Harris welcomes workload
“I think (some people) fall into a stereotype that there’s only so many hits on a running back. I don’t believe in that at all. I feel like I train for stuff like this.” Najee Harris, Steelers running back and Antioch High alum
PITTSBURGH — Steelers running back Najee Harris is getting tired of being asked if he’s tired.
The last time the Pittsburgh rookie checked, he was drafted to do exactly what he’s doing: carrying the load for a team trying to win. So what if his 279 touches lead the NFL? So what if there still are four games to go?
Leave the hand-wringing over how much is too much for others. Harris, a former Antioch High standout, wants no part of it.
“I think (some people) fall into a stereotype that there’s only so many hits on a running back,” Harris said Friday. “I don’t believe in that at all. I feel like I train for stuff like this.”
That doesn’t mean his first NFL season hasn’t taken its toll. Harris, who was drafted with the 24th overall pick out of Alabama, conceded that doing the first Sunday game/ Thursday game double of his football career gave his body whiplash, metaphorically.
“That was a fast turnaround,” Harris said. “That was one of the struggling things I had this year, just to get my body back in shape fast.”
Harris will typically treat himself to multiple massages during the week to help his 6-foot-1, 232-pound frame recover. Rather than spread them out, he was forced to cram them into the 72-hour window between a Dec. 5 game against Baltimore and a game with Minnesota on Dec. 9. It was less than ideal. But then again, he’s well aware the NFL schedule wasn’t designed for his enjoyment.
To be fair, Harris hardly looked gassed in a 36-28 loss to Minnesota. He ran 20 times for 94 yards and caught three passes for 10 yards and a touchdown. His 1,270 total yards are the most by a Steelers rookie and there are times when he has been nearly the entirety of the Pittsburgh offense.
Harris is fine with that arrangement. It’s what he signed up for. Yes, he’s well aware of the career arc of former Le’Veon Bell, who filled a similar role with the Steelers during his prime from 2014-17, when he averaged 251⁄2 touches per game while making three Pro Bowls and two All-Pro teams. Bell, 29, is looking for work after being cut by Baltimore last month.
Is that fate awaiting Harris, 23, down the road? Maybe. He’s self-aware enough to understand he sounds very much like a player who has been in the NFL all of nine months.
“Will it affect me down the road? I don’t know,” Harris said. “But right now I will tell you that I’m perfectly fine, 100% fine.”
The Steelers (6-6-1) need him to be to have any chance at emerging from the AFC North with a playoff berth. Pittsburgh hosts AFC South-leading Tennessee (9-4) on Sunday.
The Titans have the NFL’s third-ranked run defense and Harris — for all of his charisma and toughness — is playing behind a makeshift offensive line that has struggled to consistently generate any push. Pittsburgh running backs are averaging 1.9 yards before contact, 31st in the league.
Translation? Harris is often having to do a lot of his own dirty work to make something happen. He runs with a tenacity that has earned him the respect of his older teammates and there’s little evidence he is worn down. Ask him how his body responded for the game against Minnesota, which came less than 100 hours removed from the Steelers’ game with Baltimore, and Harris just smiles.
“My body was like, ‘Bring it on,’ ” he said.
Harris insists he has been planning for this all along. The key is the work he puts in during the offseason. The monotony of the draining workouts he endures during the spring is paying off now. He said he feels fresh. Or at least as fresh as can reasonably be expected.
“I invest a lot in my body from cryotherapy, from yoga, from training a lot, from doing a lot of dry needling, from doing all type of stuff to recover well,” he said. “I think it really is how you approach it . ... If you want to master something, you have to train at it. I feel like you can train at carrying the load.”