes. Still, a top-10 rushing attack is rather impressive for the Steelers, even while navigating with all the injuries they’ve dealt with in the trenches and behind Harris at running back with Jaylen Warren and Cordarrelle Patterson missing time.
That’s a testament to Harris’ talent and determination. He’s playing some very good football, and the arrow is clearly pointing up for No. 22.
