OK, Najee Harris, the Steelers fourth-year running back out of Alabama, didn’t even come close to his career-high in rushing yards in the 32-13 win over the Raiders at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Sunday afternoon.

No, Harris rushed for 106 yards and a score on 14 carries–or 82 yards less than he gained in his career-best performance vs. the Browns at then Heinz Field on January 3, 2022.

So I was being hyperbolic, and maybe I’m just a prisoner of the moment, but it sure does seem like Harris is running the football harder and better in 2024 than he has at any point during a career that has already seen him eclipse the 1000-yard mark three times.

Harris, who reportedly lost close to 10 pounds during the offseason, appears quicker and more agile than he did over his first three seasons as the Steelers’ bell-cow running back. Of course, Harris got to ring the bell slightly less in 2023 than he had over his first two seasons when he toted the rock 307 and 272 times, respectively. No reserve running back was even close to Harris during his first two years; Benny Snell Jr. had the second-most carries on the Steelers in 2021 with 36 while rookie Jaylen Warren had 77 in 2022. But things changed a year ago when Pittsburgh decided to go with more of a two-back approach. Harris still had 255 rushing attempts, but Warren, the second-year back from Oklahoma State, was a much bigger contributor with 149 carries for 784 yards and four touchdowns. Warren also became the top receiving threat out of the backfield, catching 61 passes for 370 yards–or over twice as many as the 29 receptions Harris had. That was a reversal of the division of labor–if you will–as Harris caught 41 passes for 229 yards in 2022 while Warren added 28 catches for 214 yards. Harris was such a dual threat in his rookie season that, in addition to 1200 rushing yards, he caught 74 passes for 467 yards.

Harris rushed for 1,035 yards last year while adding another 170 on those previously mentioned 29 receptions.  That’s 1,205 total yards from scrimmage–or just 51 more than Warren contributed. Forget about bell-cow, Harris had himself a bona fide partner on the running back beat.

Maybe that’s why the Steelers decided not to pick up Harris’s fifth-year option this past offseason. A first-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, Pittsburgh appeared to be committed to going the distance with Harris the moment he signed his rookie deal. In fact, head coach Mike Tomlin even went out of his way to groom Harris to be the heir apparent to Cam Heyward as the team’s locker room leader. And to Harris’s credit, he was a fairly consistent rusher over his first three seasons, as evidenced by the aforementioned 1000-yard campaigns. However, it would be a bit disingenuous to leave out the fact that Harris has played his entire career in the 17-game era; what I’m saying is, if you averaged out his carries per season and yards per carry over a 16-game campaign, Harris would have only had one 1000-yard effort over this first three years.

Perhaps that is why the Steelers decided not to pick up Harris’s fifth-year option. Also, Harris doesn’t have a good relationship with the media. Have you seen him when he talks to reporters? He looks like Dana Carvey doing Ross Perot on an old SNL skit. 

Needless to say, a team leader should set a good example by getting along with the media, but Harris has never been interested in doing that…and that’s just sad.

Or maybe the organization could care less about Harris’s dealings with the media (after all, the head coach rarely sets a good example in that regard). Perhaps it’s just business–teams are becoming more reluctant to pay running backs big money.

Back to Sunday.

Harris had one run in the first half where he not only gained a first down but just kept on moving the pile until the whistle blew. He had a 26-yard run midway through the third quarter where he displayed a burst rarely seen from him. Moments later, Harris finished off that drive with a 36-yard touchdown run that was probably the most impressive play of his professional career. He took the handoff, made multiple Raiders defenders miss (he shook them out of their jocks, actually), ran down the left sideline, and then finished things off with a Superman-like dive from the five-yard line before touching down on the goal line.

Warren has been dealing with injury issues since training camp and only has 20 rushing attempts for 61 yards in 2024. Cordarrelle Patterson, who looked great in limited action over the first four weeks, has missed the past two games with an injury. This has forced Harris back into the role of bell-cow running back, and he’s on pace for 272 carries for 1,065 yards. Sure, quarterback Justin Fields, who started the first six games, has picked up some of the running slack with 55 carries for 231 yards and a team-leading five touchdowns. However, he may be relegated to the backup starting this Sunday night vs. the Jets. And even if he isn’t, Harris may have to carry the mantle as the team’s top workhorse running back for the rest of the 2024 season.

You can say a lot of things about Harris, but you can’t call him injury-prone; he’s started 57 of 57 games during his career. That’s rare for a running back who has carried the football as many times as Harris has while also taking a tremendous pounding behind an ever-changing and often struggling offensive line.

Harris turned in his first 100-yard performance of the 2024 campaign vs. the Raiders on Sunday, but he looked close to breaking out at various points over the first five games. The Steelers’ ground game got off to a slow start before improving exponentially over the past two years. While Pittsburgh’s rushing attack hasn’t been horrible through six weeks of the 2024 season, there is still room for improvement.

If that were to happen, I look for Harris to finish with the best statistical year of his career in terms of rushing yards.

Will that be enough to earn him another contract with the Steelers? It’s pointless to think that far ahead right now. I just want Pittsburgh’s offense to go from putrid to powerful. A motivated and agile Najee Harris can help with that.