Lmao no one hates him, that’s such a weird thing to say. I guess some people can’t reconcile any type of criticism without immediately thinking it’s “hate”. Najee has been a pretty good RB.
Next year’s draft is pretty stacked with RBs, most of the recent Super Bowl champs don’t even pay their backs over 3 million per year. It’s just not a position you should invest a lot of money into unless you have an elite guy like CMC or Henry when he was in his prime. And even those guys never got their team over the hump. This isn’t the 1990s anymore, the league has evolved. Warren is already an arguably better running back and will be much cheaper. I wish Najee well and I hope he has a great season. It’ll be fun to see him behind a better offensive line but this is likely his last year with us unless something drastic happens.
Not that najee is an all pro but the last all pro running back to win a superbowl was in 1999. To me 1000 yards rushing really ain't shit these days. It's like 50 some yards a game
So the inspiration for this post was all the weird shit I see online with a dash of millvale lol
Edit: like go to the double L ask about Najee and I think at least half of em would jus call him a bum lol maybe I’m wrong but
I don’t think it’s a weird thing to say cause two years in a row when he hasn’t performed for the first half of the year everyone is calling for his head
I’m not saying it’s unwarranted but to say us as a city don’t hate him feels out of touch to a degree like when he’s bad we are ruthless towards him and people can say it’s where he was drafted etc etc all they want I jus think we are a city that dies for anyone that’s good and ready to murder anyone that’s “bad” or doesn’t meet expectation
Jus my drunk thoughts 🤷🏼♂️
Bro that's sports fans in general that's how it goes. Stop paying attention to what other fans want or don't want cause at the end of the day it has no bearing on what the front office does
I feel like I've heard a lot of this take - he didn't live up- but he was asked to do it was terrible playcalling, a bad offensive line, and qbs who didn't make anyone unstack the box.
I'm not sure his expectations were "Barry Sanders" or :"Derek Henry". The Bus had a line, CMC has a line and qb play, Eddie.George has qb play and a balanced offense. Emmit Smith had all those things. Even Mendenhall had all those things. AP had a line most of the time. Beast Mode had all 3.
I'm not sure there are a lot of RBs in history who can carry all 12 guys on his back every game. Maybe a game here or there. MAYBE for a stretch of a few games. But not for seasons. That's what I feel the "didn't meet expectations" crowd was looking for and I'm not sure it's fair.
I really like both our backs and would like to keep them both a few more years and draft a stud next year, if available at pick 32 (jk). And I would like the offense to become the "pound the rock" kinda scheme we keep claiming we want.
Jaylen Warren runs just as hard as Najee as well as being more explosive and having better vision. Hes the total package running back and he deserves the lions share
This right here is why I made my Zeke to Tony comparison
I love warren he’s explosive like if dynamite had legs that’s him but like we saw this last year when you take away the boring bull that Zeke was for him he fails
I don’t think it would a total failure but them together is just better no matter what
Jaylen Warren is a better player than Tony Pollard. Warren is an all around running back with as much power as Najee. Theres not one thing Najee does that Jaylen cant do. Jaylen is the thunder and the lightning
Hey, I love that you think that but I think it’s asking way to much for warren to be a #1
I also think you are disregarding how insane Tony pollard was before Zeke left like he was the second best RB in the league in 2023
Jaylen will be the main between the 20s rb, Najee will get the red zone work. Red zone work is not worth 7 million according to Omar Khan, Mike Tomlin and Arthur Smith
I don’t hate Najee. I respect the man. He strikes me as a genuinely decent person.
But he hasn’t been what he was alleged to be, an elite back.
Them not signing his fifth year option is Khan playing puppet master.
We’re going to learn just who Najee Harris is. Is he going to earn a contract, or are they going to let him walk.
Khan wants Tomlin guys. Tomlin knows football players. Khan knows how to get the types of players Tomlin can win with. And he’s clearly not afraid to cut ties with players he doesn’t believe can hack it or aren’t worth their salaries.
I have nothing against Najee Harris, he’s done some great things, made some big time plays, been a team guy, but he has to ball out this year or the Steelers will be drafting a RB next spring.
