The Steelers have neither Najee Harris nor Jaylen Warren under contract for 2025, though their circumstances are different. Harris is an unrestricted free agent, while Warren is a restricted free agent. That means the Steelers exercise greater control over Warren’s rights, but they could work out a new deal with either back before the start of free agency.
The prevailing view is that the Steelers will retain Warren and move on from Harris, their 2021 first-round pick. While Harris was a serviceable workhorse back, the time has come to commit money. The discrepancy between him and Warren isn’t so great. Indeed, some feel the Steelers may view Warren as the better back anyway.
“His time is 2025. This is his chance to go out and shine”, Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said of Jaylen Warren on the North Shore Drive podcast. “I think you go out and get a guy who’s his 1B, a guy like [Devin] Neal. I had Neal going in the fourth round in my mock draft a week or so ago”.
Devin Neal has a good size-speed ratio, which doesn’t really fit the Steelers’ running back profile. While Jaylen Warren has a little more giddyap than Najee Harris, both are relative plodders compared to many other backs.
While Neal has some power and speed, he does not excel in either. He is more balanced than anyone the Steelers currently have, though, with Harris and even Warren more power backs.
“I think he’d be a perfect fit” as the 1B to Jaylen Warren, Fittipaldo said of Neal. “Get that guy who has a little bit more juice than Najee [Harris]. What Najee did was great. He could get you three, four, five, six yards, but he wasn’t that guy who was gonna hit the big play for you”.
Whether it’s Neal or someone else, Fittipaldo said, “I think you need a guy who can get those chunk plays, and there are plenty of those in this draft who can do that”. Many thought Warren might be that guy after a 74-yard touchdown run in 2023. He didn’t show anything like that for the Steelers in 2024, though injuries could have been a factor.
A former college free agent, Jaylen Warren has 1,674 career rushing yards on 346 attempts. He averages 4.8 yards per carry and has six rushing touchdowns, though just one last season. The Steelers use him as their primary third-down back. While he has no receiving touchdowns, he has 127 career receptions for 894 yards. In all, he has 2,568 yards from scrimmage and six touchdowns.
As a restricted free agent who went undrafted, the Steelers would not gain any draft picks should another team sign Warren to an offer sheet if they place the lowest tender on him. Projections have the low tender at $3,185,000, but the second-round tender jumps up to $5,217,000. For argument’s sake, there is a first-round tender worth $7,279,000. But there probably isn’t a team willing to give up a first-round pick for Warren that will pay him handsomely.
