Bell was right on Najee

It's the old sad sack once again.

 

OK so now Warren's most potent runs are because Najee was on the field at the same time? Sweet Lord, what will y'all come up with next?

 

You're the old sad sack, you just make stuff up as usual , you weren't bragging about Warren after the Texans game.

 

Sad sack?, he's the most optimistic poster in the history of the Internet.

 

Memory plays a lot of tricks.
Harris was outstanding down the stretch last year.
Najee is not the problem, the problem is how to get him going. Canada has no idea.
The Steelers have a good one two punch at RB.

It's pretty hard to run when as soon as you get the ball, 4 defensive linemen are in the backfield. (there's a hint)

Warren is running very well, no doubt.
He's a slashing type of guy and gets behind those big guys where you can't see him as a defender.

I'm not sure I like Najee Harris running from the shotgun. I think they run the shotgun a bit too much anyway.
It doesn't look like they use much timing routes.
I also like it when they speed up the pace.

 

How do you measure oomph? When we look at things we can measure, like yards per carry, Harris is better. The week before, Harris was the Steelers' best player against the Texans while Warren struggled and put the ball on the ground twice. (Yeah, he was just barely down before the second one came out, but it is more evidence that he doesn't protect the ball as well as Harris.)

 

^ This probably needs said again.

If you look at rushing stats for this year, Najee has more carry’s, better avg, and longer runs (go back and look at the stat line for each game of this season for both players).

If you look at this year and last, Harris has only gotten to 20 or more carry’s in 5 games between both years. We don’t have a good o-line and aren’t committed to the run.

I think people are looking at Warren’s receiving ability and success in space to draw their conclusions. Warren has more receiving yards than rushing. To me, all of this this goes back to Warren being a good compliment plus 3rd down back.

 

he was outstanding for a few games (down the stretch). He disappears far too much - that happened last year too late in the season. something is broken - he or the offense or both. He is not worth the esteem that he gets until he proves it MORE and regularly on game day.

see his stats from late last year.

Strong vs. CLE and BALT, last 2 games
SUCKED vs OAK and Balt, weeks prior.

wildly inconsistent.

is that Najee or the offense or Canaduh - or all of the above. Well, ALL of the above.

 

So many believe all the wild stuff they see on a field, all the speed, the routes, the big runs, and beautiful passes are what make offensive football. They fail to realize that the game is decided in the trenches. The offensive line makes all the other stuff possible. If your offensive line isn't playing well, the offense isn't playing well. Your quarterback, your running backs, and your wide receivers and tight ends aren't playing well.

The offensive line is the unit that opens holes for running backs. It gives your quarterback the time to scan the field and go through progressions to find receivers. It is the true engine of your offensive football team. The others can only operate at a high level if the offensive line creates those opportunities.

That's how football has always worked, and will continue to work that way.

It also helps if the players are in a good system. The are not currently in a good system in my opinion. One thing always helps the other to succeed.

 

Yards before Contact.

 

I like Taco Bell tacos

Better tasting than Bran Flakes

 

Troll

 

Yes Sir!

 

This is what I have been saying all along. The mere fact they hand it off to him shotgun tells you everything you need to know about the incompetence of the OC and Tomlin. You design a system to fit your players not the other way around. They do the same thing with the Center. He is too slow to pull him and run outside zone runs and to ask him to make those blocks. He is too small to anchor against bigger nose tackles, I’m not sure what you do at the Center position but he is the main reason the line is not doing so well at this point.

The other issue with Najee in this outside zone scheme is you are asking him to read and react which to me is not his strength. He does not have start stop quickness or explosion. He lacks vision from what I can tell. I think a downhill run scheme with him lined up 7 yards back with Pickett under center and just let Najee hit the hole and two in a lead blocker now and then is a much better scheme. Everyone thinks losing weight will make him more explosive and faster... it may not. Najee may just lack a burst in general. It is a darn shame because he is not being coached right and is not a fit for our system. They are wasting his talent and it is hurting both him and our offense. They would have been better off trading him or better yet drafting Creed Humphrey but hindsight is always 20/20.

 

Over the long haul Najee has had twice as many chances. I don’t mind Najee still getting the bulk of the work but you have to block to his strengths and design the plays that will fit his running style. Right now they are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Running Najee to the outside is simply foolish. Running Najee from a standstill in the shotgun without a head of steam to hit the hole totally neutralizes all of his strength and power. You often see little guys create explosive hits which are generated from speed to power. Thats why you see guys like TJ Watt push back much bigger offensive lineman because their speed and explosion generates that power. Warren generates this in a much smaller box if you will than Najee does.

When you run Najee out of the shotgun and hand him the ball from a standstill and ask him to essentially pick a hole or run him in outside zone where he is running laterally you totally neutralize all of Najee’s strengths. Najee is not explosive. He can not stop and start or change direction on a dime. Najee needs to have a designed hole that he hits and he needs to hit the hole with a head of steam. He is a pile pusher if and only if he gets a head of steam. Najee will not create power from explosion or speed, his speed is build up speed so you have to line him up 7 yards back and let him build up his speed to hit the hole. The fact they don’t utilize him like this is telling of how bad both the OC and Tomlin really are from a basic football perspective. If you are worried that the offense or run game will be too vanilla running Najee that way and to predictable then you lack innovation and quite frankly then he is not the right RB for the offense and they should have traded him. But to continue to try to run him with the designed plays that they do is and exercise in futility. Having an absolutely terrible center that gets zero push and in facts is a swing gate for allowing defensive tackles into the backfield is not helpful either.

