Najee Harris!

The OL has played well for Ben lately, despite him drawing 13 defenders into the box because of his immobility and lack of downfield accuracy.

Comparing Ben to Mahomes because they've both had bad games this year is one of your more spectacularly ridiculous Ben stan takes. Well done.

 

Yeah our O- line is awesome...this is just like Your other spectacular views throughout the season. LoL. You my friend are spot on ...NOT.....again I can tell the Haters automatically...I'm not comparing the Qbs...I'm comparing newly rebuilt O-Lines, and How Qbs No matter their Arm strength, or Speed are dependent on them.
Come on where are Your Charts , and PFF dogma?

 

Well I see you made a post without using a number in place of a word. Now if we can just work on the excessive use of periods……
LOL

 

Never ....It's 1 ,or the other...Maybe both. LoL

 

Never said that, but it's gotten better at pass pro and run blocking, Ben just can't take advantage because of his limitations.

 

He can do it all.

 

Maybe we should sign more RBs to block as these linemen aren’t cutting it

 

This is not going to be very popular...

 

Considering that the initial contact is a wall of D linemen, I’d say Harris is doing well with what he’s given. The only question I have is why does Canada insist on running up the middle knowing that our OL gets no initial push

 

I've said before, I like the kid, but 1st rd? No way.

My reason, as I've stated before, is that value for 1st RD RB's is hard to come by. They better be special. Specific to Harris though is elite athleticism, or lack of it.

We have a first rd RB with 200 carries already this season, and his longest run is 20 yards. Twenty god d**n yards! Ben, has a run of over 20 yards!

BEN!! A fat old man that can barely move!

I asked in preseason, what was more likely, Najee getting like 1200 or 1300 yards rushing his rookie year, or breaking one 50 yard run. Instinctively, I believe everyone took the yardage, because short of the other team only sending out one guy for a play, everyone knew that it's almost impossible for him to break a 50 yard run in the NFL. Again, not my dream scenario for a first rd pick at RB.

You can try to defend it somehow. Probably something about how they needed a 240 lbs RB for durability or some crap, but that's crap. It was an overreaction.

And again, there are plenty of other players, OL and CB's, that are starting and playing well that were taken shortly after Harris. That excuse is softer than Liberace at the playboy mansion.

 

You don't know what the heck you're talking about, Mason has a 20 yard run not Ben, those of us who watched Najee in college knew he isn't going to break a 50 yard run. There was no value in taking OL at #24.

 

Imma call Tyrod Taylor next year starter

 

So, our only options were a slow RB then? That's what you're telling me? They didn't need help anywhere else? That's what you're saying? Seriously, is that what you're saying?

So, the ONLY choice that had ANY merit WHATSOEVER was a 2nd round RB in the 1st? That's your position?

And, as I stated there were other guys. It didn't have to be OL or Harris. Although, even if it was, there are guys that were on a lot peoples radars, that weren't taken that much later, who are starting and doing well. Landon Dickerson, Sam Cosmi, Liam Eichenberg. (Unfortunately Jenkins got hurt)

Not to mention Greg Newsome and Eric Stokes. But what could they possibly need a CB for? We have the best Corners in the league.

JOK is another that I know a few were hoping for. I know they are rock solid at the ILB position though, right? Yes? I'm correct there, yes?

And Christian Barmore couldn't have possibly helped either, right? No, we didn't need a young stud NT.

Keep on making that same tired pitch man, I'm buying it every time.

 

Harris was rated as a first round player, none of those OL you named was worthy of being the #24 pick, and you're forgetting Art ll told them to fix the running game so taking a CB in the first round wasn't going to happen.

 

You're assuming that none of those guys were "worthy" of being picked at #24. If all those guys are successful starters halfway through their rookie years, I'd say they were probably worthy of a late 1st rd pick. This year in particular, I din't see much difference in quality between #20 and #40.

And your right, such a big deal was made about having to fix the run game, they overreacted and took Harris IMO. The idea that nobody else was being considered because of the "fix the run game" mandate, is a problem. If Harris was gone it probably would've been Etienne. If he was gone too, it would've been Williams. It was an Artie Burns situation. And no, I'm not comparing Harris to Burns.

And if you knew that he wasn't the kind of athlete that at least had the potential to break off long runs, then why in the hell would you want to use a 1st rd pick on a guy like that? Those kind of guys can be found later. That's like taking a possession WR in the 1st. You don't that, period. But, especially if Waddle is still on the board.I know it's a stretch but, I believe Etienne is very similar in explosiveness and game breaking ability. I love Etienne, but I didn't want him in the 1st either. But, given his explosiveness, at least it would've made sense.

 

At this moment, Ben is to Mahomes as William Shatner is to Lawrence Olivier

 

That post needs more question marks.

I think the general strategy they used with Harris was leveraging the depth of OL talent in the draft to take who they likely had ranked as the best overall RB when he got to them in the first. (They also seemed to place far too much confidence in the health and/or depth they had in other areas of the team.) I don't think anybody thought Harris alone was going to fix the running game, but he checks a lot of boxes they look for at the position, with the size and power to help with an o-line that wasn't going to be fixed in a single offseason.

So they basically tried to address an area ownership said must improve while leaning more immediate-impact than ground-up in approach for sake of remaining as competitive as they could this season. Considering the ages of some of their key players, holes in the roster, and talent of the depth players, it was a low percentage play, and open to criticism. But in the end, they could re-draft with some of the names above and the overall talent level would be about the same - you'd just be shuffling the holes to different spots on the roster.

In the end, returning the team to a true contender level is going to take some savvy draft and free agent decisions over the next couple of years. You can argue that the first round pick spent on RB is misspent value, and I get the stance. But in terms of value proposition I'm equally concerned that the players selected stick and serve a contributing role. Bush is extremely concerning right now with the capital invested. Edmunds was a terrible reach - the three picks after him, Washington, Rudolph, and Chuks, have brought very little (Chuks possibly has upside, but IMO it's waning). Back to 2019 and you've got some possible backups from the back half of the draft in Gentry, Buggs, and UGIII, but at the top it's Bush, Johnson, Layne, and Snell.

You can take some value risks with moves like Edmunds, Bush, and Harris, but in order to keep it on the level you need to a) make sure they're going to serve a productive role, and b) comp back some value with your mid- to late-round picks. Missing on Edmunds and Bush while failing to mine significant late-round talent would deal a pretty serious blow to their draft value over the past four years.

 

bUT tHeY wErE SEcoNd RoUNd pIckS

That's the argument I always here. Well you know what, they're all playing like top half of the first round picks, so if the Steelers would have drafted one at 1.24, like they should have, Colbert would have been called a genius for getting such a steal.

 

Come again? Bell had clearly lost a step by 2017 and was never the best back in the league.

 

Exactly. A bunch of us wanted different picks. I wanted 2 different CBs, but that's not what happened. N. Harris is a great back. They didn't see the draft the way we did. They run the show ...not us. Hell they couldn't listen 2 Me because I would draft a Defensive player in the 1st two rounds every year. LoL.

 

Bell never had the speed N. Harris has. Never, and this is not taking a shot at Bell.

 

And with some the complete lack of knowledge appears not limited to the draft.

 

I think the next OL drafted was 14 spots after Najee, the Raiders reached for an OL in the first round, he was bad at LT they had to move him guard. If you can get the top rated RB at #24 that's good value, even if he's not explosive, he's a three down back helps in pass pro and can catch passes.