Kovacevic: In Harris, Steelers get the right guy and, yes, in the right round

"I don't like it. I don't agree with it."

This was Najee Harris, speaking with us Pittsburgh reporter types in the wee hours of this Friday morning. And no, my goodness, he was not talking about just having been made the Steelers' first-round selection in the NFL Draft.

Rather, it was about the decade-long devaluation of all running backs at the sport's top level.

"Yeah, it was extremely frustrating," he recalled of the experience of watching players he felt were inferior -- as football players, regardless of position -- being picked ahead of him Thursday night. "Especially having this draft party and inviting everybody out and not knowing what's going to happen. But yeah ... running backs are devalued. I can give numerous reasons why we shouldn't be devalued. Just knowing that, hey, you're better than all these guys, it's just that you play running back."

He paused a moment, then referenced himself, Clemson's Travis Etienne and North Carolina's Javonte Williams, the consensus top-three-by-a-mile running backs of the class.

"We don't know what's going to happen, when they're going to start drafting running backs. And just to finally see it happen ... I'm blessed."

It happened at 11:11 p.m. when Roger Goodell, accompanied awkwardly by some random vaccinated fan -- it was a generally strange show put on by the NFL, but I'll pin that on the Cleveland setting and digress -- announced Harris at No. 24 overall.

Very next pick: Etienne to the Jaguars.

Left waiting till Day 2: Williams.

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And that was it. Two backs out of the first 32 players. Despite both having been college studs. Despite both being broadly considered among the most dynamic backs to emerge in a while:

I liked this one even better:

Check out that second name up there. That's healthy company. And the source for both those data points is nothing less than the NFL's own advanced analytics arm.

Consider this source, too:

"Very excited," came the first two words from Kevin Colbert following the pick. "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. Najee has the size, he has the speed, and 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 that he finds invisible yards at that second level. There are times where you think he should just be going down and, all of a sudden, he finds 6, 7, 8 yards. It's just really exciting to get what we think is a three-down back and add him to the team."

Excited. Exciting. Exciting.

At which point he tossed to the head coach.

"I share Kevin's sentiments. Not a lot to add," Mike Tomlin began, before adding, anyway. "I think a significant component that hadn't been mentioned, though, is his professional level of conditioning. He's a guy who comes to us with a professional level of conditioning along with his pedigree. I think that could be a catalyst for him to be an immediate component to our offense and to our team. A lot to be excited about tonight."

Excited.

Through their 11-minute session with us, those two wound up with exactly a dozen recitations of those terms. Eight for excited. Four for exciting. Three bonus usages of ecstatic, to boot.

And man, it sure didn't feel exaggerated. Whatever professional satisfaction or relief they must've been experiencing, it wasn't exactly splattered across their faces, but it was easy to sense that they got their guy. That they got the one player they most wanted who'd be realistically available at No. 24. That they got the one player who, arguably, could help them more than anyone in 2021, given their running game's dead-last NFL ranking in 2020.

Oh, and this, too: According to Colbert, who's not exactly known for lying, Harris ranked among the Steelers' top eight players in the draft.

Meaning overall. Like, including Trevor Lawrence and everyone.

"This year, we identified eight players who, if they were available to us, we would take them and not consider a trade," Colbert said, referring to trading down. "And Najee was one of those players. So again, we were ecstatic that he was there for us at 24."

Ecstatic. Told you.

Which, as I'd been writing for weeks, they should be. By every account, Harris will make an immediate, important impact. He'll be highly visible, maybe even approaching Ben Roethlisberger's profile within the offense, and, if I know my city, he'll be beloved by the time he breaks free for his first big run ... at Saint Vincent College, then all the more once he's blowing through the Ravens, Browns and Bengals at Heinz Field. And from there, wow, just imagine how it could take off.

This is the right player at the right time.

And yes, in the right round.

I get the devaluation of the running back. I do. They're more beaten up than anyone participating, they miss more games and, ultimately, even the best of them call it a career at age 30 or thereabouts. Also, the tightening of rules restricting hits on quarterbacks and contact with receivers led to a pass-first approach for most teams.

Still, the plunge was precipitous: As recently as 2008, five were picked in the first round: Darren McFadden fourth overall by the Raiders. Jonathan Stewart by the Panthers at 13, Felix Jones by the Cowboys at 22, Rashard Mendenhall to the Steelers right after that, and Chris Johnson to the Titans right after that. But by 2013 and 2014, there were none in either year. Even Le'Veon Bell fell to the second round.

And since then, as Colbert was underscoring for us earlier in the week, it's been only "the elite" who've gone in the first: Saquon Barkley. Todd Gurley. Ezekiel Elliott. Christian McCaffrey. Leonard Fournette. Melvin Gordon. Clyde Edwards-Helaire. All of whom have made sizable contributions to their respective teams. And that's without counting similar or greater contributions by second-rounders like Derrick Henry, Dalvin Cook and J.K. Dobbins.

But considering I just listed seven of the 10 first-rounders taken between 2013-20, that's a pretty nice hit rate.

So what's the status of the forbidden first-round pick on a running back?

No one could say for certain, but here's betting on something of a boomerang effect before long. Because, while the risk inherent in investing in a running back couldn't be clearer, the same applies to their effect on an offense: One-fifth of the way through this century, the average team rushing output per game has ranged from a low of 108.8 yards in 2015 to a high of 118.9 yards ... uh, just last year. Rushing touchdowns also maxed out just last year with an average of 1.0.

Passing's up, too, as offenses still prefer splash to dash, but running backs have become a bigger part of that than ever.

See what I mean?

No, I'm not predicting any back will be paid Le'Veon-demand money anytime soon. Nor that a draft trend this deeply entrenched will suddenly reverse itself.

But I am saying, with conviction, that the running back still matters. And that the Steelers were completely correct to value Harris precisely as they did.

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Want to read even more about Harris' abilities than what's already been digested amid months of draft hype?

Or would it be more fun to show a five-minute reel of a five-touchdown domination of Ole Miss?

OK, cool:

That player's now the property of the Steelers.

That's what matters. Meaning the part about now.

Sure, he'll get bruised and, before long, he'll burn out. Even the most durable bodies can only endure so much. But to address the only conceivable criticism anyone could have regarding this choice, based on all the precedent I just put forth, I'll put it bluntly: Who cares?

Maybe it's naive or just plain weird to still discuss a window when it comes to these Steelers. Maybe that window really did slam shut the moment Bud Dupree dropped and began slamming his palm on the turf. Maybe 11-0 was as good as it'll get for the foreseeable future.

But if the objective of all concerned is to contend for a seventh Super Bowl championship -- and it unmistakably is, based on both word and deed since the latest late-season collapse -- then that urgency, based on that faith, has to be applied in the now. And within that, it had to be applied to the single most glaring shortcoming on the roster, even if other needs remain all over the depth chart heading into Day 2 of this very draft.

Don't make me splice together the competing Benny Snell highlight reel here. Just don't.

Simply stated, Harris is the best possible start to any answer.

And what becomes of him -- or his brethren -- in another handful of years isn't at all the question.