Time to bench Najee

4.6 YPC is all you need to know as why Najee is the Steelers starting RB this year. Only 8 carries per game, means the Steelers need to start giving Najee the ball more.

Warren's 2.9 YPC is why he is RB #2.

 

And people wonder why people think they don't understand what they are watching.....hell they don't understand what they are reading.....how can we expect anymore. LoL. Nobody has apologized for Najee....Nobody....all they have done is showed You He is rushing against a running D, and is still gaining more yards per carry than someone that's not. Yet somehow You can't comprehend this. LoL. Fact over feelings. While I can show You facts of why I say what I say....all You can show is feelings. You do know most 3rd down RBs do have a higher yard per carry than the starter???
Yet this year Warren doesn't even have that.

 

Najee is averaging 4.6 YPC this year! This offseason I said that if he didn't crack the 4.0 YPC barrier the Steelers shouldn't pick up his contract, but right now he has demolished the 4.0 YPC barrier.

If he ends the season at 4.6 YPC, and only 8 carries per game; you can't blame Najee for his stats, you have to put the blame on the OC, for not calling Najee's number enough during games.

I am hoping Vegas will be the game where they start feeding Najee the ball for 20+ carries and we can get the running game back on track.

 

Seems no RBs are getting 2nd contracts. All RBs suck! Bench the all! Let Boz run the ball! Lol!!!

 

This is what I was trying to say, but .
In reality.....no Rbs no matter what they have done are getting contracts right now. You got the leading rusher from last year having to hold out just to get a one year freaking contract.

 

Why is it so hard for some of you to figure this out, until we have a QB with an arm that defenses have to respect, the running game will be garbage. The Browns were putting 8-10 guys within 5-7 yards of the LOS almost every play. DCs know that Pickett can't throw deep so putting safeties deep is a waste of time. Canada sucks, we all know that, but Pickett's arm is even worse. We saw the exact same thing at the end of Ben's career when he couldn't throw deep. If a defense can stack the line, you can't run.

 

Don't get me wrong I am a Najee fan, but this stats are skewed a bit. The only reason he's earning that 4.6 YPC is he's broke a couple of long runs. Now you may think that's good but if you are not consistency getting that over 15-20 carries it really doesn't matter. His total yardage per game is less than 60.

 

Drafting running backs in the first round is suspect......

 

Talk about skewed stats. 'Per game of less than 60 yards', but that's on 6 and 10 carries respectively. 6carries vs the 49ers for 31 yards, and 10carries vs the Browns for 43 yards. How many yards would be acceptable on 16 carries? I'm not saying Najee has been phenomenal but his workload production has been good so far.

 

Fine, I can live with that. Now, can you live with Najee getting more touches and his YPC heading south once again and appropriate consequences due to his more standard less than 4 YPC? In other words, do you stand by his 4.6 YPC #s but if they fall then do you make excuses for his new ypc #s You seem to stand by his new YPC #s as significant, but will you also stand behind his newer YPC #s if they return back to his career norm, which are less than 4 YPC? Or, will the excuses return as part of the considerations?

 

In a serious question, how do you explain our better rushing game in the 2nd half of last season then? If Kenny posed zero threat of throwing it downfield, how were we able to rush the ball with some success?

 

I made the statement if Najee can't crack the 4.0 YPC this season, the Steelers should not pickup his option. I stand by that statement.

This year he is at 4.6 YPC. Mainly because he is healthy, no steel plate in his shoes, and now Najee is able to break those long runs we have all been waiting for. I read that Najee averaged (-1.1) yards before contact last week.

Tackled 6 yards behind the line of scrimage. but still able to recover and pickup 21 yards. (This is some Barry Sanders Sh!t.)

Pittsburgh Steelers running back Najee Harris follows up 21-yard run with 17 yards on his next carry (nfl.com)

 

OK, fair enough, hopefully this discussion will be moot; if JH keeps rushing at 4.6 YPC then it will be.

 

6 carries for 31 yards regardless of the average is not good. 10 carries for 43 yards is just as bad. Now I'll give him the 49ers game because the game was out of reach and they were playing catch up.

2 100 yard games is better than an average of 4.3 yards with a total of 31 and 43 yards. Even if, say, he had 30 carries for a 100s the average is poor but at least you can say he controlled the game.

I just see that his production has been good. I would say Warren production has been better.

 

We were discussing which guy should start right now, Harris or Warren. For some reason, you brought up whether or not the team will re-sign Harris two or three years from now as if that was somehow relevant and seemed to settle the argument in your favor. It was not and does not. That is why I correctly wrote that you weren't getting it. This bit about not being a "direct connection" is trying to backtrack without just admitting it isn't relevant.

I think that new argument was meant to suggest Harris is a beneficiary and Warren is a contributor. If so, that's BS, too. I'm not talking about what Harris was at Alabama. I'm talking about the guy who has been a productive back for two years despite having a lousy offense around him in Pittsburgh. I think we just have a bunch of people wanting to make a change for the sake of making a change, but benching the running back because the blocking scheme sucks and the offensive line is getting its ass kicked makes no sense at all, and that is what you are advocating here. Warren has done nothing as a runner this season to take the job.

 

Not as a runner, it hasn't. Harris has been the more productive runner. Warren has made plays as a receiver, which is great because he is their third-down back.

 

You really are making yourself look ridiculous with this one. Pickett and Canada are the reasons teams are stacking the box, but it's not because Pickett doesn't have a strong enough arm. It is because he's playing like crap.

Deep passes are not where we see arm strength make the biggest difference in the NFL. Every NFL quarterback can throw it deep. The great arms make a difference on sideline routes and intermediate passes into tight coverage, not the deep ball.

Take Rudolph as an example. Rudolph has a below-average arm by NFL standards, yet he throws a nice deep ball. Pickett has a better arm than Rudolph. We saw Pickett do it effectively in preseason, so we know he has the physical ability. Defenses are going to keep taking their chances until he starts completing passes more consistently. That means making better reads and rediscovering his consistent accuracy.

 

I agree, but I don't know if I would say He can't throw deep....I believe right now He's afraid to.....,, but yes the D is setting up to stop the run

 

Ummmm....You do know that they don't just do that for Najee. Of course it's figured in....just like the losses are.....on every RB. You do know that He has only carried the ball about 16 times all year....16 carries for 74 yards is not bad...especially when the D is basically setting up to stop the run.

 

B
Their offense doesn’t look broken and he is running just fine and doing the job. Who knows how his YPG might be if he never had his injury last season. He might not be who he used to be.

 

People who are strictly all numbers based are exhausting.

Yet sometimes the subject of feel for the game flow is also a part of the conversation when we speak about Canada.

My point here is that numbers alone don’t tell the whole story and after years of watching football often times your eyes can tell you some things.

Warren, due to his back up status doesn’t get the same looks and opportunities as Harris and to STDs point (over and over again) he believes or thinks or dare I say FEELS that Warren would suffer similar or worse in production. And what I am trying to tell you guys ad nauseam is that Warrens style of hitting the holes more deliberately and harder and definitely with more speed would demonstrate better production AND numbers.

You aren’t getting that point of mine. I’m not trying to get you to agree, just understand that switching up the rolls is based on observations over two years and NOT just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks or for the sake of it.

Is there a gamble in that effort, sure. I’d be willing to see how it played out. Try it for a game or two to see what player (based on style of running and field vision) wins out.