The Pittsburgh Steelers seem to have a very good chance of making the playoffs for the second year in a row.
They have upgraded at quarterback, as the disappointing Kenny Pickett is out and has been replaced by future Hall of Famer Russell Wilson. Behind Wilson is Justin Fields, who struggled in his first three NFL seasons with the Chicago Bears but still has a decent number of believers.
Yet the Steelers still have their share of roster questions, especially past this coming season.
Running back Najee Harris has been reasonably productive in his three pro seasons, but it is unclear how committed they are to keeping him around long-term. Some feel Jaylen Warren, Pittsburgh’s RB2, is a more potent prospect, partly due to his significantly higher yards-per-carry average.
Harris is going into the final year of his rookie contract. Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus said on the “Game On!” podcast that the Steelers should let Harris leave as a free agent next offseason and draft a replacement.
“I still think that the smart move would be to let him go, get the money somewhere else,” Monson told host John Ellis. “And take another swing but instead of the first round, grab a guy in the third round and achieve a very similar thing.”
Najee Harris may not be a long-term answer in Pittsburgh
Harris was the No. 24 overall pick in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft. While he has gone over the 1,00-yard rushing mark in each of his three seasons and went as high as 1,200 yards as a rookie, he has averaged an anemic 3.9 yards per carry for his career so far. That isn’t quite the efficiency one should expect from a running back taken in the first round.
While back in the day, teams would take promising running backs that early in the draft, that thinking has changed. Players who play that position are valued far less than they were a couple of decades ago, and now the thinking is that unless someone is truly special, they’re replaceable as a running back and should be able to post at least 800-900 rushing yards a season if his team’s offensive line is strong.
Pittsburgh’s offensive line may not be great, but it isn’t bad either, and it has improved.
Monson’s reasoning is that if a running back can only put up big numbers behind a strong offensive line, he isn’t worth committing big bucks to.
“Unless you find the guy that is truly transcendent,” Monson said. “That breaks the rules and can completely overcome whatever the situation is around him, then it doesn’t make sense to pay big money to a guy who is a slave to the environment around him. A slave to the blocking, a slave to the scheme. Najee Harris was drafted in the first round to effectively fix the running game by himself… behind a poor offensive line, Najee Harris couldn’t do that.”
Najee Harris has been decent or solid, but he isn’t Christian McCaffrey, Nick Chubb, Derrick Henry or Jonathan Taylor. Even though the running back market has crashed recently, Pittsburgh shouldn’t pay a significant amount of money to someone like him who has trouble averaging over four yards per carry.
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