Najee Harris was picked by Kevin Colbert to be the key piece for the Steelers' rushing offense to return to respectability in 2021 as the team revs up for what may be Ben Roethlisberger's final year.
But it's also no secret his receiving skills as a running back add another gear to his game. If his skills at Alabama translate quickly to the NFL, he could be the extra weapon that makes Roethlisberger's targets too many for defenses to focus on during a given play.
When Harris became Nick Saban's primary back in his junior 2019 season, everyone paid attention to his 1,224 rushing yards and 13 rushing touchdowns. But his 27 catches for 304 receiving yards and seven touchdowns that year also showed his ability to be an overall weapon for the offense.
During his last two NCAA seasons he totaled eleven receiving touchdowns from Tua Tagovailoa and Mac Jones. But it's the how in his big receptions that show why Mike Tomlin, Roethlisberger and Matt Canada should all be excited to get to throw him the ball.
Here's one example where you can see his confidence out of the backfield on his way to catching the ball. Alabama was in the red zone against Texas A&M and with the Crimson Tide's insanely deep receiver group, the Aggies had to leave Harris alone in coverage. The guy who drew the short straw for that matchup was Buddy Johnson, one of the Steelers' fourth round picks.
But watch how Harris set up his circle route by freezing Johnson He came out of the backfield and knew Johnson's strength wasn't covering in space, so all he had to do was put on a stutter step that got the linebacker to give up inside leverage. Once that happened, Tagovailoa's scrambling allowed him to find Harris for the score:
Nice footwork, right?
Having a running back who can line up in the backfield and come out as a quick and explosive receiving threat could put several teams' defensive depth at linebacker to the test.
Those moves weren't a fluke either, as Harris has made a habit of shaking defenders in space to present an easy target for his quarterback. Here's when he did that in the SEC Championship against Florida, again using the stutter step to force his man to freeze and respect whichever direction he's headed:
Teams that don't have their own Devin Bush in their linebacker rooms are going to have a hard time stopping those kinds of moves from Harris.
But those moves shouldn't be things taken for granted in the Steelers' offense. Canada has to have ready plays to use Harris' explosiveness out of the backfield as a real weapon. The Steelers' offense dug itself back to relevancy in 2014 in large-part to the emergence of Le'Veon Bell as a legitimate receiving threat.
Bell's 854 receiving yards that season are the most by a running back in franchise history. And he didn't come into the NFL with the skills that Harris has flashed in college. Plenty of Bell's best receiving yards were from him being an emergency check-down pass for Roethlisberger and then making the most of it.
It was only later when he had become a big part of the offense that would also line up as a receiver. But Harris was already doing that at Alabama, a program that has had four prolific receivers go in the first round of the NFL Draft over the past two years.
Watch how he set this play up with some improvisation on his hitch route when he saw the only defender in the middle of the field commit hard underneath on his hitch pattern. You can see him recognize the opening, break to the middle of the field and exploit an overcommitment:
That's not just athleticism, but also wherewithal to be able to diagnose all of that quickly on the field.
And having overall awareness is a big part of being a receiving option who can bail out your quarterback or just exploit defenses' mistakes. The Steelers also have a talented receiver group with JuJu Smith-Schuster, Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool and James Washington each being legitimate threats.
Being able to line up with any combination of those receivers will put defenses to multiple decisions about which players get matched up with their best cornerbacks, who gets double-teamed, etc. But after all of that gets figured out, a legitimate receiving threat out of the backfield could make for real matchup nightmares.
Especially when Harris is able to combine athleticism, good positional awareness, and can make back-shoulder receptions in tight coverage like this:
Despite being plastered with good coverage, Harris still attacked the ball at it's highest point while still remaining in bounds.
Not that back shoulder fades into the end zone to Harris should always be the option, but it's one of the most difficult passes to defend and most defenders wouldn't expect for a running back to pull off the moves Harris has shown.
He'll get the chance to sharpen his route skills with running backs coach Eddie Faulkner, and if he follows Bell's lead as a player, he could also work with the team's receivers to improve his footwork and be even quicker in and out of his breaks.
Either way, there are several facets to his receiving game that put him ahead of Bell when he first arrived. If they manifest into NFL success, it could make for some early fireworks for the Steelers' passing attack.
