PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – For all of you concerned about the work load on rookie tailback Najee Harris. He's not worried about it.
"I think you fall into the stereotype of there are so many amounts of hits on a running back," Harris told reporters on Friday. "I don't believe in that at all. I train for stuff like this. I really train a lot to carry to load. I train for that. I work out a lot."
The rookie first round pick is fourth in the NFL in rushing attempts and no other running back in the AFC has the 75 targets he does receiving. He admitted it was a tough, short-turn around to playing last week on a Thursday after playing Sunday that he never dealt with before. Harris said it's something he tried to prepare for.
"It's a fine line of how you approach the game," Harris said. "You got to train yourself knowing that there will be certain times where I will touch the ball 30-plus times. So, I think it's how you attack the offseason."
"LeBron James spent, what, $2 million-$3 million, on his body, recovering. The reason he does that is because he plays a lot of minutes. I invest a lot in my body from cryotherapy, from yoga, from training a lot, doing a lot of dry needling-all to recover well."
"I think it's how you approach it."
With all of the talent at Alabama he chuckled about his usage in college. He says he always gets that, but said with eight receivers going in the first round during the time he was there, 'do you think they were going to give me the ball?'
Harris said his first couple of seasons with the Crimson Tide he was just chillin'.
The stats would kind of back up his premise. Harris rushed it 61 times as a freshman, 117 as a sophomore, 209 his junior year and career-highs with 251 carries and 43 receptions as a senior.
"It doesn't really affect me," Harris said. "Will it affect me now the road? I don't know. I will tell you right now that I am perfectly fine. 100% fine."
Full player
The Steelers rookie said he takes pride in being a player that will do anything to help his team win.
"You have to be more than just a player offensively," Harris said. "You have to be a complete player-I feel like that is doing extra things. Finishing plays. Finishing blocks. Even when an interception occurs, just being somewhere to make the play."
"The interception with the Bengals, for me to come down and tackle the guy when he would have scored a touchdown. That's seven points that were not scored and the defense held them to three points. That can be the difference in a game, especially in the NFL. It's so close and anything can happen."
"Just those little points that you think don't matter, it matters a lot. I feel like we need more of that on this team to be honest."
Talkin' Trash
It's become a subject for debate this season with the taunting penalties. The trash talking between players. Harris says he doesn't talk at all, not even 'respectful' trash talking.
Harris said you can't cross the line of 'talking mess' and then go overboard, draw a penalty-like Chase Claypool did last week for unnecessary roughness-and affect the whole team. He says he's not a prude about it, just warns teammates to not do something to impact everyone.
He learned the lesson in high school in California saying there was a game where he lost his cool and it not only cost him, but all of them.
"There was a late hit after the play," Harris explained. "He was doing it all game. I reached a point where I got tired of it and reacted. I got in a fight with him and suspended the next game."
"Ever since then, I look back at it. That really affected the whole team. At the end of the day if it's affecting the team, that's all that matters."
Execution
It's been an issue for weeks, the Steelers struggling in first halves or sometimes the first three quarters offensively.
"Just doing the little things, finishing plays, finishing blocks, finishing runs, finishing through the catches," Harris said. "Try to execute better, we really got to execute better. It's a lot of factors to starting fast. The most eye-popping thing is just execute better. We need to execute better, 100%."
