The Steelers got their man.
Typically when you're picking in the bottom half of the first round in the NFL Draft, you're getting the third, fourth or even fifth-ranked player at a particular position.
But because the Steelers were willing to go against the grain and take a running back in the first round, they got the top-rated running back in this year's draft, Alabama's Najee Harris, with the 24th-overall selection.
The Steelers are always happy about their picks -- who isn't? But in this case, the elation about getting the draft's top-rated running back was palpable.
"Najee is as complete a back as we could hope to get at any point in the draft and it was very exciting for him to be available for us," said Kevin Colbert. "Najee has the size, he has the speed, he has the athleticism. He has the run skills to run inside and outside. Also, he can also play in the passing game as a receiver as a blocker. He's a three-down NFL back.
"He played in an NFL system and really his one hidden trait is he finds invisible yards at that second level. There's times where you think he should just be going down and all of a sudden he finds six, seven, eight yards. It's just really exciting to get what we think is a three-down back and add him to the team."
It's especially exciting, to use a word Colbert mentioned multiple times to describe Harris, because the Steelers not only didn't have a starting-caliber running back on their roster, they haven't had a starting-caliber running back on their roster since 2017.
That was the last full season the Steelers had Le'Veon Bell. And since then, they've ranked 29th or lower in rushing each season each season, including dead last in 2020.
Fixing that running game in this draft is job No. 1. And the Steelers feel Harris, the 2020 Doak Walker Award winner as the nation's best running back, helps accomplish that.
There's no penciling Harris (6-1, 230 pounds) in as the Steelers' starting running back. You can put his name atop the depth chart in ink. Heck, carve it in stone.
"He's got a nice combination of size, strength and athleticism," said Mike Tomlin. "His picking vision is excellent in terms of finding holes. He shows patience while doing that. He's a complete back. He's very good in the passing game, whether it's routes out of the backfield or aligning outside the backfield. There's not a lot of holes in his overall game, and I think those are the things that made him an attractive selection."
The all-time leading rusher and touchdown scorer at Alabama, Harris gained 3,843 yards in four seasons with the Crimson Tide, sharing backfield time with the likes of Damien Harris and Josh Jacobs in his first two seasons before taking over as the primary runner the past two seasons.
He could have turned pro after the 2019 season, when he gained a team-best 1,224 yards with 13 touchdowns, but chose to return to school to improve as a pass catcher -- and take another run at a national championship.
Harris did both.
"When I look at tape and film I want to be satisfied with myself. My junior year I was not satisfied with myself" Harris said. "There were a lot of things I felt like I needed to improve on and work on, me personally. A lot of people were saying was it a hard decision. No, it wasn't. It was a no-brainer to be honest with you.
"I didn't really care about what other running backs in the draft class, it was, was happy with what I put on film that year? And no, I was not. I couldn't say I was, so I wanted to go back and improve on all those things that I felt like I needed to work on. I think I showed that I'm a three-down back and stuff like that, but I guess the stereotype, any big back can be a three-down back, blah-blah-blah, so I wanted to make sure is that question answered, and I feel like this year I answered a lot of those questions. There's still a lot of stuff I need to work on, but I was more satisfied with what I put on film for sure, though."
In 2020, Harris became a complete back. He not only rushed for 1,466 yards, averaging 5.8 yards per carry, he caught 43 passes for 425 yards. He scored 30 touchdowns, 26 on the ground and four through the air, drawing comparisons to Bell and former Bears running back Matt Forte.
For the Steelers, that style of running back was exactly what they were searching for. It's been what they've coveted since taking Bell in the second round in the 2013 draft. They selected James Conner, another big back who catches the ball well, in the third round in the 2017 draft and he became their bell cow after Bell left in free agency.
But Conner couldn't stay healthy, missing 12 games in three seasons as the starter and large portions of several others because of injuries.
With Conner gone in free agency this year, signing with the Cardinals, the Steelers were in the market for a new lead back to head a running back room that also includes Benny Snell, free agent signee Kalen Ballage, Anthony McFarland and Jaylen Samuels.
And they wanted someone accustomed to handling a heavy workload. Over the past two seasons he's handled 209 and 251 carries without issue. For his career, he had 638 carries -- again, without missing time, appearing in 55 games.
"I think that's to his credit," Colbert said. "Sometimes you look at that and say, well, the wear and tear, he's already got this many carries, but I always look at it the other way. He was a durable player, again, in an NFL-type running offense in what is one of the toughest leagues in college football. I view it as a positive because he was very durable for Alabama."
After dealing with Conner's injury issues, that's what the Steelers were looking for, a dynamic runner who is going to show the best ability -- availability.
Some fans and pundits felt the Steelers should have addressed their offensive line first. Left tackle Alejandro Villanueva remains a free agent. Center Maurkice Pouncey retired. Left guard Matt Feiler signed as a free agent with the Chargers.
But those three players helped the Steelers average a league-worst 3.6 yards per carry in 2020. It was not, however, all on the offensive line.
Conner averaged 4.3 yards per carry last season. All of the Steelers other backs averaged 3.1 yards per carry. A good back, which Conner was, when healthy, had success.
And the Steelers feel Harris is better than just a good back. They feel he can be great.
"He was a player that we really valued," Tomlin said. "We were ecstatic that he was there, and we took him and we took him pretty quickly with little to no dialogue."
Now, they can get about the business of further fixing their offensive line on Day 2 of the draft, which kicks off later on Friday.
"It's our intentions to turn around the run game," Tomlin said. "Whether or not our work is complete as we sit here tonight in that regard or not, whether it's the acquisition of players, the development of schematics, the finding of cohesion within our staff, all of that is irrelevant in terms of completeness tonight. Our intentions are to improve our running game."
