It is rare to take a running back in the first round of the NFL Draft these days. It is ever rarer for the running back of note to not even get offered a fifth-year option and rather than leaving town after four years. That was the case when it came to Najee Harris' run with the Pittsburgh Steelers: The former Doak Walker winner out of Alabama is now playing for his second NFL team in his career after signing with the Los Angeles Chargers in free agency.
Harris signed a one-year deal to play for Jim Harbaugh. There were probably several reasons the Bolts were an ideal fit for him, but I think getting out of dodge was one of them. For whatever reason, Harris went together in the Steelers offense like lamb and tuna fish. I thought they were all about pounding the rock. We should have seen it. Even owner Art Rooney II had some thoughts on him.
Here is what Rooney had to say about Harris' status with the team at the very end of January.
"Najee is a good player, and obviously, he's gonna have decisions to make. We have decisions to make."
Rooney's comments to 93.7 The Fan are as brutal as they are puzzling. Harris may not be the player many of us thought he would be coming out of Alabama, but he is a Nick Saban guy through and through. My thought is that would have translated quite well playing for the defensive-minded Mike Tomlin. Even stranger, he struggled to be all he could in Arthur Smith's ground-centric offense.
The Steelers were done with Harris over the course of several years and it shows some dysfunction.
What Najee Harris walking says about the Pittsburgh Steelers franchise
It has been a wild and crazy ride for the Steelers ever since Antonio Brown went on Facebook Live. We are coming up on a decade of perpetual playoff futility for Pittsburgh. While the Steelers have not had a losing season since the George W. Bush administration, they have not won a single playoff game since drafting T.J. Watt. He has been in the league since 2017 and is not getting any younger.
This may be a result of Mike Tomlin having everyone in the organization in a trance because he can win nine or more games every season. It could have something to do with the change of guard in the front office, going from Kevin Colbert to Omar Khan in the last few years. Even more damning, players would rather leave the franchise in free agency for more historically dysfunctional ones than stay put.
It has been a brutal offseason for the Steelers. Justin Fields would rather play for the New York Jets than win nine games next season. Russell Wilson is on the saddest quarterbacking courtship tour I have ever seen. Mason Rudolph only came back because the Tennessee Titans are essentially a dead franchise with their only hope being a No. 1 pick. Now we have Harris leaving in his prime for the Bolts.
What I am getting at is when the outcomes are lesser than the greater expectations that were prophesied, the only result is continued disappointment. It has forced the Steelers into a weird place and in the awful middle of the NFL. The hope was a college star like Harris would help sustain whatever excellence the Steelers wanted to define up on the fridge with a nifty gold star magnet.
Overall, Harris was not mean for Pittsburgh? Maybe the fit was more forced than trying to make fetch happen in Mean Girls? Regardless, this just comes across as an organization where doubt is finally starting to trickle in. It has been so long, they do not know what it is. Pittsburgh may win the division next year for all we know, but this is a franchise defined by Lombardi Trophies, not nine-win seasons.
Los Angeles and Pittsburgh should be fringe playoff teams again next year, but I like the Bolts more.