5 reasons Najee Harris wasn’t a good value for the Steelers

The Steelers running game didn’t improve

This is the simplest argument for why Harris wasn’t worth the first-round pick. All of the last off-season’s narrative was built around this idea that the team would rebuild their rushing attack into a top unit once again. From the ownership down, the demand was for a feared Steelers running game to return. Simply put, that was far from the outcome.

While Harris himself had decent total yards, the offense as a whole failed to run the ball effectively. While Harris posted well over 1000 rushing yards, he and the rest of the team struggled to continually be effective when running. Most of the time those stats came in the second half of the game when the team was already down and the opposing defense was focused on preventing the big play.

Again, defenders of Harris will point to the below-average line as the reasoning for his struggles. That said, Harris’s ability to see a hole and take it wasn’t always there either. Again, this proves that a running back isn’t necessarily the key to a good running game. In the case of the Steelers, it clearly wasn’t, as the offense failed to be effective once again when putting the ball in Harris’s hands.