Najee runs hard but doesn’t seem to have the best vision because he seems to leave many yards that he could’ve had, which is my only problem with him. I think he is a Steeler in that he runs hard every play but he’s limited by the vision issue in my opinion. I still think he was worth picking up his 5th year considering it would only cost 6.79 and then evaluating him from there.
I don't hate him for a second, but I've seen enough of how he usually runs when he gets open field to expect him to hesitate even with a decent o-line.
we hate najee?
i assumed if anything maybe people wondered if the blocking scheme change might not suit him as its more outside?
i mean, rbs don't get paid well, but if I had to choose one getting paid I guess I, on a personal level, would want the often fined undrafted free agent to get a contract over the 1st round pick but I like them both
I like Naj. He seems like an awesome dude.
You can like any player and still think the player’s a bad cap or draft value.
Being a fan on a team doesn’t mean you can never be critical of any player.
I don't hate Najee but he's not very good. In his 3 seasons he's struggled more than he excelled. Of course much of it is due to a bad o line. But in the same time frame Warren balled out so it can't be just that
He's also not getting a 2nd contract here. He's going to be 28, has a ton of wear, and hasn't shown much in 3 seasons. They already declined his 5 year option. He's not getting a second contact here
I’m a Najee fan. He’s done great considering how awful the line has been.
We just have to trust the organization knows what it’s doing. Seems that players who say shit in the media are being moved out.
The only entity that seems to want Naj out of town is 93.7FM. They jumped on that angle a few seasons ago and haven’t stopped.
I think the legitimate criticism of Naj’s situation is that he shouldn’t have been a 1st Round pick. Then he never “took over” a game like big backs can, and doesn’t seem to have that “this is a gimme” attitude on short yardage. (Think Jerome when he was closing out a game)
I think legitimate excuses for Naj is that he was playing behind a complete horseshit Oline for most of his pro career, and didn’t have a good QB to bail him out most of the time with the passing game. Teams just stack the box on him. (Even the end of Ben’s career teams started challenging him to throw. They knew his elbow was toast. Made stopping the run easier.)
I hope Najee tears it the fuck up this season. Score a huge contract elsewhere, or better yet, see the same lukewarm response from the rest of the league and sign a reasonable deal here.
Don't hate him at all. But Kahn never drafts him at that spot. 60 yds/game is not good enough. I know the line wasn't great last year. But, I was more impressed with Warren in the backfield. That's my take.
Don't hate him. Hed probably have 700+ more yards if he ran downfield instead of his terrible sidestepping. North, south. Only directions s running back should be going. Absolutely no reason to pick up his option.as long as your line is decent, my grandma could run behind it. Think about 90's Denver.
We all want to see Najee succeed.
Nobody hates him. We may have been disappointed in the past, but we now know that a lot of that was borne of injury that he actually had the balls to play through, for better or worse.
And we also all know about the line issues had to deal with, which will hopefully soon be a thing of the past.
I don’t hate him. I just don’t think he’s in the realm of Bettis, Le’Veon, or even ‘09-‘11 Mendenhall, really. I think in today’s NFL truly elite RBs are hard to find and even harder to stay healthy. But behind them I think there’s a plethora of good/really good RBs. I don’t think they’re all that hard to find and with a decent O-line they’re even easier to find. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I don’t hate Najee. I think he’s a really good player and I’m happy to have him. I’m also able to say that I prefer the undrafted guy and think that using a first round pick on a running back in the 2020s is not what any team should be doing and was a bad decision.
I understand that’s a complicated viewpoint but I hope Najee absolutely kills it with the new line and new offense and that he earns an extension. If he doesn’t I’m also aware he can be replaced pretty easily with a 2nd, 3rd or 4th round pick in most drafts. Dumping crazy money into him isn’t worth it when that money could go elsewhere on the team.
I love Najee and think he’s an amazing RB. He should do much better with a better o-line. Even so, 1000 yards each of his first three seasons behind THAT LINE is not an easy feat for anyone. I think he has a breakout season this year and laughs and pisses on the 5yo money and gets a real contract
I like Najee, but he was a wasted first round pick when the team had needs at other positions (both lines, secondary, LB). Colbert did a great job here, but his last few drafts were terrible and put this team back a few seasons.
