Warren is a Good #2 RB But the Steelers Need a #1

[blu]

How long can the Najee charade continue? I fear that no other team will pick him as a free agent & he stays here. Or even worse, that our esteemed head coach offers his adopted son a multi-year contract & continues the suffering.

[tbsteel]

Najee has fooled so many Steelers fans, smart fans too.

He’s durable, he runs hard, and he doesn’t fumble.

But he’s just so limiting. There are so many plays this year that have been blocked up for huge, game-changing runs that just… go for 8 yards.

This has been the best he’s run his entire career in a contract season, and outside of a couple of games against some teams in turmoil, he has not been good.

I saw it his rookie year. He doesn’t have natural RB vision and decision making. He’s indecisive because he can’t naturally anticipate. He has no stop-start explosion (something Bell was elite at). If an opposing D over-commits for a run blitz, even if we have the right call away running away from it we still can’t make the opposing D pay because he’s slower than most LBs.

The Najee Harris era has been a complete disappointment and we should have drafted or brought in another guy two years ago. But the Steelers seem obsessed with having a limiting, non-threatening, bad offense, which Najee is a perfect fit for.

[SteelerDayTrader]

Warren is decent back. Not great. Ok 3.

The Steelers style of football needs AT LEAST 5 RBs who can push a defense running the ball. And at least 2 of those ought to be a credible threat splitting out wide.

The single biggest reason the Steelers haven’t been competitive for a decade + is not near enough quality bodies at RB and RB/WR hybrids

Najee gets way too much hate here.

He’s a solid RB. Not great. Not his fault the Steelers put themselves behind the 8 ball and drafted him a round too early and failed to take some of the load off of him or build a decent OL his entire career

[.Kodiak]

Warren is decent back. Not great. Ok 3.

The Steelers style of football needs AT LEAST 5 RBs who can push a defense running the ball. And at least 2 of those ought to be a credible threat splitting out wide.

The single biggest reason the Steelers haven’t been competitive for a decade + is not near enough quality bodies at RB and RB/WR hybrids

Najee gets way too much hate here.

He’s a solid RB. Not great. Not his fault the Steelers put themselves behind the 8 ball and drafted him a round too early and failed to take some of the load off of him or build a decent OL his entire career

So Najee is "solid" but Warren is only an "OK 3"? You actually think Najee is the better back?!? How's retirement treating ya, Kevin?

[SteelerDayTrader]

Warren is decent back. Not great. Ok 3.

The Steelers style of football needs AT LEAST 5 RBs who can push a defense running the ball. And at least 2 of those ought to be a credible threat splitting out wide.

The single biggest reason the Steelers haven’t been competitive for a decade + is not near enough quality bodies at RB and RB/WR hybrids

Najee gets way too much hate here.

He’s a solid RB. Not great. Not his fault the Steelers put themselves behind the 8 ball and drafted him a round too early and failed to take some of the load off of him or build a decent OL his entire career

So Najee is "solid" but Warren is only an "OK 3"? You actually think Najee is the better back?!? How's retirement treating ya, Kevin?

- First of all. Fuck you. Mainly for being a chronic jackass to many here. A long time ago now B2B asked everyone to calm down. I’ve complied most of all because B2B is a genuinely good guy who takes good care of this website and contributes more high quality product than anyone here and has for a long time. It’s truly the least I can do. And. I gotta add. He was TOTALLY right. It makes for a MUCH better site and a MUCH better experience for everyone. But know this Kodiak. If things WERE the low quality low brow piss poor environment they used to be I would fucking OWN any of you piss ants anytime I felt like it about anything. Even about shit I’d purposely take the wrong side on just as an interwebz ownage exercise to keep my ownage muscles in shape for national emergencies. Lolololz

- I didn’t say anything about Najee being better than Warren. I said solid and OK 3. Those are both pretty damn close and anyone who isn’t purposely trying to be a jackass is well aware of that

- You want a definitive statement shoved up your ass sideways ? Najee and Warren are both good parts of potentially a winning 5 RB unit. Najee most definitely rates a little higher on the scale if I had to give them a number score. If you disagree you are wrong. But. Many here would say that’s your default setting so I suppose you’re use to it.

- The Steelers insider organization and most of their fan base want to run something close to 70 offensive plays per game. They’d like to have AT LEAST a 60/40 split run/pass. In all seriousness they would be happy if it was 80/20 or more and they could get to NHALS and maybe a game better most years. However at just 60/40 and 70ish plays that translates roughly 42 runs. That ought to roughly look like: ( just depending on situations/matchups/skill sets/etc )

RB = 10-15
RB = 10-15
RB = 5-10
RB = 5-10
RB = 2-5

Take a guess how many carries Harris and Warren are averaging this year ??

17+
less than 7

Guess who is in the top 5 total carries of all RBs in the NFL ??



191
75

Najee never gets credit here for being a lockerroom leader dedicated to the team despite being the Steelers most abused and misused player for several years now.

