Mueller: Omar Khan, Steelers make right call with Najee Harris
Score another one for Omar Khan and the Steelers’ new way of doing business.
Instead of doubling down on Kevin Colbert’s ill-advised choice to make Najee Harris a first-round pick, Khan declined Harris’ fifth-year option, meaning that Harris will head into this season in the final year of his contract.
Good. That’s how it should be. Running backs simply aren’t what they used to be, in terms of value. No position has been more drastically impacted by the league’s shift to pass-first offense than the guys who used to routinely rack up 25 or more carries per game.
As the league has evolved, the most forward-thinking teams have abandoned the idea that a bell-cow running back is necessary, or even preferable. Paying one guy premium money is frowned upon; taking a back in the first round is a borderline act of insanity.
The rare times it still happens, it’s usually because said back has clear pass-catching ability; Bijan Robinson last year would be an example. So would Travis Etienne, taken one pick after Harris in the same draft. Harris might be the last workhorse, old-school running back to go in the first round for a very long time.
He hasn’t lived up to the pick, by the way. Harris is the only back in franchise history to start his career with three straight 1,000-yard seasons, but while that sounds nice, it isn’t indicative of the player he has been. Running for 1,000 yards in a 17-game season requires a player to average 58 yards per game. Harris has barely cleared that mark each of the last two seasons, and only got to 70 yards per game his rookie year.
More than anything, he’s been a very inefficient player. That’s not entirely his fault; the Steelers haven’t had truly good quarterback play since the 2018 season, their offensive line was a mess when Harris got here – partly because the team passed up players like Landon Dickerson and Creed Humphrey in favor of drafting Harris and Pat Freiermuth – and the play calling has been unimaginative, at best.
Harris’ inability to overcome less-than-ideal support makes me think back to Colbert’s comments about him after the pick was made.
“He played in an NFL system and really his one hidden trait is he finds invisible yards at that second level,” Colbert said. “There’s times when you think he should be going down and all of a sudden he finds six, seven, eight yards.”
Harris has broken lots of tackles, I can’t deny that. Among running backs, only Etienne broke more tackles this season, with 31 to Harris’ 30, per Pro Football Reference. Harris was fourth in attempts per broken tackle, at 8.5.
Even those stats that reflect favorably on Harris can be used to undercut him, however. Care to guess who led the NFL in attempts per broken tackle? If you guessed Jaylen Warren, at 5.5, you would be correct. Warren had three fewer broken tackles than Harris in 106 fewer attempts. If an undrafted free agent can do an even better job than Harris in the one area where he’s objectively good, that would suggest that devoting premium draft capital and lots of money to the position is a big mistake.
Warren’s emergence in his first two seasons really is the strongest argument against making any kind of financial commitment to Harris. He’s the better running back. He hits holes more aggressively, is a nightmare to bring down at the second level, is more explosive, is a better pass protector and is more explosive in the passing game.
Warren is averaging 5.5 yards per touch for his career, compared to 4.2 for Harris. That might not seem like a lot, but it really is. Almost an extra yard-and-a-half every time Warren touches it? That adds up in a hurry. It can mean the difference between a punt or a first down, or just put the offense in a better position to have the whole playbook available to them.
It took a while, but this decision, coupled with the rest of the moves Khan has made since taking over, further reinforces the notion that the Steelers are doing things differently, and blazing new trails. Khan understands positional value, Andy Weidl has a keen appreciation for the importance of offensive line play, and Mike Tomlin is hardly standing in the way of progress.
In fact, I’d imagine if Tomlin really wanted Harris’ fifth-year option to get picked up, he could have pounded the table in support. There is nothing, zilch, to suggest that he did. That tells me that the head coach is evolving, too, and for the better.
Football might be a contact sport, but building the best, most complete roster is a resource allocation game – one the Steelers are finally figuring out.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Mueller: Omar Khan, Steelers make right call with Najee Harris
