Najee’s 5th will cost 7 million

Your take would carry more weight if you had your facts right. Warren did not get 48 percent of the carries in 2023. It was closer to 30 percent. Harris carries the ball 156 more times than Warren did in 2023. He also didn't fall apart in the rain the way Warren did.

 

No, the big difference later in the season was the line got a lot better. Okorafor is a huge liability in the run game. Jones is not.

 

Your getting too emotional about this. Your putting words in my mouth. I never said he produce in 2023. I said he struggled at the beginning of the year and that is factually true. Go back and look at the stats. I also referenced why I though he might have struggled not putting it all on him. The fact of the matter is he has got to be able run wide zone and gap up the middle. If he can’t run wide zone then our run game becomes awfully predictable with him in there. Everyone knows its going up the middle. That only works for so long especially in our division. I will state it for the third time. I think they need to see if he can succeed in the wide zone scheme. The points I will make for resigning him to a 5th year option is it leaves them a little exposed going into 2025 now when they have so many other signings. It doesn’t breed confidence in Najees ability or quite frankly the offensive lines or Arthur Smiths either. Not necessarily the way you want to go into the season.

 

He’s been the bright spot with effort the past few seasons.

Not sure what’s up?

 

Yes that was one of the differences. They also ran him completely differently. They rarely ran him wide or wide zone. It was all gap and in between the tackles. They finally lined him up 7 yards back withe QB under center. I was screaming at the beginning of the year for them to do that. Before they were running him out of shotgun standing right next to the QB and he would get the ball at a stand still. So your asking a 240 lb back to start from a dead still with the ball and run wide. It was poorly designed. At the end of the day I am willing to give grace to Khan on this one since most of his decisions have been good so far. Would I have liked them to sign Najee yes but the whole NFL has devalued the RB position and who knows if he does really well then maybe they will resign him next year. Yes it would be at a high price but I guess they are willing to take that risk.

 

I'm not emotional about this at all, but you do seem to have trouble dealing with the facts. Harris struggled early because the line had two starters getting shoved into the backfield far too often, Cole and Okorafor. He was fine once he actually had some blocking, which got a lot better when they put Jones in.

 

That is the foolish part. It is an unnecessary risk.

 

The chance of a rookie, mid-round RB having a typical Harris production is slim. We could’ve kicked this down the road for another year for $7M, which is very reasonable.

 

Not a good move by the Steelers IMO , I saw some people were saying the team will have 75 million in cap space in 2025, Harris has been durable and productive the last three years with a bad OL.

 

Do you know football? Do you watch the games? Harris is not fast and explosive. He has to be used a certain way. He can not start and stop well it takes him a while to build up his speed. Whenever he tries to juke people he slows down which completely neutralizes his asset which is size and power. There is a thing called speed to power and small explosive guys can generate that because the can get up to speed quickly. Najee can’t truck people unless he has a head of steam built up. I can’t tell you how many times I saw him running laterally down the line before he built up a head of steam only to be neutralized by a smaller player who tackled him low.

I can’t tell you how many times I would see him go out for a short pass only to catch it and stop turn around and try to out juke a defender only to fall short if the first down. now when they talked to him instead stopping dancing, stop juking people that’s not who you are and take advantage of your speed to power by not stopping but just going straight ahead then you saw some success at the second part of the season.

They didn’t trust Najee on the third downs in the passing game because he kept trying to hike people in the open field after he caught the ball instead of trucking them. They got him out of there and out Warren in on third downs because if Warren does catch the ball when he is standing in one place he has the ability to get to top speed quickly and juke or run over people because he is more explosive than Najee and he can create that speed to power within a few steps.


If it were simply just about the offensive line then the Steelers would have definitely signed Najee to the extension. But there is more to it than that and they see it, a lot if us see it but you don’t. But I guess you know more than they do.

 

In your eyes it is. If they don’t value him and they think they can upgrade then the bigger risk is extending him in their eyes. Beauty is in the eye of the holder. I trust their judgement of him more than I do yours, sorry.