I like Warren. He’s an OK RB. Slightly different skill set/style than Najee. Neither is a true needle mover as RB1. Who is RB2 and who is RB3 ?? A smart well coached team would tell you that can change a little at times depending on situations/matchups/hot hand/etc

[W&M_Steeler]

Warren is decent back. Not great. Ok 3.

The Steelers style of football needs AT LEAST 5 RBs who can push a defense running the ball. And at least 2 of those ought to be a credible threat splitting out wide.

The single biggest reason the Steelers haven’t been competitive for a decade + is not near enough quality bodies at RB and RB/WR hybrids

Najee gets way too much hate here.

He’s a solid RB. Not great. Not his fault the Steelers put themselves behind the 8 ball and drafted him a round too early and failed to take some of the load off of him or build a decent OL his entire career

I've been a Najee hater (I preferred Etienne at thatspot, but he hasn't turned out that great), but lately I've been coming around to your point of view. He has some talent and a role on an NFL team. He's not a Trent Richardson type bust, and he's better than the Benny Snells of the world. If Najee had been a 3rd rounder people wouldn't complain about him. But he doesn't have 1st round talent, and the Steelers too often don't play to his strengths and do him no favors with the stretch plays. He and Warren make a decent tandem, but they'd benefit from adding another quality back.

[blu]

Najee never gets credit here for being a locker room leader dedicated to the team despite being the Steelers most abused and misused player for several years now.

I like Warren. He’s an OK RB. Slightly different skill set/style than Najee. Neither is a true needle mover as RB1. Who is RB2 and who is RB3 ?? A smart well coached team would tell you that can change a little at times depending on situations/matchups/hot hand/etc

Don't locker room leaders need to be top players at their positions or formerly have been a top player. Harris realistically never has been with no real burst & little vision. His high overall yards were always due to the multitude of runs never per run. Having 2 RB2's but no true RB1 is not what a winning NFL team requires especially one that relies so much on the run. The worst was earlier in the season when a has-been like Patterson clearly out-shone Harris.

[SteelerDayTrader]

Najee never gets credit here for being a locker room leader dedicated to the team despite being the Steelers most abused and misused player for several years now.

I like Warren. He’s an OK RB. Slightly different skill set/style than Najee. Neither is a true needle mover as RB1. Who is RB2 and who is RB3 ?? A smart well coached team would tell you that can change a little at times depending on situations/matchups/hot hand/etc

Don't locker room leaders need to be top players at their positions or formerly have been a top player. Harris realistically never has been with no real burst & little vision. His high overall yards were always due to the multitude of runs never per run. Having 2 RB2's but no true RB1 is not what a winning NFL team requires especially one that relies so much on the run. The worst was earlier in the season when a has-been like Patterson clearly out-shone Harris.

??????????!!!!!??

[R_S]

Warren is decent back. Not great. Ok 3.

The Steelers style of football needs AT LEAST 5 RBs who can push a defense running the ball. And at least 2 of those ought to be a credible threat splitting out wide.

The single biggest reason the Steelers haven’t been competitive for a decade + is not near enough quality bodies at RB and RB/WR hybrids

Najee gets way too much hate here.

He’s a solid RB. Not great. Not his fault the Steelers put themselves behind the 8 ball and drafted him a round too early and failed to take some of the load off of him or build a decent OL his entire career

For a decade you've been hammering the need for 3 good backs. Now you've upped that to 5. I'm trying to think of an NFL team that uses even 3 backs regularly. If we have 5 backs all contributing I'm not sure there are enough offensive plays in a game for anyone else to touch the ball.

[SteelerDayTrader]

Warren is decent back. Not great. Ok 3.

The Steelers style of football needs AT LEAST 5 RBs who can push a defense running the ball. And at least 2 of those ought to be a credible threat splitting out wide.

The single biggest reason the Steelers haven’t been competitive for a decade + is not near enough quality bodies at RB and RB/WR hybrids

Najee gets way too much hate here.

He’s a solid RB. Not great. Not his fault the Steelers put themselves behind the 8 ball and drafted him a round too early and failed to take some of the load off of him or build a decent OL his entire career

For a decade you've been hammering the need for 3 good backs. Now you've upped that to 5. I'm trying to think of an NFL team that uses even 3 backs regularly. If we have 5 backs all contributing I'm not sure there are enough offensive plays in a game for anyone else to touch the ball.

The overriding point is this

If you are gonna play caveman rock fight football

You need good quality fresh legs and bodies at all times

To do that you either need a young Derek Henry and a few other quality RBs

OR

A 5 headed monster


Pretending Harris Warren and some random spare parts is enough isn’t gonna work

[TimmayLake]

Actually you need 7 good RBs, not 5.

[.Kodiak]

No, we need more receivers that can run the ball. Duh!

[Deebo]

This is just a theory, but I wonder if Harris runs better on turf vs grass?

Be an interesting stats split.