Najee Harris has struggled all season, but his best game came Sunday against the Saints. Can we expect more of the same from the Steelers RB moving forward?
Last week I spoke to Najee Harris in an interview. I put him on the spot with a few difficult questions pertaining to the offensive struggles and what this team needs to do to get back on track. I like to think I had a hand in his emergence in Week 10 against the New Orleans Saints (though we know there are plenty of other factors that much more realistically played a role this week).
In all seriousness, I thought Harris did an excellent job against the Saints. In my opinion, it was easily the best game of his 2022 season so far. I’ve been as hard on Najee as anybody, but I loved what I saw from him against New Orleans in Week 10. He was decisive and violent — two traits every running back needs to succeed.
In addition, Najee did a great job of recognizing the hole right away and powering through it with little wasted effort. His best run of the game came on a 36-yarder in which he bounced left and sprung through a hole. Halfway through his run, he punished a would-be tackler and picked up extra yards down the sideline.
By the end of the game, the Steelers starting running back finished with 99 yards on 20 carries for 5.0 yards per pop, via ESPN stats. This was very encouraging for a running back who managed just 3.3 yards per carry on the season prior to this point and was one of the worst in the league in terms of efficiency. But can this sudden surge continue?
Don’t expect Najee to be dominant for the Steelers
With a very manageable schedule on the horizon that includes games against teams like the Colts, Falcons, Panthers, and Raiders, I would expect the second half of Najee Harris’s 2022 season to go much better than the first. It also helps that this young offensive line has had half a season to gel and improve. However, I certainly wouldn’t be expecting consistent, dominant performances from the second-year running back.
While I was encouraged by what I saw from him against the Saints, it’s important to look at this game in context. New Orleans was missing 9 defensive players (4 starters) with injuries. Among the most important were EDGE Marcus Davenport, LB Pete Werner, S Marcus Maye, and CB Marshon Lattimore. These losses are in addition to five other defenders already on IR.
Every team deals with injuries, but the Saints were completely decimated on defense. If we are also looking at this game in context for Najee, we need to consider that he accounted for 99 of the team’s 217 rushing yards against New Orleans. The rest of the ball carries, collectively, averaged the same exact amount of yards per carry (5.0) as Harris in this contest.
It’s also worth considering that Najee isn’t going to have a 30-yard gain in every game. In fact, this has only happened twice in his career so far. I hate to do this (because this play counted, and deservingly so) but if you take away his 36-yard play vs the Saints, Harris averaged what we are used to — 3.3 yards per carry.
I think Najee Harris is bound for better days ahead, and I think that started to show this week. However, because the Saints were riddled with injuries defensively and because other Steelers ball carriers were just as efficient with their touches, I wouldn’t put too much stock in his performance against the Saints until we start to see him do this much more consistently.