Declining Najees 5th looks even better

pretty well said

 

For sure. I feel awful for him. I really hope this one isn't his career. He seems like a pretty hard working kid, but that is a bad injury for a back not known for being explosive. If he loses too much of a step that could be it. I hope that isn't the case for his sake.

 

Aren't those the same people that said Jones was a better LT, and was playing out of place, and that it was Najees fault, and not the OL the last couple of years.
All I know is we averaging 40 yards less a game this year after they got what they said they thought it was.

 

Never agreed with the 'out of position' excuse for Jones. Bad technique is bad technique. And he is still doing the same things this season.

 

We gotta hope He gets better if he keeps working at it.

 

The only positive right now is that his 5th year option should be relatively cheap (should the Steelers even extend him) since he is unlikely to see pro bowls.

 

Imagine all the criticism Najee would get if he was averaging 3.1 YPC

 

Najee was bashed endlessly even though he was facing ridiculous penetration behind the LOS.

Warren is great in space and has nice wiggle but he isn’t going to break tackles like Najee.

Until this OL fixes things its going to be tough sledding on the ground.

 

I agree, and I tried telling people most backups have a higher ypc, but some act like this is the 2nd , or 3rd year they've watched football, and since Najee isn't here, and Warren is, I hope Warren kicks it into high gear. I promise I'm pulling for each, and everyone of our RBs, and could care freaking less if Najee sucks for now on.

 

Too soon to say;

• Warren after Wk3 = 6 broken tackles
• Harris after Wk3 last season = 2 broken tackles

 

There were certain posters that kept bragging about Warren's 5 YPC and put down Najee for his 3.9-4.0 YPC, those numbers meant nothing to me as RB2. This isn't me hating on Warren because if he does well it's good for the Steelers .

 

Najee wasn't in line to be part of a comp pick. The team already had their max allotment of four (3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th, coming into the season) - Harris' contract landed him in the 7th round territory, and was nullified by the signing of Harrison.

Depends on your POV. Right now his fifth year would cost about $20M. In terms of APY that would place him 15th amongst LTs.

 

Ooof....

 

Especially when the things he seemed to be not technique related like not knowing the snap count or pulling left when the run was going right.

I guess some of that could be communication if he's getting it from the guard?

Ultimately, we knew he was a project when we drafted him. Had the measureables. But it's hard to get premium LTs with the measureables and the tape at the end of the first.

And he would have played LT last year, but he couldn't beat out Moore. And probably would have lost out to TF if he didn't get hurt.

 

Yep...there's really no other option on the roster this year.

 

I prefer to use thier yearly history, not just 3 games. If you check on that, you'll see that Warren's yards per carry and yards per catch is much greater than Harris. This has been the case for years.

 

Just because RB2 had a better YPC doesn't mean it will translate to being RB1.

 

just hold your horses there, Rule6. it's been 3 games. I NEVER saw Najee catch a screen and run 60 yards

 

Najee would've scored on that play

 

And it doesn’t mean it won’t

So what’s your point

 

Current projection is ~ $20MM.
https://overthecap.com/fifth-year-option-projections

He's already earned the playing time tier I think (2nd lowest). I agree that he's not in particular danger of making a probowl.

Steelers have not given an option to anyone in this tier since this system was implemented (Edmunds, Najee, Pickett probably would have been in this tier, but he may not have even hit the playing time option given his history for getting injured / replaced by 3rd string QBs).

I don't think we'll break the trend of optioning guys in this tier with Jones...unless we see some massive improvement in the next 14 games (plus the SB run!). But it is possible (this is the reason that centers are very rarely drafted in the 1st IMO...because there is only one tier for OL and optioning a C to pay him like a LT doesn't make sense).

For context, OTC puts $20MM at the ~12-15th highest LT contracts
https://overthecap.com/position/left-tackle

Here's a potentially interesting question: Do you think it's more likely that Jones (1) gets benched this year or (2) gets his 5th year option exercised? Even though we don't really have anyone behind him, I'd put my money on benched.

 

We never saw Najee get more than 1/2 that 65 yarder in the ~1300 times he's touched the ball in the NFL.

We never even saw Najee get a longer run than Jerome in his final year when they were running spots about how the bus was just going a yard at a time. Bettis' long that year was 39. Najee's longest run was 37 (rookie). His longest reception is 32.

Najee was between average and pretty good at everything. He was a solid guy who was very durable for us. And he was slow and not able to get those really big game breaking plays.

 

If those are the only options I'd go with #2 with what I've seen thus far. I think he's been better than most have given him credit for, while still being below what you'd expect for someone with his draft stock.

LTs have seen one of the sharpest APY increases over the past five years. Picking up his fifth year in terms of APY would place him 15th in the league at the moment. That figure is likely to decrease in value as LTs are signed/extended next offseason.

15th as a peak value at this point seems fair to me. Need to see how the rest of the year goes.