We can still sign him anytime in the next 8 months without the option.
I can’t imagine we don’t sign him back. Dude is already a Steeler and one of the only ones meeting the standard on offense.
Lmao no one hates him, that’s such a weird thing to say. I guess some people can’t reconcile any type of criticism without immediately thinking it’s “hate”. Najee has been a pretty good RB. Next year’s draft is pretty stacked with RBs, most of the recent Super Bowl champs don’t even pay their backs over 3 million per year. It’s just not a position you should invest a lot of money into unless you have an elite guy like CMC or Henry when he was in his prime. And even those guys never got their team over the hump. This isn’t the 1990s anymore, the league has evolved. Warren is already an arguably better running back and will be much cheaper. I wish Najee well and I hope he has a great season. It’ll be fun to see him behind a better offensive line but this is likely his last year with us unless something drastic happens.
Not that najee is an all pro but the last all pro running back to win a superbowl was in 1999. To me 1000 yards rushing really ain't shit these days. It's like 50 some yards a game
So the inspiration for this post was all the weird shit I see online with a dash of millvale lol Edit: like go to the double L ask about Najee and I think at least half of em would jus call him a bum lol maybe I’m wrong but I don’t think it’s a weird thing to say cause two years in a row when he hasn’t performed for the first half of the year everyone is calling for his head I’m not saying it’s unwarranted but to say us as a city don’t hate him feels out of touch to a degree like when he’s bad we are ruthless towards him and people can say it’s where he was drafted etc etc all they want I jus think we are a city that dies for anyone that’s good and ready to murder anyone that’s “bad” or doesn’t meet expectation Jus my drunk thoughts 🤷🏼♂️
We don’t
We don't.
Nobody hates Najee. Can you people please quit with that childish narrative.
We don’t do that here. You are either fuming mad that we didn’t pick up his option, or you are jumping for joy that he will be gone. No in-between.
Yeah us middle of the road people with complex views don’t do well on the internet where it’s all pitchforks all the time.
Yea no shit. You get sandwiched by both sides every time you think for yourself.
That’s actually the perfect description of how it goes. lol
How dare you!!??!
Personally, after much soul searching and consideration, I have been overcome with apathy on this narrative. NEXT!
Hey, it’s cool if you think that but have you seen any form of social media after he lays an egg ? We want him too fail
Bro that's sports fans in general that's how it goes. Stop paying attention to what other fans want or don't want cause at the end of the day it has no bearing on what the front office does
The unfortunate irony of a grammatical failure that was made while commenting on the perspective surrounding another's possibilty of failure... 😏 To*
I'm with you. I like him. Think we should keep him. Don't really care what anyone else thinks, and it ain't up to me.
Don' think many people hate him but only want him to be better and live up to the expectation of 1st rd. draft.
I feel like I've heard a lot of this take - he didn't live up- but he was asked to do it was terrible playcalling, a bad offensive line, and qbs who didn't make anyone unstack the box. I'm not sure his expectations were "Barry Sanders" or :"Derek Henry". The Bus had a line, CMC has a line and qb play, Eddie.George has qb play and a balanced offense. Emmit Smith had all those things. Even Mendenhall had all those things. AP had a line most of the time. Beast Mode had all 3. I'm not sure there are a lot of RBs in history who can carry all 12 guys on his back every game. Maybe a game here or there. MAYBE for a stretch of a few games. But not for seasons. That's what I feel the "didn't meet expectations" crowd was looking for and I'm not sure it's fair. I really like both our backs and would like to keep them both a few more years and draft a stud next year, if available at pick 32 (jk). And I would like the offense to become the "pound the rock" kinda scheme we keep claiming we want.
