Steelers RB Najee Harris talks about Kenny Pickett’s confidence level

During an interview with Najee Harris, the Pittsburgh Steelers running back addresses questions about rookie quarterback, Kenny Pickett. 

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with Pittsburgh Steelers running back, Najee Harris for an interview. Najee responded to some difficult questions pertaining to the team’s offensive struggles and what they can do to get things back on track this year.

For any member of the Steelers organization, we know that the 2022 season hasn’t been easy to talk about, and there aren’t a lot of positives to come out of what we’ve witnessed so far this year. After fielding some tough questions about his individual performance and the team as a whole, I asked Najee to talk about Kenny Pickett.

More specifically, asked if he’s confident that Pickett will be the long-term franchise quarterback for this team and what the rookie quarterback’s confidence level looks like. Here was Harris’ response during the interview:

"“I can’t really control none of that; about what goes on in that situation. But I can tell that when he comes in here, he holds himself as a leader. His confidence is all good; all of our confidence is good right now. I mean, it’s a rough time right now, but I think times like this builds character between players… Obviously, we’re all really young. We’re all still trying to learn. We don’t got it all figured out yet, but through time, hopefully we’ll be good.”"

Najee insists that everyone in the locker room is still confident — regardless of the team’s record right now. It’s important to remember that Pittsburgh has one of the youngest offenses in the NFL, and we know that it’s not going to become a powerhouse overnight. The Steelers running back believes that, in time, this team will get to where it needs to be.

To conclude my interview with Harris, I asked the second-year running back about what it’s going to take to get this team back on track this season.

"“I think it’s going to take a lot of self-evaluation is one. I think we did that too during this bye week. It’s going to take a lot of grinding though. We’re not going to be winning by a lot every game; we’re not there yet, but we can still win a lot of games. We’re planning on going undefeated the rest of these nine games… It just takes a lot of determination, really. It takes a lot of practicing at each one’s skill, knowing what one guy does best and bringing that out. But it just takes a lot of determination.”"

Fans must be patient when it comes to the Steelers offense

I really put Najee Harris on the spot with some of these tough questions; I know this couldn’t have been easy for him. Though I’ve been as hard on the Steelers running back as anybody, I do think that it is important to practice some patience when it comes to the offense.

We could argue all day about which positions the team should value more highly, but there’s no question that this is a really young group of players. In fact, Pittsburgh’s oldest starter on offense is Mason Cole at roughly 26-and-a-half years old. Many of the most important offensive starters have just games of NFL experience (not years).

We all want to see the Pittsburgh Steelers play well. Improvements could come as early as the second half of the 2022 season. The good news is that the players clearly aren’t lacking confidence — that includes Najee Harris and Kenny Pickett.