ROCK TO THE NAJ!!!

Heard a crazy stat today

181 of Najees 188 came after first contact

Only 7 yards on 28 carries before he started breaking tackles

Kid is going to be special with an actual
o line

HACK

 

Guess I have a different meaning of first contact. On his 20+ yd run to the left, someone “may” have gotten a hand on him. On his 30+ yd td run, outside of the backsides of the o-line and a hand or two, there wasn’t any contact

 

I disagree with Hack's stat but agree with the underlying sentiment. I think Najee is a great player and more than that has shown maturity and humility which is rare for a rookie star these days.

The question we all have is how long will it take to repair the OL to the strength it had been.

Personally I expect that this could be Najee's best year statistically if the Steelers sign a FA QB (Cousins?) and get back to throwing.

If the Steelers draft a QB they may lean on Harris for a year or two. After that it will be a heavy pass offense. I believe that is Tomlin's mindset.

Realistically the Steelers are no longer a good team for RBs to have production. Those teams are SF, BAL, TEN, IND etc. I expect Najee to be a professional because he is and improve his pass catching and blocking because that is what Tomlin requires. I don't see Najee ever putting up numbers like Bell who had a great OL and overall situation.

 

Two defenders came at him unblocked in the hole on that 20-plus yard run to the left, the one that ended with the stiff arm. They barely touched him because he made them miss.

 

That is good effort by Najee, but a troubling indictment of our OL. This basically means on 99% of runs Najee is fighting off a tackler with a few steps of taking the handoff.

Contrast with Dalvin Cook who ran for 200 yards and busted out 5-6 20 yard plus runs where he wasn't touched until he had already gained 10 yards...

 

I think one thing that became evident on Monday was that the lack of experience on the oline and the amount things they were throwing at them was what was causing issue in the run game and pass protection. If you go back and look at the Chicago game, Turner who is a vet commits what has to be one of the dumbest gaffes any offensive line can make. You dbl team with Chuks and create a boulevard sized lane for a defender to go straight at Ben. Only way you do that is if you are being coached to do it. Following week he does it again.

Monday Hassenuer has experience and knows what he is doing. He made mistakes but not as huge of ones as happen with Green. Dan Moore had a good game but he got suckered on some run blocks to. Right after Harris's stiff arm play they went with a heavy set, let Moore step forward and the defenders just filled in around him and hit Harris for no gain. So I think Klemm was throwing to much at his young line and it showed. Monday they were able to simplify and play the way they know how and is showed......fore the most part.

 

Najee has been a breath of fresh air on an otherwise disappointing and depressing season. Watt and Cam have obviously been amazing, but we at least found out we are set at RB for the foreseeable future. i'd love to see what he can do with a good oline. it seems like he's had to fight for literally every single yard this season.

 

I don't think Turner will be re-signed. Yeah he hasn't played well. Maybe Green will be moved to guard?

I think Moore is a high character guy but depending on how the Steelers view his upside they could be looking to replace him.

Next year from what I can tell the OL will be Moore Leglue C? Green Banner?

Do you agree? Do you think Banner can stay healthy?

I think the OL can only get better and I agree they played better vs. the Browns. I agree with you on that. Will be interesting to see if Morgan keeps the job- so far so good.

 

That's what it looked like live for me as well. Looked like they took some things out and just told them to get on a man and go.

Then I listened to all the pundits that were down on Green using TV footage and complaining about how he's on the ground too much, trying to make it out like JC Haus is just light years better than Green using TV footage. Then at the same time saying they couldn't evaluate based on TV footage until they get a look at the all 22!

There's also something to be said about prepping for a team based on the personnel they've been using with no tape on the guys subbing in. It looked like they knew what JC's strengths and weaknesses were and let him play to it, while when Green was in they kept trying to make him use the full playbook.

 

There were a few times in the KC game I believe where Green was way up field leading the way for Harris but looked unsure as to what he should be doing like if he blocked the wrong guy he would get flagged and kill a solid run. It also popped up on Monday when Claypool was blocking for Harris, they have all these highlights from ND where Chase is just blocking guys right out of the play but instead of blocking the guy nearest Harris he lets him go and gets a trailing Brown coming in. The one he let go was the one who eventually forced Harris down.

Yeah those guys dunking on Green for his getting beat at the point of attack often have no answer when you show the tape of Harris going a full 10 yards right up the gut when Green and Dotson and Turner weren't trying zone blocking and just ripped holes for him.

 

Being ranked no 4 is pretty realistic production I would think. JMO>

 

Harris did all that and we don't have a good OL? That's the first anyone has said anything about our line not being that good this year. Good intel.

 

Agree, one thing that JC Hass said was that they brought in other personnel to the O-line meetings this week. I would think this should be common sense. If you want to run block , maybe you have the RB's and WR you expect to block on those plays in there as well. Pass blocking is pass blocking, but if you're running and expect to get blocks from other position groups, you need them to understand where they're supposed to go and get some input on if they think they can get there!

 

I wrote it in the other thread:

a) Leads the NFL in touches
b) 2nd in the league in % of his team's yards from scrimmage
c) Has played 82% of the team's snaps. A true 3-down back that runs, catches, and pass protects
d) Has yet to fumble in his career. Not once.
e) Runs hard and is physical all the time
f) Plays behind a crap OL

In all sincerity, Najee's 2021 is one of the all-time great Steeler seasons.

 

a) Sadly Tomlin gonna run his wheels off

 

How did they stat from Monday's game where it appears like he fumbled but they ruled down by contact earlier in the play.

 

One more thing on the line. If you look at Johnson's TD catch. Bothe JC and Leglue were downfield blocking on that play. Hell Leglue is a half a yard behind Johnson when he catches the ball and directly influences the CB trying to come over to stop him from scoring.

Dude is jumping over DJ's feet as he's going to the ground for the score!

Definitely not having them pass block on skates!