Declining Najees 5th looks even better

Oh, I'm not saying I don't understand why the Steelers moved on from Conner... but that doesn't mean that he isn't a better back than Najee. He is. We drafted Najee thinking he was going to be better than Conner. Didn't work out that way.

It doesn't matter what local media thinks, they can be as surprised as they want. It doesn't mean a thing. 31 other NFL teams had a chance to make Najee their starting RB, and not a single one of them did. The team that did sign him drafted a RB with their first pick in the NFL draft.... So it appears that all 32 NFL teams don't view Najee as a starter. I would trust the judgement of the entire league over a few local PGH reporters.

 

Najee was more productive than Conner with he Steelers , Najee/Warren>Warren/Gainwell

 

I would hope so.... Najee had 1,277 regular season touches with us over a 4 year span. Conner had 656. People forget that we ran Najee into the ground. He was given touches like a top 5 back, but wasn't particularly efficient or productive based on his opportunity level. Conner didn't start his first year (did the 3 after), but did more with the ball in his hands than Najee did (that part isn't debatable), he just never got the carry share that Najee got. Both were PB players once in their 4 years in Pitt.

I wouldn't say he was more productive than Conner. He just had more yards because he got more carries. Yards =/= production when the numbers don't line up. Najee saw more than double Conner's carries in Pitt (1,097 to 565), but only gained 2,010 more yards rushing (4312 to 2302). So more than double carries but far less than double yards.... All those extra carries only netter 6 more TD's as well (22 to 28).

And its too early to tell what this year's tandem looks like. Still lots of football to be played.

There's been way too much whinging over a back up RB. Najee's a back up. He's going to be a back up for the rest of his career. We have bigger things to worry about than whether or not we made a mistake letting a back up RB walk when we could have signed him for 7 million bucks (2 million more than he got in the open market).

 

A LOT.

OLINE played best game last week, with the added wrinkle of 6th man on that line. We will see.

We will see....

Browns will be STOUT vs. the run, but Najee never had much success vs them either

 

He did run for 188 yards in one game and 91 in the other against the Browns as a rookie.