Najee Harris Appreciation Thread

Najee is running downhill this year. His acceleration, and ability to hit the hole may be the best we've seen to start a season. I sure wish the Steelers would have picked up that option.

 

Seriously give this dude some love!!! He just watched Muth get his new contract after having his 5thyr declined. His entire career has been wrecked due to incompetent OC. Yet this man is balling every time he gets his chance. Najee is a true Steeler.

 

I have been on the Najee Harris support train the day he got drafted. Not his fault that it took the likes of both Omar Khan and Andy Weidl to actually give Najee this thing called a competent Offensive Line and this other thing called an competent Offensive Coordinator to maximize his skills. If anything, how Najee has survived this long without a serious injury is nothing short of spectacular; quite the rarity given how many total touches he has had.


This Offensive Line will continue to improve (health permitted) and Najee will continue to gain even more yards. A 100+ yard game is coming. The question is when?! Time will tell.

 

Harris plays his tail off. Every snap. He runs angry and wants to win. What more can you ask of a guy?

 

Najee is a gift to the Steelers and the FO is handling his services incredibly wrong. A consummate Pro that probably will want to play elsewhere once his rookie contract is up.

 

Yes I have to agree, last year I think he had an injury and was dancing more, but this year he has been excellent.

 

IMO Harris should’ve been extended. Maybe they get something done after the season?

 

Glad he's on the team and, I agree, he should be paid!
I wonder where all the people are who claim that RBs are unnecessary, dime a dozen, not worth high draft picks.

 

I’ll go ahead and admit that I said the dime a dozen statement on here before but I said it in a way that I think the FO was looking at it. Najee should have been given the next contract. He is a pretty special talent on and off the field.

 

He looks a lot faster this year than he did last year. I like it.

 

I have been firmly in the Najee is awesome camp since he joined. Just wanted him to stop trying to run to the outside in previous years. He lacked the speed for it. This year, I think he has it plus the O line is vastly better.

That said, I can understand the dime a dozen comment and it also applies to a lot of other positions. 'Good' players are a dime a dozen for many positions. However, really good / awesome / the best players are not a dime a dozen. I do not think that Najee is a dime a dozen RB. Neither is Warren (last year anyways, lacking the production so far this year to say the same). Najee is a beast. I really hope that he gets paid. He is definitely making his case that he has earned it.

3 cheers for Najee!

 

Najee has to be like damn the team wouldn't keep him for under 6 million in 2025, but turn around and give Freiermuth twice that much yearly in a contract extension.

 

I wonder if they are looking at Muth as a receiver? We also know that Arthur Smith has historically loved TEs. He is also a fan favorite.....MMMUUUTTTTHHHHHHH

From a receiver stand point, his career catch rate is 70%. The average for wide receivers in 2022 was 63% (first stat line I pulled up for WRs).

So getting a popular with the fans player who can catch the ball pretty well for 12 million a year? Probably looks good for a team without any good WR prospects. He is #9 for pay annually on the TE list. His pay would put him at #32 on the WR annual pay list.

 

It’s going to be hard for Najee to get a 100 yard game. We spread the carries out quite a bit (and reasonably so) and I just don’t see a 24-25 carry game that is probably needed to get him over the 100 yard mark. Arthur Smith loves to run it, but Harris splits the snap count with Warren very evenly (healthy Warren out-snapped Harris by 2) and Fields is going to cut into some of his carries too with designed runs. If there is a 100 yard game, I expect it to be in a cold miserable game sometime around week 17 or 18. Seems to be the most likely shot outside of a Warren injury.

Sadly, I think he’s just in the wrong era of football. He would’ve been a stud 25 years ago. Easy. But today’s game you need your RB to be a threat in the open field and be a mismatch in the passing game and Najee’s just 0 threat in either regard.

It is impressive that the guy who has touched the ball more than any non-QB in the league has found a way to stay healthy his whole career. On the flip side, Najee came into the league pretty old and will be 27 next season. I’m not sure how much he has left in the tank with all that toll on his body. Either way, I hope he continues to stay healthy the rest of the year while he’s still with us. We need that big body to soak up a few more carries before we let him test the market.

 

RB’s can be worth a high pick if they are an absolute stud. But it takes a Nick Chubb/Derrick Henry/CMC guy to be worth that…

RB’s are considered “dime a dozen” because there are more “good” RB’s than there are starting RB jobs in the league. The level of play you get from the 15th best back in the league is drastically lower than a top 5 back, but not much better than the 40th back. The drop off is just so little to justify a massive increase in pay. That is why there are so few backs that make 7 million or more a year. RB’s careers are short and volatile. Paying one that isn’t a top 5 player is really risky.

Look at SF right now…. CMC is objectively a great player, but he gets hurt and his back up comes in and lights it up. Plenty of teams have multiple “good” backs on their team (we are one of those teams). But the point is, we can let a good back walk and there will be other good backs to take his place. We can extend a “great” back, but Najee isn’t a “great” back. Just a good one. We will find another good back. The league is full of them.

 

The only reason I could see for not extending Harris was that for some reason they didn’t want to give him that much guaranteed money

But if they extend Jim his signing bonus will be as much

So this is a head scratcher

There may/must have been some behind the scenes discussions

 

Assuming he puts together a season on even a comparable level to 2023, he is going to be expensive after the season. Regardless of whether he signs elsewhere or with the Steelers, if Harris gets through the season healthy, the decision not to pick up his option will be costly.

 

Extending him never made sense, but picking up the fifth-year option did. Control him for that fifth season, then let some other team overpay for his decline.

 

Correct

As soon as I Posted I realized extended was not what I meant but 5th year

 

I agree about the 5th year option. But I don't hate them not extending him when you got Jaylen playing the way he has. Hard to pay them both.

Steelers do have money to spend next season so who knows what will happen...

 

he did not want a 5th yr. nor an extension, if you read some reports. I am not sure if he does not want the Steelers long term OR if they don't want him long term.......or BOTH

 

i agree.

 

The truth or facts are in there somewhere

 

maybe, but I doubt it.

IF he has a great year, he will ask for high dollar (see Sequan) and prolly get some big number