 

Why does it bother you so much when posters include facts in their posts? Warren has had some runs with Harris on the field, including the one on which he hurdled a defender Sunday. That misdirection helped to create space for him. I'm sorry the facts don't fit your chosen narrative and your emphasis on oomph, but they don't.

 

I like Harris still but they aren’t utilizing him right. It seems to me Harris does well when he runs angry and with a reckless abandon, but even then he doesn’t have clean running lanes. For some reason Najee just doesn’t seem to have that killer instinct when he runs. The other issue is I feel like we have never had a good line while we have had Najee, so it is so hard to evaluate him. I feel like it will end up that we let him walk and he will go somewhere with a good olivine with a OC who knows how to utilize him and he will become a bell cow for that team. Warren does seem like the better fit for this team. Warren is more explosive, elusive and has better vision. As a result he can make people miss who penetrate the backfield which is alot. He can cut back or find holes better and he is definitely better in outside sone runs where he is running laterally and then planting his foot and cutting it up when he sees the hole.

I feel like with Najee you have to line him up 7 yards back and let him hit the hole with ahead of steam and let him break tackles once he has built up a head of steam. It appears like they are asking him to run laterally often and to start from a standstill out of the shotgun and kind of read the play and pick and choose his hole. To me that totally neutralizes the guys biggest attribute which is power but power only once he has built up enough steam for it to be effective. He is not explosive so to hand him the ball off while in the shotgun where he has no head of steam built up is incompetent on the Steelers part. If their going to continue to design the run plays like that then they might as well just start Warren. A smart coach would design plays around a players strength but we seem to love to try to fit a square peg into a round hole. I feel like we do alot of this with other players on offense as well, in particular Cole and Pickett. In addition the fact you can’t design plays for Austin to get open with that speed says quite a bit about your ability as a coach.

What I am basically saying is the system is not player friendly, it is to rigid in that we don’t design it to players strengths and we certainly don’t coach players up to take advantage of their strengths. You have certain players who still play well inspire of the system simply because of their pedigree and talent, such as Pickens.

In fact the issue with Najee and his lack of success in the run game is a micro example of the whole problem with Canada and Tomlin. They are both extremely arrogant and stubborn. They believe in the system and the system should work dog gone it if the players just execute it. So none of the blame lies with the coaches it is all on the players. I see it play out quite a bit both on offense and defense. Why not tweak things, why not design the system according to which players on the field to take advantage of those players strengths?

 

Neither back did much in the first game against Baltimore or in the game against Las Vegas. The difference in the two games against the Ravens were in what happened up front. Baltimore dominated the line of scrimmage in the first one and the Steelers gave up on the run early. The Steelers were more patient and stuck with it the second time and it paid off. They do have to stick to it for Harris to be effective, but they are at their best when they play that way.

 

I'm not sure who you are watching if you don't think Harris has a killer instinct. He does try to dance to much, but part of that is not trusting an offensive line isn't good enough to be trusted.

I agree with the rest of your post. They aren't using Harris properly. They aren't adjusting the offense to the strengths of their players and that is a big part of the problem on offense.

 

I'm not sure losing weight will help Naj. He is already a lean guy. Dude is ripped.

 

He'd do worse, at least Najee doesn't fumble

 

They found that diarrhea is hereditary.....................it runs in your jeans.

 

I rather have Bran Falkes with sorghum molasses on it.

 

Your probably right. Killer instinct was probably a bad example to use. It just looks like at times Najee is running without no effort but it is probably more about the defense getting to him before he has generated enough speed to create power to create movement. With Najee’s specific talents they really do have to run him a certain way and they are not doing it. Very frustrating to watch. Not sure why they haven’t replaced the center yet either. I know they don’t have alot of options but honestly could it get any worse with somebody else? This running game and they way they are using Najee is a perfect example of Tomlin stubbornness and either incompetence or unwillingness to change. We have been enamored with these smallish centers for years. I get we want to pull them and run outside zone and traps etc. but it hasn’t worked and if we wanted to run those kinds of plays then why in the heck did we draft a rb that doesn’t fit that type of scheme? Its the same as taking Peterson in free agency on the back end of his career where he is primarily a zone a cb now and we primarily run a man to man scheme. I don’t understand it.

 

Those facts are the result of Warren being used in passing down situations more. But there is more to it than that. Just from an eye test Warren seems to a better fit for this offense right now. He gets positive yardage more often than Najee does. This isn’t a Knock on Najee it is more of a Knock on how they are using Najee and the poor offensive line play. Najee needs a head of steam to hit the hole and Najee is not a fit for the outside zone run where he is running laterally. Neither he or the offensive line are good right now with the outside zone yet we keep on trying to do it. We used to to do alot of the end arounds with the war’s on run lays and all of this is an effort to spread the defenses out and not be so bunched in the middle. The problem is teams are on to it and we can’t block it well at all.

So as a result when we do try to run within the tackles teams are still bunched up because of our lack of a threat on the outside in running situations and they just plug it up. We get no push with the center in fact he has become a detriment to the blocking overall. On top of this we are often handing the ball off to Najee in shotgun when he is at a standstill and he gets literally no head of steam to push the pile. With Warren he is quicker and has better vision so at least if the play is plugged up in the middle or they have a defensive lineman penetrate the backfield he has the change of direction to make that guy miss or cut it back for a gain. Najee does not have that.

As bad as Canada is the OL Coach is worse. We can literally not evaluate the run game or the passing game because are offensive line is so bad. I feel like every play is a broken play. At the end of the day drafting Najee was a terrible decision by the Steelers. It wasn’t fair to him or the Steelers. I could have understood drafting him had we had a good offensive line and a competent offensive line coach and coordinator.