COLUMBUS, Ohio — Merril Hoge spent Monday night watching film from the weekend’s full slate of NFL games. The bull-necked former running back hasn’t worked as an ESPN analyst for four years, but he still obsessively studies the sport and its nuances. He’s breaking down tape on days when Urban Meyer supposedly is taking time off to visit grandchildren.
Monday, in a discussion with DK Pittsburgh Sports, Hoge drew attention to how indispensable Najee Harris has become to the Steelers' offense. And in doing so, he spotlighted a single play from the 15-10 victory over the Browns the previous day. No, not Harris’ third-quarter touchdown, nor any of his 25 other carries, nor his three receptions. Rather, it was his contribution on the team's game-winning, fourth-quarter touchdown.
This contribution:
Ben Roethlisberger lofted a perfect pass to the back of the end zone on a fourth-and-goal at the Cleveland 2, and Pat Freiermuth made a juggling, contested catch — somehow keeping both feet inbounds:
“Najee makes plays that a lot of fans might not appreciate,” Hoge said. “But I guarantee they're appreciated in the locker room when they're watching film together.”
Look above one more time at how Roethlisberger alertly shifted Harris to the left to help block Myles Garrett. Sure enough, the Browns’ All-Pro edge rusher beat rookie left tackle Dan Moore and likely would have hammered the quarterback if not for Harris’ critical chip buying Roethlisberger an extra split-second to release the ball.
“Najee does a great job there because Ben actually (pump fakes), and you can’t usually do that down there and get away with it,” Hoge said. “Najee does so many things like that during the course of a game that make a difference, even when he doesn’t have the ball in his hands.”
The Steelers clearly can’t get enough of their first-year running back.
But at what cost?
While nobody in the football world could reasonably dispute the quality Harris delivers, there’s some concern about overextending his playing time. Mostly because running backs tend to age quicker than U.S. presidents, wearing down at a rate unlike any other NFL skill position because of the punishment they absorb.
Harris has participated in 85.9 percent of the Steelers’ 471 offensive snaps. Roethlisberger has been on the field for all of them, while receiver Diontae Johnson ranks third at the skill positions at 73.2 percent. Among NFL running backs, Harris is second in touches with 165, trailing only the Titans’ Derrick Henry with 235, though he's played an extra game and is now could done for the season with a foot injury. When it comes to snap counts, however, Henry has been involved with just 71.1 percent of Tennessee's offensive plays.
“They have Najee out there because he’s one of the big reasons why they win,” Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk told DK Pittsburgh Sports. “Even when he doesn’t touch the ball, he’s still drawing attention because what he can do as a runner and a receiver. The Steelers just don’t have many players that you game-plan around ... And let’s not forget, he’s playing in the most brutal division, the AFC North, during a season where there’s 17 games.”
The Steelers’ braintrust is well aware that Harris’ participation level is not sustainable long-term, even as the rookie says he cherishes the workload he’s receiving. But the team is back in a playoff race at 4-3 after starting the season 1-3. And none of those four victories have come by more than eight points, meaning the best players have been needed to the end of every game.
Kalen Ballage has earned a few more snaps in recent weeks, and Anthony McFarland returned from injury against the Browns.
“There’s no doubt they want to spell him a little more, and they’re starting to do that,” Hoge said of Harris. “The real problem is they don’t have anyone who can do all the things he does, and the way he does them.”
Translation: Keep that chinstrap buckled tight, Najee.
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Marshall Faulk with the Rams.
Bill Polian knows what makes for a great running back. He drafted Thurman Thomas in Buffalo and Edgerrin James in Indianapolis. Both are enshrined in Canton — right alongside Polian.
The 78-year-old former general manager had no doubt the Steelers made the right choice in selecting Harris with the No. 24 overall pick in the spring.
“I said this before the draft and I’ll say it now, Najee Harris is the real thing,” Polian told DK Pittsburgh Sports. “He’s the guy Pittsburgh has been waiting for since Le’Veon Bell left. He makes a huge difference in the offense, he makes a huge difference in the team, he makes a huge difference in the red zone.”
Harris ranks 13th in rushing yards (68.4 per game) and fourth in attempts (128), while rumbling behind a rebuilt offensive line that struggled mightily in the opening weeks. Among running backs, he’s fifth in receiving yards (273) and second in receptions (37). The rookie’s productivity in the passing game has been a blessing to the 39-year-old Roethlisberger, whose immobility and inexperienced offensive line have made it difficult to take many deep shots down field.
Hoge understands the comparisons to Bell because of the versatility, but he said Harris is a much better route runner as a rookie, and “he’s a lot smarter.”
Faulk, one of the NFL’s great dual-threat backs, is gobsmacked at Harris’ agility and fluidity in catching passes out of the backfield at 6-foot-1, 232 pounds.
“I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t seen anyone his size be able to do the things he does as a receiver,” Faulk said. “You would think he’s a scat back, but he’s a big kid. Most guys that size are first- and second-down backs. His ability in the passing game, the blocking and the ability to catch and run with the ball, surprises you. I think Pittsburgh is just scratching the surface at what they have to build around.”
Faulk also acknowledges the dangers of relying too much on Harris and exposing him to a high volume of hits.
Harris can help prolong his career, Faulk said, by not being a “tough guy” on every carry and thinking he must break each tackle. The sideline is sometimes your friend. So is the idea of not believing your success is tied exclusively to the ground game.
