3 reasons Steelers made the right call with Najee Harris in the first round

It was no big secret the Steelers were going with a running back early. Here’s why I think they made the right call with Najee Harris. 

The Pittsburgh Steelers selected Najee Harris with the 24th pick of the draft. It wasn’t much or a surprise after seeing the picks leading up to Pittsburgh’s draft slot. It was clear teams were going by the best player available approach through much of the draft.

The call to pick Harris was the right one for a number of reasons.

To be candid, in terms of talent level Harris and Etienne were probably closer to top 20 regardless of position. The running back position has seen its value decrease over the last few seasons and a lot of it has to do with passing becoming more prevalent in today’s game. With that being said looking at the list of prospects the Steelers had to choose from at 24th made running back the easy choice.

The top 3 corners and tackles were already off the board. The best safety of the class was still available, along with the best center. Yet, Landon Dickerson is by and large considered a second-round pick and with Terrell Edmunds’ improvement in 2021 paired with Minkah Fitzpatrick, it would be a waste to use your top pick on a safety. The Steelers need to fix their run game, and at this point, the best players available were arguably the top two running backs.

It is also worth noting that Travis Etienne was selected with the very next pick. Assuming they would have picked Etienne regardless, the Jets and Dolphins both lack a featured running back and were selecting at the top of round 2. There is a very real chance that all 3 of the top backs could’ve been selected before the Steelers’ next pick.