With their first-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers selected Alabama running back Najee Harris. The future looked very bright for him after a productive rookie season.
Najee Harris got off to a great start, rushing for 1,200 yards with seven scores. He added 74 receptions for 467 yards and three more scores, looking like a dual-threat star for the franchise.
Leading the NFL with 381 touches as a rookie, Najee Harris earned a spot on the Pro Bowl team. Alas, some of the efficiency concerns that people had about his first-year performance have remained.
In three seasons in the NFL, Najee Harris has averaged a paltry 3.9 yards per carry. Some of that can be attributed to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ underwhelming play-calling and offensive line production.
It is also because of the emergence of undrafted running back, Jaylen Warren. The Oklahoma State product burst onto the scene in 2022 and has been steadily cutting into the work of Najee Harris.
Warren has seemingly taken over the passing down work, which is where Najee Harris was excelling early in his career. As a result, the first-round product has seen his percentage of snaps play drop significantly since his rookie season.
With an in-house option to replace him, the Pittsburgh Steelers opted to decline the fifth-year option on Najee Harris’s rookie contract. That, in part, makes the 2024 campaign a make-or-break one for him in the opinion of Alex Kay of Bleacher Report.
“Harris’ free agency value will depend on how he fares this coming season, which should feature Pittsburgh taking a much different offensive approach than it has in recent years. Russell Wilson is now under center, and the Steelers have a new offensive coordinator in Arthur Smith.
Harris is reportedly shedding pounds and fine-tuning his body to have a bounce-back year. We’ll soon see if he can return to Pro Bowl form and make himself a coveted option in the 2025 free-agent market,” Kay wrote.
Given how the running back market has played out in recent seasons, this could be Najee Harris’s only chance at cashing in on a multi-year contract. Hopefully, Arthur Smith can utilize him better than Matt Canada did.
Getting the Alabama product involved more in the passing game would make a lot of sense. Warren has looked like the more explosive option and should handle more of the early down work to get the run game going early.
