2026 stillers

I almost wrote exactly that. Silly me, I chose to demonstrate that he was full of crap when he falsely claimed I had no facts on my side instead.

 

Pretty good except who said they could keep him on the cheap?? Who said he would sign the 5th year deal??
I know for a fact, and many interviews said he was wanting the rb market to rise, so tell me how that makes you believe they could sign him for cheaper than they signed Warren. I need facts like the interviews I can show, not feelings. Also many of You think we wanted him to replace Warren, I for one did not, but I wanted him here one more year so we didn't have to spend a 3rd on a RB, and because Warren, and Najee worked well together. Also incase you don't know, Najees 5th year option would have paid him more than Warren by year.
Now Yous guys can discuss this all You want. Najee isn't here, Warren is, and I only care about the now.

 

Come on. Give him credit for a funny line. You put that one on a tee for both of us and he nailed it.

 

I just presented them, so please stop falsely accusing me of gaslighting. It is a fact that Harris started every game for the Steelers from 2021 through 2024. It is a fact that the Steelers gave him more snaps and touches than Warren in 2023. It is a fact that the Steelers gave him more snaps and touches than Warren in 2024. It is absolutely fine for you to disagree with my interpretation of those facts, but to deny their existence is a load of crap.

 

Kinda what I was thinking. LoL

 

Are we still arguing about Najee Harris? He was a good RB for Steelers, but it's time to move on. This is not Jerome Bettis or Franco Harris we're talking about here. I wish Najee the best and hope he does well against everybody but Steelers.

 

No, what I just presented were facts. Now you want to decide what is a true fact or not. Were any of the statements I made false? Was I wrong in saying Harris started every game for the Steelers from 2021 through 2024? Was I wrong in saying he got more snaps and touches than Warren in 2023 and 2024? Of course not. You know all of that is accurate. You just don't like it, so you try to dismiss those as not being "true facts."

My argument has always been that the Steelers thought Harris was the better back in 2023 and 2024. How they distributed the snaps and touches during those two seasons is absolutely relevant to that point. I never said they should have kept Harris and let Warren go. I always thought the best option was to keep both. For one thing, as STD pointed out, that likely would have saved them the third-round pick they spent on Johnson.

It is like the wear and tear argument. You insisted they moved on from Harris simply due to what they thought of his level of play. One of the factors I brought up then and more recently is that they passed on the option because they saw how much wear and tear there would be on his body by the time his fourth season was over. We all know that running backs don't last long, so it was a valid concern. You wanted no part of it. You dismissed it because it took away from your argument. Then you briefly wanted to make a big deal out of it when he blew out his Achilles tendon last season.

Honestly, I've thought your claim that they played Harris more and gave him over 100 more touches than Warren in 2024 because he had been a first-round draft pick four years earlier is particularly ridiculous. No, I don't want you to refute my argument again. Hell, I'm not the one who dragged the argument to this thread. You know who did that. My opinion fits the facts better than yours does. You disagree. Who the **** cares anymore?

 

In their last year here, they gave Najee more snaps than Warren when Warren was hurt at the beginning of the year. Using that as your argument is like saying Najee was bad because he performed poorly in year 2. That wouldn't be fair to Harris because he was playing through an injury that likely would have sidelined many RBs.

Warren got more snaps in most games after he was healthy. Including the win or go home game in the playoffs. You argued that this was due to score effects. But the same score effects were there the year before in Buffalo and Warren didn't get more snaps.

I posted the snap counts to you in a previous thread.

Over time, I think they concluded that Warren was at least as good as Najee. He was cost controlled for an extra year. So they probably thought that Warren would be cheaper than Najee in the medium term.

That turned out to be incorrect since Najee ultimately signed for a cheaper deal than Warren did. Although on paper that wasn't super obvious because the Chargers put all kinds of incentives in Najee's contract to give him the ego boost of a big number that he'd never reach.

And if they still liked Najee, they could probably bring him in for a song right now since he's currently unemployed. Although maybe he's holding out for a season ending injury to someone in camp or before the deadline. Will be interesting to see if he's still a UFA in week 1.

Aside: I think these unlikely to be earned bonuses suck for players. My understanding is that they pay their agents based on the total contract value. From the outside without knowing all the details, this feels to me like the agents (well educated lawyer types) taking advantage of the players by putting in money they know their player is never going to earn. But I don't think the actual agent's terms are public (at least I don't know of a place that puts them out). So it's possible that fees are only applied to these bonuses if they are earned. Seems like a conflict of interest to me though.

 

The Steelers did not want Harris at all in 2025 and it appears neither did 30 other teams

He is now a year older and coming off injury

Plus I believe he made himself persona non grata with the Steelers

Exactly why would anyone want to use a roster spot on him now

But at least your post is 2026 related which is the OP

 

That Harris got all the starts, more snaps than Warren, and more touches than Warren in both the 2023 and 2024 seasons is irrelevant to a discussion of who they thought was the better back in 2023 and 2024. How do you even post that nonsense with a straight face?

I have also explained the other factors in the decision, including one that even your buddy just acknowledged.

Here's the thing. I've heard you out many times. That you are now insisting I'm not presenting facts at all makes me think you haven't heard me out once.

 

You don't even see that you are doing exactly what you claim I'm doing. The statistics are on my side, not yours. They started the running back they thought was better and gave him the ball more in 2023. They started the back they thought was better and gave him he ball more in 2024. For all his flaws, Tomlin still new that giving his team the best opportunity to win was more important than which guy was drafted in the first round three or four years earlier. What you aren't getting is that they could think Harris was the best option for 2023 and 2024, but not for 2025 and beyond, which was the case.

When the time came to make a decision about Harris's fifth-year option, the Steelers had to consider more than who was the better back at the time. They had to consider that running backs don't last long and Harris was going to have a lot more wear and tear on his body than Warren by the time the 2025 season started. They may have been concerned that he would hold out or hold in if they tried to get him to play on the option, a legitimate concern given all Harris's talk about running backs being underpaid. What you are refusing to see is they could see Harris as the better option for 2023 and 2024, but it's not as if they comparing Jerome Bettis and Anthony McFarland. The margin between Harris and Warren was not all that big. Teams have to make those sorts of decisions all the time.

This is where I thought the Steelers were messing up. Harris was capable of carrying the entire load himself. He proved that throughout his time as a Steelers. The Steelers clearly don't think Warren can do that, which is why he has never had a game with 20 carries. They could have secured the position for 2025, then moved on, but they decided they had to let one go. They went with the player with less wear and tear on his body and no history of complaining about money. That cost them the third-round draft pick they used on Johnson. It would have cost them even more, but Gainwell gave them a career year. They course-corrected for 2026 when they signed Dowdle, who is more of an inside runner. He is going to do his best work on first and second down. That will allow Warren to return to a role similar to when the Steelers had Harris, but likely with a more even split of the touches.

If you took all that in and made a thoughtful argument for focusing only on which back they kept, I would get that. I would still be convinced that you are wrong, but disagreements are a part of this medium. That isn't what is happening here. What is happening here is one poster brought up Harris on a thread where he doesn't belong as a way to start an argument, likely hoping you would get annoyed and I'd get myself in trouble. I doubt either of us is ever going to convince the other.

 

That's funny. You have tried to just declare yourself the winner without actually winning a few times now.

You just reinforced what I wrote a few posts ago. You still haven't even bothered to try hear my point, so it is no wonder you continue to get it wrong.

I'll give you this much. Warren is the better option for 2026, just as Harris was the better option in 2024.