Former Pittsburgh Steelers RB Najee Harris sustained a “superficial eye injury” during a fireworks display on the 4th of July. Still, he managed to avoid opening training camp on the Los Angeles Chargers’ PUP list, per the NFL transaction sheet.
His agent issued a statement last week and said Harris would be ready for the NFL season. He didn’t say anything about training camp, leaving some questions about the fifth-year RB’s availability. We will have to see if Harris has to sit out some of the early practices, but avoiding the PUP list is a good sign.
The Chargers begin their training camp this week, earlier than most teams, because they will play in the annual Hall of Fame game on August 1st.
Any missed time by Harris is an opportunity for first-round RB Omarion Hampton to impress the coaching staff and earn a greater share of carries. Harris signed a one-year deal with incentives, so he will no doubt want to capture as many carries as possible to maximize his current and future earnings.
While Harris counts as a compensatory free agent for the Steelers, his base salary is too low to matter at the moment. If he hit all of his incentives, it could potentially help the Steelers in a small way, but they are already projected to get the maximum possible of four compensatory picks in next year’s draft.
On the other hand, former Steelers WR Mike Williams will begin training camp on the PUP list. He was not listed with any injuries in his most recent game, the Steelers’ Wild Card loss to the Baltimore Ravens, but he did enter the 2024 season coming off a torn ACL, which seemed to slow him down all season. It’s unclear what the current injury is that he’s dealing with.