 

patterson may be in play more than we know. not saying he will but this may leave harris running not to get hurt this year so he's healthy for free agency in 2025. i hope not. on the other hand it won't make him more money next year if he holds back and doesn't have a good year.

 

Not a smart move by the Steelers. Steelers had a chance to lock Najee up for one more year on the cheap. It really doesn't make any sense at all not to do that. Let him hit free agency after his 5th year.

If you are lucky, you can find players at any position in the late rounds. You certainly can not count on that. This notion that All-Pro running backs are available to be had in the late rounds is ridiculous.

 

I'm a bit surprised, but also not. 7 million dollars is a lot to pay for Najee's skillset. However, he is presumably a really good fit in Smith's offense. We also spent a pretty penny in FA and spent high draft capital on the OL the past few years in order to run the ball. Najee's biggest flaw is that he is slow and not explosive. He can't create if he has to improvise behind the LOS. However, he is a beast if he can hit the hole and not get contacted until after he has broken through the line. LB's, S's and CB's just cant bring him down alone. An improved OL would help him immensely in this regard (though it would help any back of course).

To me this could signal that the Steelers realize that they should only pay one of the two RB's, and feel like Najee's the more replicable skillset (they are right to believe this). They can feature Warren a bit more in 2024 and then give him the starting nod in 2025. They would find a Najee replacement either in FA or in the draft and spell Warren with them.

An interesting move to say the least.

 

Who is saying late rounds. What about third round? Plenty of good ones can be had in rd 3.

 

I didn't argue that they should extend him. In fact, I argued against it. I wrote that they should have exercised the fifth-year option. You don't even understand the discussion.

 

True and even played with an injured foot season before last, still got over 1000 yards. The business is the business when teams make these kind of decisions but some lose their minds when players respond. Got to take care of yourself and your pocketbook because you never know when your time's up.

 

There you go writing about an extension again. It is laughable for you to question my knowledge when you don't even understand the discussion.

Even better was you questioning my knowledge of football before demonstrating your lack of it. Harris got stuck dancing so often early last season because there was nowhere for him to go much of the time. Sometimes he ran like he didn't trust his blocking because he couldn't. Why don't you know that?

 

I don't understand. Arthur Smith's offense does not work without Najee Harris this year.

I just want to hear from somebody of why either the Steelers declined the 5th year option, or Najee told the Steelers that he did not want the Steelers to pickup his 5th year option.

The 5th year option would have cost the Steelers $6.8 million, and the 2025 Franchise tag will probably be around $12 million, so maybe Najee wanted the Tag in 2025?

 

I think Warren can be a #1 though. Like an Austin Ekeler or Maurice Jones-Drew type. Warren got pretty limited run (less than 9 attempts per game) but was highly effective (over 1100 all purpose yards). I don't see any reason why upping his carries to 13-14 a game and keeping him similarly involved in the passing game couldn't net you 1500+ all purpose yards on the season. 1000+ rushing yards and 1500+ all purpose yards qualifies as a #1 back to me. 1500 all purpose yards would've been 5th among RB's in 2023, and only 12 backs rushed for over 100 yards in 2023.

 

It’s tough to say what happened here. I would have been fine with an additional year at 7 million, but would say I need to see more before giving him a longer term deal with even more money.

From a negotiating standpoint, in the past, Najee has been vocal about RBs and their contract value.

This is complete speculation, but if Najee was playing hard ball on a long-term extension, then I could see Khan saying show me.

 

Watch the second game against the Ravens again. Warren doesn't take care of the ball as well as Harris even in good conditions, but that was a disaster.

 

7M but what's the cap hit on that?

Plus that locks them into a 7M Average yearly value for him, which they probably don't want. They're probably trying to get him in at under that, although that seems like a reasonable price for him. The scheme change seems likely, but what if Smith is smart and can adapt, to fit personnel, he may do well.

 

Former scribe you act like someone is paying you by the word.

Dude is gone; hopefully you can stop crying in a month or so.

 

Nothing. It is all on 2025's contract. The $7 million is fully guaranteed though. As soon as the contract is signed the Steelers will owe that $7 million to Najee in 2025 no matter what.