There’s no doubt, to this point, the 2022-23 Steelers season has been a disappointment for Pittsburgh, particularly Najee Harris.
The second-year running back, taken in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft, has run for only 361 yards through the first eight games, with the Steelers winning just two of them.
But Pittsburgh is coming off of the bye week, and there has been a sense of a more rejuvenated, locked in team that readies for Sunday’s game against New Orleans.
“I think we came back really focused.” Harris said Friday. “We’ve got a good plan.. And (we talked about) other things outside of just what's the game plan. Just how we handle business from now on out. So it was good to, I guess, look at ourselves.”
Those ‘other things’ seem to be issues with the team’s personal accountability and finger-pointing in the media. Harris, and others, have been critical of that, but feels that the team is moving past those issues.
“Yeah, I think we showed that,” he said. “I think it was a good week of practice. We talked about things outside of just football that we need to do in house for us to help us out on the field. So I think that we made that vocalized and we're coming out here and practiced and we had a good week.”
There has been a visible sense of frustration building for the former Alabama tailback. After accounting for 1,667 yards last year and scoring ten touchdowns, he is on pace for less than half that production in 2022.
Not letting those self-doubts boil over can be tough for any player, especially one seemingly so critical to his team’s success.
“I mean there's always someone you got to blame,” Harris said. “If I’m that person, I got to blame myself. Or if you want to blame me, I'll be here, all for it. I'm not going to blame anybody else other than me, even if it's an eleven-man sport.
“But if there's any fingers to point, you can point them at me in all ways, forms or fashions. I can handle it. It comes with the sport, it comes with being that person and even comes with the status you have.”
Harris has not experienced losing very often, coming from a power program like Alabama. But trials, he says, aren’t exactly unfamiliar to him.
“I mean, it's nothing I haven’t experienced before in my life,” he said. “This isn't the first time that I've been going through this. To you all, it might, because I'm in just my second year here, so you all barely know me, but I mean it's the first time (here). I take it with a gain of salt. Keep pushing, keep practicing.”
He claims to not be pressing the ‘panic button’ yet. But clearly there’s a sense of urgency. That's why the bye week, and a chance at an elongated self-assessment as an offense, could be massively beneficial to the Steelers and Harris.
Backing up comments made by fellow running back Jaylen Warren to 93.7 The Fan Thursday, Harris said that he went to Pittsburgh’s coaches during the bye week, requesting more routes out of the backfield, perhaps in an attempts to get the running backs more touches in space.
Warren had said that there were more installs of passing plays for running backs this week. So it appears that Harris — elected a team captain before the season — is being listened to.
Where Harris goes from here will be interesting. The word ‘bust’ has been thrown out when discussing him, and comparisons to another disappointing first-round Alabama running back, Trent Richardson, have been floating around.
But those claims are incredibly premature, especially following such a successful rookie season. And that is, perhaps, part of the reason why Harris isn’t overly concerned.
“I mean, you just keep your head down, keep grinding,” he said. “You keep working, keep finding ways to get better. If the answer is not there, you look for another one. Just keep going.
“When I do good and it's going to be talked about. When I do bad, it's going to be talked about. Bad or good, it just comes with sport. I don't pay no attention. Like I said, just keep pushing. And what people say is what people say. I wouldn't be where I'm at if I really cared about what people said.”
Harris is generally saying the right things through a tough stretch. He’s trying to be a leader — something a bit new for him — while also dealing with his own personal struggles.
He's also seeming to fight that voice inside, one that everyone has, that may lead to him getting weighed down a bit by his own mind and uncertainties.
“Do I? Maybe,” he said when asked if he takes things too hard at times. “But God gives his most challenges to the strongest soldiers.”