PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Not that this should be a big surprise, but Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada confirming Najee Harris is their starting running back.
A lot of reaction to Jaylen Warren’s 62-yard touchdown run against Buffalo Saturday and his effectiveness so far with in his second season. But the Steelers plan hasn’t changed in terms of who is the lead tailback.
“Your body can take so much,” Canada said Monday. “We feel like he’s done a lot. We want to get him to the show and get him ready to play for us. It’s been a systematic plan to keep him upright. At the same time, get him ready to play. That’s a fine balance for everybody.”
“Certainly, we are planning on Najee being Najee when we start the regular season.”
“Naj is our one, there is no doubt about that.”
Harris suffered a Liz Franc injury during camp last year and didn’t hit 20 carries in a game until after the buy week. That first opportunity after a week off, he ran for 99 yards and gained 673 of his 1,034 yards in the second half of the 2022 season.
“A lot of it is keeping him fresh for the season,” Canada said. “You guys talked about it after his year one, how many touches he had (led the NFL). How many times he was on the field, the number of plays. Last year, we reference the bye a lot, we ran the football quite a bit and Naj was a big, big part of that, not that Jaylen wasn’t.”
Canada wouldn’t say if what Warren has done would change the percentage of opportunities between the two. Last season Harris had 272 carries to Warren’s 77 (that meant Najee had 78% of the rushing workload). Harris averaged 3.8 yards a rush, Warren 4.9.
“I’m never going to lock ourselves into again kind of ‘what it’s going to be’ or ‘how it’s going to go’,” Canada said. “I don’t think that’s fair to anybody.”
Canada alluded to letting the season play out as other factors can also impact how the carries are split. That doesn’t mean the coaches don’t appreciate Warren and how he has performed so far.
“Obviously Jaylen had a really, really good run,” Canada said of the 62-yarder Saturday. “Got it all the way to the end zone, finished the run. He finishes a lot of runs in practice.”
What Canada means by that is after a run is complete, Warren typically continues to run hard into the endzone or tens of yards past the end point of the play to simulate a longer run. Harris does that at times as well, but Warren is notorious for it. The Steelers offensive coordinator is pleased with how he’s performed.
Really, the Steelers have protected both backs. Najee has two carries this preseason, both in the last game. Warren only has four, three in the first game. They also want to get a longer look at Anthony McFarland, the fourth-year tailback is in the final year of his contract after spending last season on the practice squad.
“We’re fortunate,” Canada said. “We are excited about all of the weapons we have.”
We just don’t know how they will use them all at this point.