Najees Market Set

I hope

we will see

 

Has he lost some weight? Wondering if this will change his explosion ability. If it does, then he stands a chance at a big year. His lack of explosion is definitely a huge reason for his struggles to gain yardage so far in his career.

Gonna need to see some big games for him in 2024. For as many carries as he's gotten in his career, he's only had 6 100 yard rushing games in his 53 starts.... and prior to the last two regular season games of 2023 had only 1 in his previous 34 games. He's going to have to have a big year if he wants to get paid like he thinks he should.

 

he said formerly that he dropped 10 lbs.. hopefully quicker.

 

If he didn't have to share carries the last two seasons, he would probably have more 100 yard games.

 

I like Najee. I just don't see how he's a Steeler next year. I think he should have probably just got the 5th year option here, but is there a contract hold out etc etc? Working on an extension for Warren makes sense imo.

I wish the best for Najee though hope he makes bank somewhere else I think he's a solid person not just player.

 

Still not 100% sold on Warren being a No. 1 RB. Hope I’m wrong

 

LoL. I Love that movie.

 

Najee is after this year. If he doesn’t do well or just average in this offense why would we want him back. If he does well we won’t be willing to spend the money and he will test free agency. Either way its obvious we will be drafting a RB in top three rounds next year probably after DT and WR.

 

The Steelers could've had Najee signed for less than 7 million in 2025, that would be dumb to use another pick in the top three rounds on an RB.

 

He had the 6th most carries in the league in 2023, the 5th most in the league in 2022, and 2nd most in 2021... how many more carries does he need? Warren's taken carries from him because he's earned it. Najee has gotten the ball less every year in the league. We will be committed to running the rock in 2024, so it will be interesting to see what the spread of carries will be.

 

Why? If we find someone in round 2 or 3 that is a quality player, then we save a ton of money at the position. Keanu Benton was pick 49 and will get 7.3 million bucks over 4 years, DeMarvin Leal was pick 84 and will get 5.1 million over 4 years. We would be paying Najee 7 million for 1 year.

If we find a guy in rounds 2-3 that could give us 4 ypc and about 10-12 carries at that cost, it would be huge for us. We'd pretty much exactly replace Najee's production, we'd be able to split carries a bit more evenly (and give Warren a bit more workload), and do it at a quarter of the cost.... seems like a fine thing to shoot for to me.

 

They could have but they obviously aren’t convinced that he is the long term answer. I am assuming that 7 million will go to extending Jaylen Warren. Next year in the draft they will probably go DT, WR and CB as their top 3 needs but one of them will probably be filled in free agency so I could definitely see a third rounder being spent on a rb as that will be the fourth position of need next year. All of this is assuming we resign one of the QB’s.

 

The other thing is the Steelers are committed to the wide zone run. They tried it the last two years and we couldn’t block it right and Najee wasn’t fast enough to hit the hole. So we had to go to a gap scheme run game which Najee did much better in. Apparently Smith builds his offenses around the wide zone run game. I am sure we will do some gap blocking and double teams etc. but I think they want to see how Najee does in this scheme under Smith with a better Center and tackle mixed in. Najee lacks explosiveness and speed. That limits what you can do with him. He produces very little Yac in passing situations because he try’s to dance to much in the open field instead of just running over people. He lacks that start stop quickness and lateral agility. In fact when he catches the ball at a stand still he has very little explosion to get started to even create yac it is more of a push power like a lineman would have, so he doesn’t go down but he doesn’t really create extra yardage and the initial tackler just holds him there until additional tacklers show up to gang tackle him.

There is a place for Najee and he is highly durable but I just don’t know moving forward if that place will be in Pittsburgh with our new style of offense. Hopefully it works out for him and he thrives. The strange thing in all of this is the wide zone scheme is exactly what he ran in at Alabama and he thrived in it there but for some reason it hasn’t been the same in the pros, perhaps it is the speed of the game here.

If he doesn’t do well in it here it will make us much more predictable from a blocking scheme when he is in because other teams know he is going to pretty much only run between the tackles and it will be power gap scheme only. I believe Najee was told or certainly understands that he needs to get faster and more explosive and this is why you have seen him come to OTA’s this year thinner. Just being big and strong doesn’t get you the YAC its the speed to power that creates explosion which is what breaks tackles.

