For a player who as a rookie led the NFL in touches, played almost 1,000 offensive snaps and was the designated ball-carrier or target for almost 40% of his team’s plays, it might seem difficult for the Pittsburgh Steelers to ask much more of Najee Harris in Year 2.
That doesn’t mean the team’s head coach and captain didn’t do so, though.
“(Mike Tomlin) and Cam (Heyward), they brought me in and talked about taking on a leadership role,” Harris said upon reporting to training camp at Saint Vincent last week.
“They told me, ‘You need to be that guy.’”
So Harris, the second-year running back who was a first-round pick after helping Alabama win another national title, is adding an important duty to the heavy workload he already has been asked to carry for the Steelers at just 24 years old.
A leadership voice for a young Steelers offense.
“I don’t ask people to be something that they’re not,” Tomlin said. “It is naturally in his wheelhouse. It is something that just oozes off of him. It’s just about he and us cultivating that and using that for our collective good.”
The only running back taken in the first round last year, Harris went on to lead NFL rookie running backs in carries (307), rushing yards (1,200), yards from scrimmage (1,667), rushing TDs (seven) and total touchdowns (10). He was second in all of the league in touches (381), led all running backs in catches (74) and targets (94, tied) and was third among all running backs in receiving yards (467).
Never shy in taking on that substantial workload, Harris similarly insists he is prepared to shoulder more of the intangibles that come with being a budding league star, too.
“I embrace it,” he said of being a team leader.
But by what methods? Harris is something of a dichotomy in that he’s far from shy but at the same time can be reluctant to be the center of attention. He is an extroverted, quick-witted prankster at heart while also hesitant to speak on behalf of the team.
“There are all types of leaders. There’s leaders who lead from the back, and there’s leaders who lead in the front,” Harris explained. “Obviously, the vocal ones like Cam, and there’s leaders who lead by example. I feel like I’m the type of guy who leads by example. I try to be that type of person. But I try to be the one who leads by speaking, too.
“There’s all kinds of leaders. It’s really just who the team is most comfortable with, who can set the best example of what the standard is. For me, it’s just playing by the standard.”
The standard.
Harris spent four years immersed in what is the gold standard of college programs at Alabama, and like everyone else who’s been in the Steelers stadium’s home locker room became quickly well-versed in the Tomlin credo, “The standard is the standard.” It’s embossed in chrome in what is now called Acrisure Stadium.
So, to Harris, what is “The standard?”
“The Steelers’ standard, obviously, is hard-nosed football,” he said while standing in front of the Rooney Hall dormitory he will call home for three-plus weeks in Unity Township. “There’s grit, like these damn dorms, stuff like that, just the traditional style of the Steelers.
“Mine is along those lines, too. But I am motivated in a way, I want to achieve more. Mine’s more of a hunger and drive for me.”
A curious type who is eager to read up and learn about a new topic that interests him, Harris seems genuinely intrigued about learning leadership methods.
“Naj is good football player, and he’s going to get better,” retired Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said during a recent 102.5 FM interview. “He’s probably going to carry the load this year and is capable of doing that. I think he has ability to be great leader for that offense.”
The truth is, by the way some of his veteran teammates tell it, Harris already had achieved a leadership stature by the end of his rookie season. Compelled to be more of a quiet type in his first go-round in the pros, by the latter stages of last season, Harris’ work ethic and production had earned the respect of his teammates.
“You could see it. It was a natural progression last year,” Heyward said. “Najee was asking for more, hungry to lead and be vocal. Najee is guy who leads by example and is always on and knows how to be in the weight room trying to get better. Guys got to follow his lead.”
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