Steelers A to Z: Now in contract year, will Najee Harris keep status as featured back?

Editor’s note: From now until the first practice of training camp at Saint Vincent College, TribLive is running through the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 90-man roster, looking at each player and assessing his outlook for the 2024 season. The breakdown will run in alphabetical order with at least two players each day between June 14 and July 25. Contract data courtesy spotrac.com.

RB NAJEE HARRIS

Experience/age: 4th season, 26

Contract status: $4.15 million cap hit in 2024, after which scheduled for unrestricted free agency

The past: When Harris was taken with the 24th overall pick in 2021, NFL draft orthodoxy from many was that a running back was unworthy of that much draft capital. Harris’ career has only served as justification for both sides of that argument.

Over his first three pro seasons, Harris was the only running back to have at least 1,000 rushing yards in 2021, 2022 and 2023. He led the NFL in touches as a rookie, and he’s had at least eight total touchdowns each season. In addition to leading the Steelers in rushing each of the past three seasons, Harris has averaged 48 receptions and almost 300 receiving yards per season. He’s played almost two-thirds of the Steelers’ offensive snaps since he’s entered the league, by far the most of any skill position offensive player. Harris also was a team captain, and a player unafraid to call out teammates or the offense in general when it hasn’t performed to expectations.

But Harris’ career per-carry average languishes below 4.0, ranking 37th, 40th and 23rd in the league by season in that category. By 2023, he’d gone from the “every-down back” he’d been promoted as to a player who was in an almost-even split of touches with formerly undrafted Jaylen Warren. Pro Football Focus has never graded Harris higher in any given season than as the league’s 16th-best running back.

2024 outlook: So was Harris a successful pick as a franchise running back or not? The Steelers probably did all the answering you might need to know when on May 2, they announced they would not be picking up the fifth-year option on Harris’ contract for the 2025 season. At $6.97 million, it was not an exorbitant amount.

That would signal a better-than-not chance that 2024 is Harris’ final season with the Steelers. Warren, incidentally, is also on an expiring contract — although as a restricted free agent, he lacks the leverage in leaving next spring. But will the Steelers continue their transition from a running attack centered around Harris to one featuring Warren? With a new play caller in Arthur Smith, plenty remains unknown.

Smith made his name via an offense featuring another large and powerful former Alabama running back, Derrick Henry. But even the most ardent Harris backers would concede he is no Henry, who’s likely destined for the Hall of Fame.

With the (financial) stakes so high for Harris in what is now a contract year, will he continue to get the majority of the carries? Will he remain content if not? Will Harris’ voice still carry weight with teammates and coach Mike Tomlin if his role continues to lessen?