 

Najee is a known commodity, using high draft picks on another RB makes no sense when they need to fill other positions. You could end up with RBs like Snell or McFarland.

 

Yes, known commodity is a plus... but you also don't want to misuse assets by overpaying a player because you're scared you cant pick someone as good. Najee is a fine enough player, but he is far from replaceable. Also, both Snell and McFarland were 4th round picks. Nobody is saying to replace Najee with a day 3 pick. Second or third round is just fine, and there are a lot of quality backs to be had in that range. Sure, we could get it wrong, but its not like we're replacing Bell here.

RB just isn't a position to spend money on unless the player is truly special.... I'm talking Nick Chubb, Christian McCaffrey, Derrick Henry type special. Najee just isn't anywhere close to those guys. We will do just fine replacing him, I'm sure.

 

I agree with the first paragraph. Harris is limited by explosiveness. He has great power once he has his head of steam moving forward, but he has virtually no power behind the LOS. He's also displayed some poor runner's vision in his time in the league as well. Holes are smaller and aren't generally open as long in the league. His inability to get to the line quick enough to squeeze through smaller holes has limited him some as well.

Najee isn't a total scrub. People think I hate him or something because I don't like his fit with the team (and consequently like the fit of the player that splits time with him). I'd love to see Najee succeed. He seems like a great guy and he is a solid player. I just don't want to see us use resources extending him when I think his production could be easily had at a fraction of the price. This just isn't a "line up under center and hand your lead back the ball 22-25 times a game" league anymore. The teams that still do this see very limited success. Nick Chubb and Derrick Henry are exceptions, though neither of them have seen post season success and both of them are exceptionally better than Harris.

Najee's lack of success in the same scheme he ran to success in college is mostly just due to level of competition. College defenses are WAY behind the offenses nowadays, and a team like Alabama is able to just run through opponents that are simply overmatched. Najee was a part of two national championship teams and saw pretty much the entirety of the most dominant era Alabama has seen in its history. It worked perfectly to his strengths. The holes were so big he couldn't miss them, and he was rarely touched before the LOS. This simply never happens in the league, as even some of the worst teams are just barely overmatched by the leagues elite (and mostly due to the QB position at that). This is why Najee will likely hover in that 3.9-4.1 YPC zone for the entirety of his career. He isn't explosive enough for house calls (his 4.45 pro day 40 suggests he is "fast" enough, he just isn't capable of getting himself into the open field to hit that stride), and his lack of explosion and vision will contribute to long stretches of getting walled off for nothing in between runs that hit their mark.

I'm hoping the weight loss gives Najee the extra "oomph" he needs to up his game. Its something he's needed to do for a couple years now. Maybe it will work, maybe it doesn't... but I think it is worth a shot for him. If it ends up working out it will make a huge difference for him financially.

 

maybe.

maybe not.

he would have more wear and tear too on that body. Jaylen lit a fire under his slow tail.

 

this is very wrong. Najee is nothing special. Good, FAR from great. No JB36, no where CLOSE. you will see. Not explosive (quick or fast), not powerful (does not use his size to his advantage)

Khan knows this.

and now he is older, with lots of wear and tear.

 

I know running back careers are short, but he's 26 and just going into his fourth year in the league. This older stuff is just silly.

 

I hope Najee breaks out big time this season. Makes all of this speculation silly talk.

 

It's already silly.....people are making it seem like a sure thing about a rb they have seen run the ball at total of 226 times in two years.....We have Qbs in the league that have way more carries in that time.....Yet they just know He can do it. LoL. Silly doesn't even cover it.
Again I Love Warren, but I know what I have in one, and the other is just guess work, and right now behind those two is nothing, but hopes, and prayers......, but Hey.....let's get rid of the the only RB we know for sure about......I also laugh at the He has no speed, and explosion, and in the same sentence bring up L Bell. LoL
It will be like Canada, and Trubisky.....all the people that say this now....will act like they never said it, and get mad if You bring it up.

 

we all HOPE to be here to talk about it in the future.

for 2024 - I hope he is HOF status!!!!

 

His workload since 2017 (including college) is definitely more worrisome than his current age. He's touched the ball 1,724 times since 2017 and 1,004 times the past 3 seasons. That is quite alot. Guys with his size/explosion profile don't tend to last much past 28. We wouldn't have to deal with that this year, but it is approaching quicker than it seems based on age alone.