PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Steelers tailback Najee Harris confirmed they did have meetings after the Browns game about their offense, to address some of their issues. Harris spoke for the first time Wednesday since offensive coordinator Matt Canada was fired and said of what he's seen from the group now.
The 2021 first-round pick is coming off his best game of the season, 99 yards rushing against the Bengals. It was the team's first 400-yard offensive performance since before Canada was hired. Harris said the coaches did a good job of preparing them last week after all of the distractions from outside the locker room.
"For us as an offense going out there and executing at a high level and putting up that yardage for the first time, I tip my hat to us as a team," Harris said. "Them (Pat Meyer, Eddie Faulkner and Mike Sullivan) really motivating us and doing a good job, especially Coach Faulkner. It deserves more talk."
Harris has been around Faulkner his entire Steelers career. While he didn't call the plays, Faulkner prepared the team well, according to multiple players, with upbeat meetings and a positive attitude. So here is more talk about him.
"Good leadership qualities," Harris said. "He gives really good examples of what exactly a team should be. Not saying that Coach Canada didn't do that, this isn't a shot to him. Coach Faulk did a good job of being a leader and carrying that leadership mentality.
"He is really holding a lot of people accountable for stuff, good or bad."
Harris said it comes down to execution, but they now have an identity on offense. That makes it easier to prepare and then know exactly what they want to do on the offensive side. Now they need to keep that going. It can't be a one-off and it starts with continuing to hammer the details at practice this week.
So the change, through one week, has been productive.
"Did it produce the results?" Harris said. "You could say that, we had a 400-yard game. Sometimes it's not about the results, sometimes it's an understandment of each other. What type of team we are."
"This is a bond. If you break up as a team, then we lost. If you guys write the stuff that you guys write, it can be whatever it wants. It's about the trust in each other and knowing that nothing can break what we got in the room rather than what you guys write on social media."
Now it's about how much work they want to continue to do to take another step. Harris said the first one was last weekend, but they need to put more on the field.
The 2022 offensive captain, Harris wanted change. Said they can't keep doing the same things after the loss to the Browns. He, and the team, got it and after a week feel good about the direction they are headed.
