The Pittsburgh Steelers want to establish themselves as a running team with Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren. During the 2024 season, they managed to achieve the volume but not the production. Despite having the fourth-most rushing attempts, they finished outside the top 10 in yards. What’s more, they finished outside the top half in rushing touchdowns, and in the bottom quartile in yards per attempts.
Both of the Steelers’ top runners are free agents, with Najee Harris unrestricted. While Warren is only a restricted free agent, that still means money. To tag him with no compensation option, it will cost over $3 million. If they want some draft pick compensation protection, it will cost over $5 million. With a deep running back draft class coming up, what are the Steelers to do?
“I don’t think you want to limit yourself because you signed Najee Harris”, Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said of the Steelers’ plans for the position on the North Shore Drive podcast on Wednesday.
Harris is expected to be one of the top veteran running backs available but in a somewhat unremarkable group. For players like him, the incoming rookies could work to keep his price tag down. Rather than knock off the price, though, Harris may sacrifice contract length to remain with the Steelers. They could always use void years if they don’t want to take the full cap hit now.
But the Najee Harris the Steelers would sign in 2025 is the same player they have seen for the past four, Fittipaldo insists. “It’s not gonna get any better. He is who he is. He’s a between-the-tackles runner, he’s not very effective on those pitches, doesn’t break big plays”. Still, he isn’t opposed to bringing him back on a modest contract.
“But that wouldn’t stop me from drafting a running back in the second, third, or fourth round”, he continued “And I don’t think you have to do it on Day 2. I think you can get a starting-caliber running back to go with Jaylen Warren, maybe third round, but probably fourth or fifth round, too. This is a loaded class.
“If you’re a GM with this draft class and you have one to take in the middle rounds, I’m taking him. I don’t care if I sign Najee Harris or not”. Will Mike Tomlin and the Steelers follow that strategy, re-signing Harris but remaining open to all other options?
One thing to consider is that restricted free agent tenders are not guaranteed. If the Steelers re-signed Najee Harris and then, say, drafted a first-round running back, they could get out of a Jaylen Warren deal. That’s what the Steelers did with Jonathan Dwyer back in 2013, releasing him on a restricted tender before the season. But if it were to come down to Warren and Harris, it seems what Fittipaldo is leaving unsaid is they may want to avoid signing Harris and hitching themselves to his wagon—and his contract.
