Why does almost every mock draft love Najee Harris to the Steelers?
And being well adjusted isn't a flaw for a draft prospect
For a brief moment, Trent Richardson killed the idea of the first-round running back.
Richardson went to Cleveland with the third pick of the 2012 draft and immediately rewarded the Browns with mediocrity. The former Alabama star didn’t even last two years in Ohio before being traded to the Colts. He spent three years in the league and never averaged more than 3.6 yards per carry.
It took two years of watching Richardson misidentify running lanes and dance in the backfield like a Dollar Store breakdancing robot before teams dipped a toe in the first-round RB waters again. Since then, seven players have been selected on Day 1. The five selected in the top half of the round have been mostly solid. As expected, the players taken later have been a little shakier.
There won’t be a top 10 tailback in this year’s offense-heavy opening day. Most mock drafts, however, agree there will be one runner to crash this year’s festivities — and the majority say he’s gonna land in Pittsburgh. Najee Harris emerged as the latest link in a chain of blue-chip backs at Alabama the past two years. In 2021, he could be the key to stabilizing Ben Roethlisberger’s low-impact passing game and getting the Steelers back to the postseason.
What would Najee Harris bring to the Steelers?
Pittsburgh needs help on the ground. The AFC North champs ranked dead last in yards per carry last season (3.6) and 30th in Football Outsiders’ rushing DVOA metric. The lack of a rushing threat allowed opponents to dissolve linebackers into safety and nickelback help, further complicating a passing game hamstrung by Roethlisberger’s waning arm strength. The Steelers are loaded with receiving talent — especially now that JuJu Smith-Schuster spurred the Ravens’ and Chiefs’ overtures and stayed in Pennsylvania — but have struggled to maximize that talent for a few different reasons.
Recent trends suggest NFL teams shouldn’t spend a first-round draft pick on a running back. The success of former Day 2 and 3 picks like Aaron Jones, Chris Carson, Jonathan Taylor, Alvin Kamara, and even the undrafted James Robinson has given teams a viable, inexpensive way to build their tailback platoons. Pittsburgh has tried to build their rotation this way with little success. James Connor looked like he could be a leader out of the backfield after 2018’s Pro Bowl campaign, but injuries and ineffectiveness prevented him from regaining that form. 2019 fourth-rounder Benny Snell has offered little value as a runner or receiver. 2018 fifth-rounder Jaylen Samuels only had nine rushes last year (3.1 YPC).
The team’s current lineup of runners is, uh...
(looking for something nice to say)
(oh dammit this is tough)
Ah! Cheap! They’re very inexpensive! … because they kinda suck.
McFarland was the most efficient runner in that group and he peaked at 3.4 yards per carry last year. Snell led the group in receptions with … 10. While free agents such as Todd Gurley, Duke Johnson, Jerick McKinnon and, heh, Le’Veon Bell remain unsigned, none would be likely to fix Pittsburgh’s problems. Enter Harris, who would immediately become the alpha and omega of the Pitt platoon.
Harris was a four-year contributor in Tuscaloosa, but doesn’t have a ton of college mileage on his engine thanks to the neverending platoon of talent coursing through the Alabama backfield. His 11 NCAA games with at least 20 carries indicates he could handle a RB1 workload without concern — and that includes a 31-carry, 178-yard SEC Championship Game performance in December.
Behind the line, Harris is a patient runner who waits for holes to develop without falling into the trap of hesitating and letting the defense catch up to him. Alabama’s stellar offensive line certainly helped, but Pittsburgh offers useful blocking — Roethlisberger’s 2.1 percent sack rate last season was the lowest in the NFL. He also has the vision to improvise when those holes collapse, the speed to turn the corner and create his own space, and the power to barrel forward after contact:
He didn’t have a ton of success against the Buckeyes in the national title game clipped above — he told the media Ohio State spent most of the night “blowing his shit up,” which is the finest compliment a player can laud upon an opponent — but he still scored a pair of rushing touchdowns. More importantly, he showcased the dual-threat potency that makes him such a perfect fit in the NFL's evolving offenses.
Harris gashed tOSU for seven catches, 79 yards, and a touchdowns in a blowout win. Somehow, this paled in comparison to his absurd production two games earlier with the SEC title on the line. He had three receiving touchdowns — all in the second quarter! — of a 52-46 victory over the Gators.
Harris’ route tree isn’t especially deep, but he’s versatile enough to motion out to the slot or even take a spot next to the sideline. Here he is, improvising by getting on Mac Jones’ wavelength, exploiting some bad coverage, and turning a dead-end play into six points:
That versatility would play well in new OC Matt Canada’s system. He was quarterbacks coach when outgoing coordinator Randy Fichtner moved rookie sensation Chase Claypool all over his lineup like the queen on a chessboard. Now he can keep parts of that system intact with an impact RB.
If Pittsburgh wants to keep Harris in the backfield, he can handle regular swing pass/screen duties and crush a mismatched linebacker via wheel route with regularity. His run-after-catch ability will do wonders for Roethlisberger’s passing numbers as well as spread defenses horizontally near the line of scrimmage and create gaps from five to 15 yards downfield where the Steeler passing game generally operated in 2020.
Once he gets out in space, well, good luck.
