3 NFL teams that should rebuild their backfield around Najee Harris

Najee Harris looks like he could be the first running back taken in the 2021 NFL Draft.

Nick Saban and Alabama didn’t have to worry about losing players like Derrick Henry and Damien Harris, as they had a 6-foot-2, 230-pound bulldozer with burst in Najee Harris waiting in the wings. In his first season as the unquestioned starter, Harris has found the end zone 22 times for the unbeaten Tide, putting him firmly in the Heisman debate.

Harris and Clemson’s Travis Etienne are the top two running backs in the 2021 class, though Harris might be starting to pull ahead. Any of these three teams might be able to draft a future 1,000-yard rusher in Harris at the back end of the first round.

These three teams need to use a first-round pick on Najee Harris

While Pittsburgh’s defense is once again at the top of the league, the offense looks like something out of the Bizarro World. Rather than a run-first, smashmouth gameplan complemented with deep passes, Ben Roethlisberger is dumping it off short 40 times a game due to an inability to run the football.

While the Steelers have invested plenty of draft capital into the position via James Conner, Benny Snell, and Anthony McFarland, Conner has failed to take that leap to stardom, while the latter two look more like role players than any sort of lomg-term solution.

Mike Tomlin knows that if this offense sputters, the lack of a running game will be the driving force. Pittsburgh is virtually set on defense and has plenty of wide receiver talent, but they need someone with the power to completely flatten opposing linebackers while also possessing enough straight-line speed to reel off big gains with regularity.

If Pittsburgh gets aggressive and trades up in the first round, they could secure an offensive building block in harris that could help their championship pursuit in the short term and give them stability in the backfield in the long-term.