Has Najee Harris played his last down of football with the Pittsburgh Steelers? He certainly seemed to wonder that after their loss to the Baltimore Ravens in the Wild Card Round. A pending free agent, he may well have, many believe, and not without reason. Ray Fittipaldo believes his head coach offered him a send-off during his year-end press conference.
“Yeah, I think so”, he said on 93.7 The Fan when asked if Najee Harris won’t be back with the Steelers. “Mike Tomlin threw a bouquet at him”.
While describing the ups and downs of the Steelers’ run game, Tomlin said of Harris that he “had an awesome four years here”. He added that Harris is a free agent and that they are in the beginning stages of re-assessing for 2025. “But, rest assured, we’ve had a good experience with him”, he concluded, praising his “ridiculous consistency”.
Najee Harris’ consistency was rooted primarily in two things: durability and volume. In his four-year Steelers career, he started all 68 games, recording 1,097 carries. He totaled 4,312 rushing yards at 3.9 yards per carry and 28 touchdowns. He also caught 180 passes for 1,149 yards and six touchdowns. He is the only NFL back to rush for 1,000-plus yards in each of the past four seasons. But the most he has had since his rookie season is 1,043, just getting there.
“I just fall back on, if they really wanted him on this football team, they would have picked up his option back in May”, Fittipaldo said of the Steelers’ interest in retaining Harris, though he left the door open. “I suppose if there’s not a lot of interest in Najee [Harris], then he could come back on a cheap deal. Less than $4-5 million.
“But [Harris will] have suitors, and I think there are people in that building who feel like Jaylen Warren is the better back anyway. So I think they’re just gonna roll with Jaylen. And this is supposed to be a pretty decent draft for running backs. So you pick one up in the middle rounds of the draft and you go from there”.
In potentially his final season with the Steelers, Najee Harris rushed for 1,043 yards on 263 carries with 6 touchdowns. He posted a career-low 43.7-percent success rate, though, even while having the most productive receiving season since his rookie year.
Jaylen Warren dealt with a lot of injuries this year but still played in 15 games. In all, he rushed for 511 yards with one touchdown, averaging 4.3 yards on 120 attempts. He also caught 38 passes for 310 yards but fumbled twice, now with seven in his career.
Najee Harris will be an unrestricted free agent after the Steelers chose not to exercise his option. However, Jaylen Warren will also be a restricted free agent. A simple second-round tender should be more than sufficient to retain him but throwing any money at the running back position makes it less desirable for the Steelers to re-sign Harris.
