I am aware that a lot of you are probably thinking, “He had 1,000 yards in the previous three seasons.” It’s true that he is the only player in team history to have 1,000 yards in each of his first three seasons, and it’s not an easy achievement to pull off.
Let me be clear about a couple things before I go into my general opinions about the Pittsburgh Steelers declining to take up Najee Harris’ fifth-year option: Najee Harris is a strong running back, and the Steelers should have taken up his fifth-year option because I like him. However, if the Steelers allowed him to depart in free agency in 2025, it wouldn’t be hard to replace his output.
But with these figures, I retaliate. Only once, during the previous season, has he averaged more than four yards per carry. Only six times in 51 games has he gone over 100 yards. Harris doesn’t have an explosive game. Harris has not had a rush of 40 yards or longer in his career, and he did not have a run of more than 25 yards in the previous campaign.
And I also hear the argument of the bad offensive line- it is also a valid argument. However, Jaylen Warren played behind that same offensive line and averaged 5.3 yards per carry to Harris’ 4.1. Harris had eight carries of 20 yards or more, and credit to him for that- he ranked fourth in the NFL. When you go big run per carry, that averages out to about one big run every 32 carries. For comparison, Warren had a big run every 25 carries. Warren is also giving the Steelers much more from a receiving standpoint. Harris had 29 catches for 170 yards in 2023- Warren had 61 for 370.
Overall in 51 games, Harris is averaging about 64 yards per game on the ground, and isn’t a proven home-run hitter who is a threat to take any run to the house. So while I believe the Steelers should have picked up his fifth-year option, as it would have only made him the 12th-highest paid running back in football, his production wouldn’t be difficult to replace. They have a replacement already in-house with Warren, who for my money is the better running back to begin with.
