The NFL’s official draft profile of Najee Harris featured legitimate concern about Harris’ durability because of the workload he undertakes and the punishment his body therefore endures.
As the touches pile up during a rookie season for the Pittsburgh Steelers, though, Harris doesn’t share those worries.
“Am I concerned? No,” Harris said after practice Friday. “(Shoot), I want more (work)! You feel me? I want the ball.
“I feel every running back should want the ball more, if you’re a running back is that type of ‘dawg’ running back. My body is good. I take really good care of my body. Knock on wood.”
While he said that, Harris for some reason used his fist to touch his head. Presumably, that head is not, in fact, made of wood. Harris is anything but stiff, and he advanced a major reason why Friday in discussing what was his most significant physical activity during the Steelers’ recent idle weekend.
“I do yoga a lot,” Harris said. “I have been doing yoga forever.
Steelers RB Najee Harris on the virtues of doing lots of yoga pic.twitter.com/a4z1rESZ5y
— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) October 29, 2021
“It helps me a lot because as a running back you get put in a lot of positions — awkward positions, too — when you get tackled. You never know how you are going to get tackled. But I want to have an answer to every like little way that I get tackled and especially in a pile. My leg might be way over there and stuff like that. I don’t want it to be something new to my body where it reacts differently or … my body reacts to it weird. So yoga helps a lot. Everybody should do yoga, too.”
Only five players in the NFL have more carries headed into Week 8 than Harris’ 102: and each of those five had played seven games while Harris has played six. Harris also leads all league running backs in receptions (34). Only the Tennessee Titans’ Derrick Henry has more total touches among NFL running backs.
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