We’ve seen players with similar resumes and skillsets struggle to meet their potential in the NFL. Harris is a safer bet than most, because …
Alabama running backs have lived up to the hype
There’s a solid track record for recent Tide runners. There have been seven Alabama tailbacks drafted since Richardson extended the Browns’ misery as one of the NFL’s worst-ever top-three picks in 2012. That includes three Pro Bowlers (Derrick Henry, Josh Jacobs, Eddie Lacy), one All-Pro (Henry), one offensive rookie of the year (Lacy), and one player who should have been (Jacobs). It includes two other potential 2021 starters in Kenyan Drake and Damien Harris.
Statistically, Harris’s college numbers line up well with guys like Henry and Jacobs as far as yards per rush (6.0). There aren’t any Bama backs who line up with his total output because:
No player in school history ran for as many yards as he did (3,843)
No running back in school history has as many receptions, and only Shaun Alexander (2005 NFL MVP) has more receiving yards.
The only underwhelming Tide RBs to be selected since Richardson are T.J. Yeldon, who was possibly irreparably broken by being drafted by the mid-2010s Jaguars (see Leonard Fournette) and Bo Scarborough, who still managed to make five starts for the Lions in 2019 despite being a seventh-round pick of the Cowboys in 2018. The real downside is that Richardson exists, and if he had played four years in Tuscaloosa instead of three, he would hold all the program records for which we just got done complimenting Harris.
Najee’s other benefit is that he’s a large, large man. At 6’2 and 230 pounds, he’s seven inches and 25 pounds larger than last year’s first round RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire. He’s not quite Henry-sized and he’s not going to stiff-arm players into a shame-filled football purgatory every Sunday, but he’s also the kind of heavy runner who doesn’t necessitate a power back in his platoon. The Steelers love a good pile-driving runner — Franco Harris and Jerome Bettis, both Hall of Famers, were thicker than a Primanti’s steak and cheese sandwich — and the Alabama tailback fits that narrative *while* giving the team an outside threat and Le’Veon Bell-esque receiving target.
***
There are no sure things in the NFL Draft, especially when it comes to picks outside the top five. But one thing seems like a safer bet than most, and that’s Steelers running back Najee Harris. Harris can’t replace Ben Roethlisberger behind center, but if he’s as good as he can be he’ll make his final season(s) in Pittsburgh a little easier to swallow. The Steelers have several flaws to fix, but drafting the first running back of 2021 is a tremendously convenient intersection of need and availability at the 24th pick. (Travis Etienne fits the bill as well, but we’re already 1,400 words deep on Harris, so let’s keep rolling with Harris for now)
The question now is whether Pittsburgh — a team whose top running backs have typically been selected in Rounds 1 or 2 (Bettis, Harris, Bell) — will look at that history and make the pick most pundits expect … or whether someone else might jump the line and beat them to it. — CD
Trevor Lawrence is *gasp* well-adjusted
For the most part, Trevor Lawrence has managed to elude the usual nitpicking that plagues the top quarterback prospects each draft season. Sure, a few analysts rated Zach Wilson ahead of him, but any “should Lawrence be the No. 1 pick?” conversation failed to gain traction. Thank god.
Then his interview with Sports Illustrated hit the interwebs, in which he said he wants to be the best but also doesn’t feel the need to be defined by football or stick it to his haters. The anti-Baker Mayfield, if you will.
Overwhelmingly, the reaction I saw praised Lawrence for his honesty and healthy outlook on his life on and off the football field. The only criticism I encountered wasn’t directed at Lawrence but at the overpaid, small-brained talking heads who would have dog whistled about Justin Fields if he had said anything similar.
But I know NFL media, and I know draft pundits, so I completely expected the backlash to come. It did enough that Lawrence felt the need to clarify his comments:
Predictable, yet disappointing, because Lawrence shouldn’t have to explain himself. He’s a 21-year-old who has been the presumed No. 1 pick since he was a freshman in college. He lost two games as a starter at Clemson, and before that, he only lost three games in high school. Lawrence is preternaturally talented, yes, but you don’t reach those kind of inimitable heights without a strong work ethic and drive.
Most of us could only imagine the amount of dedication it must take to be a professional athlete. I would guess a majority of them love the game they play, and that’s the dream, isn’t it? To get paid handsomely for something you’re passionate about. But I’m sure that’s not the case for every pro, and that’s fine too! Their reasons for playing shouldn’t concern anyone else.
Not that it should matter, but Lawrence made it clear he loves football. His basic point in his SI interview was that you don’t have to be a lunatic to be successful. You don’t have to take everything anyone says about you as a perceived slight and then use it as motivation. You don’t have to agonize over every loss and devote every waking hour to football. (Hopefully, his approach will nicely offset Urban Meyer’s more obsessive traits in Jacksonville.)
In fact, it’s better for your own happiness if you don’t do those things. As someone who takes sports losses too seriously and who has struggled in the past with work-life balance, I’m honestly a bit jealous that Lawrence has realized all of this at a young age and embraced it so openly. Still, his attitude is commendable, and anyone who uses this as a way to challenge his commitment or question if he has the right mindset in the NFL should 1) shut up and 2) listen to Lawrence and remember that there’s more to life than football. — SH