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While many NFL players relish the chance to test free agency, Najee Harris didn’t give it much thought during his final season with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Harris did ultimately test the market, signing a one-year deal with the Los Angeles Chargers, but it wasn’t necessarily by choice.
Harris, a 2021 Pro Bowler and the only current player to rush for over 1,000 yards in each of the previous four seasons, said that he had known for a while that he would not be re-signing with Pittsburgh, despite Steelers general manager Omar Khan saying during February’s NFL Scouting Combine that the team hadn’t “closed the door” on re-signing Harris.
“Me and coach T [Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin], we’re pretty close in certain ways, so I kind of knew what was coming,” Harris said during his introductory presser. “I didn’t plan on doing it. It wasn’t something that was in the plan or anything. But it’s a business. Coach T told me that when I was a rookie. Even in my last year, he would tell me, this is the business side of things. … I just took that and I understood it. I just knew that would be my last year … maybe, like, halfway through the end of the season, I kind of knew that.”
The first running back taken by the Steelers in the first round since 2008 (when Pittsburgh took Rashard Mendenhall with the 23rd overall pick), Harris was a productive, reliable and extremely durable player during his time with the Steelers. In 2021, Harris broke Le’Veon Bell’s franchise record for total yards gained by a rookie. Harris’ contributions that year helped Pittsburgh clinch a playoff berth during Ben Roethlisberger’s final season.
Over the next three years, Harris continued to churn out 1,000-yard rushing seasons while helping the Steelers clinch two more playoff berths.
Harris’ production in Pittsburgh is more impressive when you consider the ongoing turbulence that the Steelers’ offense went through during that time span that included six different starting quarterbacks, the firing of then-offensive coordinator Matt Canada midway through the 2023 season (which occurred shortly after Harris’ passionate postgame interview following a lackluster road loss in Cleveland) and inconsistent offensive line play.
Despite all of that (along with the team not picking up his fifth-year option last spring), Harris didn’t plan to leave Pittsburgh after the 2024 season. And, based off what Khan said at the NFL combine, it appeared from the outside that the door hadn’t closed on Harris re-signing with the Steelers.
But, as Harris acknowledged this week, the NFL is a business, and the Steelers obviously felt that it was time to go in a different direction. For all of his success in Pittsburgh, it became clear that Harris wasn’t fully appreciated by the Steelers, who are probably looking to replace him with more of a game-breaking back that can get to the outside.
Pittsburgh may find that back, but it’ll be hard-pressed to find someone as durable as Harris, who played and started in each of the Steelers’ 71 games over the past four years. The Steelers also face the challenge of finding a back that possesses the physical and mental toughness of Harris, who said that the Chargers’ physical attitude was one of the reasons why he chose to sign with them once he became a free agent.
“The identity is what makes the plays, the integrity of how it is,” Harris said. “And that’s what brought me here. Watching their games throughout the season, to see how their O-line works, how good their line is and how they finish, and the integrity that they bring. I feel like that’s what makes the plays is the O-line. They have a good O-line here, so I just want to take advantage.”
