Najee Harris doesn’t care about your prediction for the Steelers playoff game Sunday night in Kansas City. No offense. He’s also got no time for the bookmakers who have installed the Chiefs as two-touchdown favorites.
And don’t get him started on adopting an “underdog mentality.”
“I don’t think that matters at all,” Harris said. “Any time you are playing a sport — no matter what people say or think — it does not help a team win or lose a game. (The prognosticators) are not playing the game at all . . . I don’t really give a hell about any of that shit.”
What does matter is the Steelers made the rookie running back available to the media after Friday’s practice — the first one this week in which Harris was a participant. It’s an encouraging sign that the elbow injury he suffered in the regular-season finale against the Ravens won’t keep him out of the opening-round playoff matchup with Kansas City.
It’s looking increasingly likely another Steelers offensive weapon, JuJu Smith-Schuster, who hasn’t played since sustaining an Oct. 10 shoulder injury, will be available Sunday. He practiced for a second consecutive day on Friday.
“It gives a big boost to everybody to have another key player back,” said Harris, who stopped short of saying whether he thinks Smith-Schuster will play.
The Steelers must decide in the next two days whether to activate the wideout from injured reserve.
As for Harris, he declined to say if he will be available for the rematch with the Chiefs — Kansas City walloped the Steelers, 36-10, on Dec. 26 — and he’s officially listed as questionable on the injury report.
But it sure looks as though Harris, who finished second among all NFL running backs with 1,612 yards for scrimmage this season, will give it a go. It’s hard to imagine the Steelers having any shot at beating the high-powered Chiefs without the multi-purpose back. Meanwhile, Kansas City's feature back Clyde Edwards-Helaire has been ruled out due a shoulder injury.
In trying to ready himself for Sunday, Harris said he received a Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) injection earlier in the week as part of his treatment.
“It was sore for a couple of days, but it’s feeling better,” he said.
Harris acknowledged he injured his elbow on the third offensive play of the Steelers’ 16-13 overtime win in Baltimore. The medical staff tried fitting him for a brace during the game, but he was concerned about its restrictive nature in terms of bending his arm. Harris specifically was concerned with ball security when attempting to run through defenders.
He did not have a single regular-season fumble despite leading the NFL with 381 touches.
“I was like, ‘put some tape on it,’ and I got back in there,” he said.
Harris finished the game with 57 yards total offense while participating in just 40 plays, amounting to just 53 percent of the team's offensive snaps. He was at his best in overtime with the Steelers’ season on the line.
He made a one-handed, 11-yard catch in overtime on a poorly-thrown ball from Ben Roethlisberger. If Harris hadn’t got a hand on the pass it likely would have been intercepted. Later in the drive, he set up Chris Boswell’s game-winning field goal with a 15-yard run.
“(It) says he's the guy that we said he was the whole time,” offensive coordinator Matt Canada said of Harris’ late-game heroics after returning from injury. “He made a one-handed catch and some really big runs. I think he was really effective when he came back and (it) certainly says a lot about him as a person and how much of a team player he is. How much he wants to win. He loves to compete, and he loves to win.”
After struggling to produce chunk plays in the run game for much of the season, Harris has looked dangerous down the stretch. The running back believes that he and the patchwork offensive line are finding a rhythm heading into the playoffs.
“It’s everyone executing their jobs,” said Harris, who finished fourth among NFL backs in rushing with 1,200 yards. “ . . . It’s understanding assignments and believing in one another.”
That belief is more important to him that what Las Vegas bookies might think of the Steelers' chances.
“I don’t really care about the underdog thing,” he said. “ . . . Let’s have fun, man. Let’s compete.”
