It’s been a very curious season when it comes to Steelers running back in Najee Harris. It started earlier in the league year when the Steelers did not exercise his fifth-year option which came relatively cheap. As the season has gone on, it has also been very curious how they are utilizing Harris in the offense, or more correctly “over utilizing” his when he might not be the best option. Sometimes there are things that just make fans wonder what is going on.

If you’re not sure what I am referring to, I thought it was very curious how the Steelers deployed Najee Harris in their last game against the Kansas City Chiefs on Christmas Day. With Jaylen Warren continually getting an increased number of snaps as the season has gone on, how the Steelers are utilizing Harris, and more importantly when they are utilizing Harris, is something I’m trying to figure out.

In the first half of the game against the Chiefs, Jaylen Warren was highly effective where he ran the ball 8 times for 61 yards. This was compared to Najee Harris rushing 7 times for 21 yards. With Jaylen Warren seeming to be the player who was much more effective in the game, the Steelers chose to limit his carries in the second half to where he only had 3 carries for 10 yards. Why the Steelers chose to do this was very curious, and I started to wonder if it had more to do with Harris.

The reason why I believe this was more about Najee Harrison less about Jaylen Warren was how the Steelers handled their final possession of the game. Down 19 points with 3:31 remaining, the Steelers could have really pushed the ball quickly down the field to attempt to make up multiple scores, but instead they appeared they had already waived the white flag. This was true for two reasons as the Steelers were choosing to run the football and take more time off the clock than they would passing, especially if they were not gaining as many chunk yards, and they pulled their starting left tackle and left guard who are the two most veteran players on the offensive line.

What is more curious to me is that, while the Steelers did not want to risk anything else to two of their lineman, they didn’t choose to have their secondary running back or even their third option in the game. Instead it was Najee Harris. In garbage time when the opponent was playing a defense to prevent the deep pass, Harris was able to run very effectively and gained 45 yards on five carries.

By padding his stats on the final drive, it put Harris as the leading rusher for the Steelers in the game. So on the stat sheet it appeared as if Harris was the main guy, but really it was Jaylen Warren who was most effective while the game was still somewhat in question.

So why would the Steelers do this?

I can’t say for sure, but there are a couple ideas that popped into my mind. Is this something where the Steelers are trying to keep Najee Harris happy to where he would potentially want to stay in Pittsburgh? Is this the Steelers wanting Harris’ numbers to look better so he might fetch more on the open market and would help more in the compensatory formula? Could it be that the Steelers are just so stubborn and since they have stated “Najee Harris is the guy” that they must do all in their power to make it look like he deserves the majority of the carries going forward?

I’m not sure what it is. It could be something completely different. It could be that I’m reading into this way too much. But, to me, it felt as if the Steelers took the end of a game, which was their worst loss of the season, and decided to pad the stats of their lead running back.

What do you think? Am I way off base here? Is there something more going on than meets the eye, or am I reading too much into things? Make sure you leave your thoughts in the comments below.