Running Najee's wheels off?

"Najee Harris continued to pile up the touches against the Chiefs, carrying the ball 19 times and catching five passes. His 335 touches lead the NFL and are two more than Indianapolis Colts workhorse running back Jonathan Taylor, who also happens to lead the league with 1,626 rushing yards."

Najee leads the NFL in touches, and takes a lot of big hits.

He is going to get a 1000 yards next game, but his average is only 3.7 ypc (which is 42nd best in the NFL). Any concerns that they are running his wheels off and will lead to a prematurely shortened career?

NFL RBs only average 2-3 years at their prime in any event, but Najee may be shaving an extra year off his career.

 

it's the Tomlin way, if you will....

 

Mendenhall, Bell: Get in line.

Under Tomlin even when the Steelers had good backups like D Will they still ran one feature back.

Cowher used multiple RBs whenever possible like Foster/Morris, Bettis/Parker etc. Although Cowher still used Bettis like Tomlin uses his RB when they're on that upper tier and there wasn't another comparable back.

 

Tomlin is not good, don't know how else to say it.

He finally will get CANNED when Ben is gone, who bailed him out all of his career.

that said - see the Blount disaster as well. Bell should have played 70%, Blount 30 - but MT could not help himself..

 

You can always tell when a running back is running out of juice. Combining a suspect line, heavy workload and being a rookie, I'd said Najee has hit the proverbial wall. 335 touches 15 games in is a lot. 49 receptions is a lot for a running back. He has been worn a little.

 

Jerome Bettis and John Riggins were born from granite. The amount of abuse they unleashed and hits they took for the amount of years they played and to see Jerome, what looks like from my perspective, zero visible effects is godly. I look at Jerome and he hasn't aged an ounce at all. Hair still looks great. It's amazing how great ones genetics can be to play professional football.

 

I stated at the beginning of the season we should shelf Harris to an extent , no need to beat and bang him up for a season that was going nowhere .Tomlin should wise up and get a good #2 RB and stop this 1 back does all the work crap..

 

You are so right, Tomlin at one time even said he will run the running back until the wheels fall off. Such a dumb statement for a coach to say.

 

And yet people on this board keep repeating it

 

Would you rather play Snell, or Ballage?

 

I just want them to put a fullback in front of him. Is that asking too much? Get rid of Derek Watt is that's not the case. 1.2 yard contact average. How bout a different strategy?

 

i believe he was talking about willie parker. he was true to his word he did indeed run the wheels off of willie. willie had super low mileage on him coming out of college. only 285 carries in 4 years. tomlin abused him in 06-07 remember he broke his leg in 07. then he had a knee injury in 08 and turf toe in 09

 

There are plenty of reasons to bash Tomlin. This....is not one of them.

 

Just Benny stirring the pot.

 

Better one yet was DeAngelo Williams...He was LEADING the League in rushing after the 1st 3 games when Bell was suspended one year...

When Bell came back, Williams hardly played ( who does that? Only idiot Tomlin that's who ) so he ran Bell into the ground, he ultimately got hurt ...and limped into the playoffs in what was probably our best team , and got beat...


ANOTHER genius move by the great Popcorn! NOBODY is smarter than him!

 

That absolutely made my blood boil the entire season. Could not understand why DeAngelo continued to ride the pine when he was tearing it up early in the season. Tomlins so smart he probably splits 10's at a Blackjack table.

 

I would like to see a good change of pace back with some speed. Problem is anyone of those will be nailed for 3 yard loss with our blocking this year.

I think the hope McFarland could of been that guy, but he can't seem to find a way to stay healthy and find the football field.

 

Anyone remember the 2nd guys behind Jim Brown, OJ, Marshall Faulk, Emmitt Smith, Barry Sanders, LaDanian Tomlinson.........?
They all seem to still have wheels

 

A bit of a different game back then DL where way slower lb's much slower DB'S smaller and slower for the most part .. The point is RB'S take much more abuse now because of the speed of the game and the size of the players as a whole, plus add in the lack of practice to help condition for that abuse it just seems dumb to me to expect 1 RB to take all that abuse and have a long career ..

 

The entire league has had to revamp the rules on defense to protect guys. Any workhorse RB nowadays most likely has a 3/4 year shelf life of top line production.

 

Not sticking up for anyone, but DeAngelo got injured. He didn't do that on the bench.

 

You're right but it wasn't a season ending injury. He was available and suited up for several games where he didn't get any touches.

 

He also got injured, and missed the playoffs. I rooted for Him. I watched Him play H.S. ball.

 

my beef with giving a single running back 85% of the snaps is...why carry so many running backs on the roster ? make room and depth for other positions that actually do rotate why is McFarland on the roster ? he has 19 snaps this year on offense and 8 on special teams. wouldnt carrying another ILB or DB to evaluate be more beneficial ? i would use one roster spot for a revolving door. constantly bringing in new guys at positions of need for evaluation all season long. i would call it the tampon spot. you got a week to show me something or ...NEXT !!!

 

RBs take more abuse now than they did when they were being hit by Butkus, Lambert, Lawrence Taylor? Really?