“As a running back, you want to be handed the ball, but when they throw you a swing pass, you are going against safeties and corners as opposed to running into the line against defensive tackles and linebackers,” Faulk said. “Those are often better touches. ... The game isn’t about your ability, it’s about your availability.”
Early in his college career, Harris considered transferring because he was used in a rotation of running backs. It wasn’t until his junior and senior seasons when he earned more than 200 carries.
NFL Draft guru Dane Brugler said in hindsight Harris and the Steelers are probably happy that Nick Saban didn’t overwork Alabama’s all-time leading rusher.
“Every running back, for a lack of a better description, has an expiration date with their body,” Brugler said. “I guess that’s true for all of us in life, but especially with running backs. He didn’t come out of college as someone who had way too many touches. That should help him in the long run.”
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Franco Harris with the Steelers.
The Steelers had another full-bodied running back named Harris. You might have heard of him.
Franco Harris helped the Steelers win four Super Bowls before jetting off to Canton — with a forgettable layover in Seattle. Franco played in an era when running backs, not receivers, were the second-biggest offensive stars behind the quarterback.
Among the reasons he lasted 13 seasons (1972-84) was his relatively light workload early in his career. He didn’t carry the ball more than 262 times until 1976 when both Franco and Rocky Bleier rushed for 1,000-plus yards.
Former Steelers media relations director Joe Gordon said he's stunned by the statistic and doesn’t recall Chuck Noll ever putting a limit on Franco’s rushing attempts. In his first three years, he shared carries with the likes of Preston Pearson and John 'Frenchy' Fuqua.
Nowadays, many teams run the ball by committee, and a prime example is the Browns with Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt. Chubb is one of the league’s most powerful backs, but he’s taken more than 60 percent of his team’s offensive snaps just twice since the start of the 2020 season. Keeping him fresh helped enable him to average 10 yards per carry in fourth quarters last season.
Cleveland coach Kevin Stefanski lets running backs coach Stump Mitchell decide which player he wants to deploy on any given series, but the organization clearly has set limits for each game with the goal of not overtaxing Chubb or Hunt, who’s been sidelined the past few weeks with a calf injury .
“I have to juggle that the entire game," Mitchell said during training camp. “I don't want to be over that by more than two (carries), because then I'm going to get chewed.”
The Steelers don’t have that luxury with Harris at this point, but Hoge believes the organization will work to correct that in the offseason.
“To not think about that kind of stuff would be absolutely foolish,” Hoge said. “You want to have a great eight- to 10-year run with Najee. . . . A guy can only take so much. Those collisions add up, they take a toll. You want to spread those out as much as possible to help prolong his career. The longer he plays, the better the Steelers will be.”
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Najee Harris dives into the end zone for a third-quarter touchdown Sunday in Cleveland.
Harris was such a competitor in high school that his coaches in Antioch, Calif., would hide his helmet and shoulder pads to dissuade him from attending practices on some days. He not only practiced hard, but worked out early in the morning and late at night. Even on his draft day, Harris drove to his local gym so as not to miss a training session.
While fans might love the dedication, Faulk cautions running backs about overdoing it.
“These guys today train so much,” Faulk said. “They take no time off to let their bodies heal. They are always training, always doing something. When you’re young, you have to take time off to give your body the rest it deserves.”
Harris works toward achieving a balance. Since his high school days, he’s trained with a yoga instructor, an activity he continues to pursue in Pittsburgh.
“It helps me a lot because as a running back you get put in a lot of positions — awkward positions, too — when you get tackled,” Harris told reporters last week. “You never know how you are going to get tackled. But I want to have an answer to like every little way that I get tackled, and especially in a pile. My leg might be way over there and stuff like that. I don’t want it to be something new to my body where it reacts differently or ... my body reacts to it weird. So yoga helps a lot.”
It will be interesting to see if the Steelers give Harris some days off from practice over the season’s second half. Faulk recalled hitting the “rookie wall” about 12 games into the 1994 campaign.
For now, Harris wants to be more involved in the offense, if that’s possible.
“Am I concerned? No,” he said. “I want more. You feel me? I want the ball. I feel every running back should want the ball more, if you’re ... that type of ‘dawg’ running back. My body is good. I take really good care of my body.”
The Titans have signed Adrian Peterson to help replace the crippling loss of Henry. How effective a 36-year-old running back can be is anyone’s guess. Age has a way of humbling even legends like Roethlisberger.
“I think Najee is going to be good,” Faulk said. “If he continues to play with a Ben Roethlisberger-caliber of quarterback, he’s going to be great. I’d hate to see him with a quarterback that teams don’t respect because that’s when you start to take a beating.”
The Steelers don’t harbor such worries at the present time. They are trying to shepherd Harris through the end of the regular season with the potential for a few playoff games.
Maybe it’s time Mike Tomlin calls the coaches in Antioch to find the best hiding places for Harris’ shoulder pads and helmet. Good luck with that.
“Najee does everything with maximum effort,” Hoge said. “That’s how you build a winning team. You gotta have good people, not just good players, because there are going to be bad times and you have to check yourself. You need players in the locker room helping to lead. He’s clearly one of those guys. I’m not sure if I’ve seen anyone quite like him from a running back perspective.”