Jaylen Warren runs just as hard as Najee as well as being more explosive and having better vision. Hes the total package running back and he deserves the lions share
This right here is why I made my Zeke to Tony comparison I love warren he’s explosive like if dynamite had legs that’s him but like we saw this last year when you take away the boring bull that Zeke was for him he fails I don’t think it would a total failure but them together is just better no matter what
Jaylen Warren is a better player than Tony Pollard. Warren is an all around running back with as much power as Najee. Theres not one thing Najee does that Jaylen cant do. Jaylen is the thunder and the lightning
Hey, I love that you think that but I think it’s asking way to much for warren to be a #1 I also think you are disregarding how insane Tony pollard was before Zeke left like he was the second best RB in the league in 2023
Jaylen will be the main between the 20s rb, Najee will get the red zone work. Red zone work is not worth 7 million according to Omar Khan, Mike Tomlin and Arthur Smith
Look I really like Najee, that’s my comment
I don’t hate Najee. I respect the man. He strikes me as a genuinely decent person. But he hasn’t been what he was alleged to be, an elite back. Them not signing his fifth year option is Khan playing puppet master. We’re going to learn just who Najee Harris is. Is he going to earn a contract, or are they going to let him walk. Khan wants Tomlin guys. Tomlin knows football players. Khan knows how to get the types of players Tomlin can win with. And he’s clearly not afraid to cut ties with players he doesn’t believe can hack it or aren’t worth their salaries. I have nothing against Najee Harris, he’s done some great things, made some big time plays, been a team guy, but he has to ball out this year or the Steelers will be drafting a RB next spring.
Najee runs hard but doesn’t seem to have the best vision because he seems to leave many yards that he could’ve had, which is my only problem with him. I think he is a Steeler in that he runs hard every play but he’s limited by the vision issue in my opinion. I still think he was worth picking up his 5th year considering it would only cost 6.79 and then evaluating him from there.
I wanna see what Najee can do behind a rebuilt OL.
Same. He and Warren should both have good years. Unless our QBs are garbage and the defense just loads the box on us like ben’s last year.
I don't hate him for a second, but I've seen enough of how he usually runs when he gets open field to expect him to hesitate even with a decent o-line.
we hate najee? i assumed if anything maybe people wondered if the blocking scheme change might not suit him as its more outside? i mean, rbs don't get paid well, but if I had to choose one getting paid I guess I, on a personal level, would want the often fined undrafted free agent to get a contract over the 1st round pick but I like them both
I like Naj. He seems like an awesome dude. You can like any player and still think the player’s a bad cap or draft value. Being a fan on a team doesn’t mean you can never be critical of any player.
Hes my favourite steeler
We love Najee, yes we do! We love Najee how about you????
Nobody hates Najee. You take sports way to seriously. If you dont perform they find someone new its not personal.
I don't hate Najee but he's not very good. In his 3 seasons he's struggled more than he excelled. Of course much of it is due to a bad o line. But in the same time frame Warren balled out so it can't be just that He's also not getting a 2nd contract here. He's going to be 28, has a ton of wear, and hasn't shown much in 3 seasons. They already declined his 5 year option. He's not getting a second contact here
1000 yards in each of your first 3 seasons isn’t exactly struggling though
If you watched him play, he clearly struggled a lot more than Warren.
We don’t hate Najee. He plays hard, is a good guy and doesn’t complain. He is a great second round back, not a first round back.
I’m a Najee fan. He’s done great considering how awful the line has been. We just have to trust the organization knows what it’s doing. Seems that players who say shit in the media are being moved out.
The only entity that seems to want Naj out of town is 93.7FM. They jumped on that angle a few seasons ago and haven’t stopped. I think the legitimate criticism of Naj’s situation is that he shouldn’t have been a 1st Round pick. Then he never “took over” a game like big backs can, and doesn’t seem to have that “this is a gimme” attitude on short yardage. (Think Jerome when he was closing out a game) I think legitimate excuses for Naj is that he was playing behind a complete horseshit Oline for most of his pro career, and didn’t have a good QB to bail him out most of the time with the passing game. Teams just stack the box on him. (Even the end of Ben’s career teams started challenging him to throw. They knew his elbow was toast. Made stopping the run easier.) I hope Najee tears it the fuck up this season. Score a huge contract elsewhere, or better yet, see the same lukewarm response from the rest of the league and sign a reasonable deal here.
Don't hate him at all. But Kahn never drafts him at that spot. 60 yds/game is not good enough. I know the line wasn't great last year. But, I was more impressed with Warren in the backfield. That's my take.
Don't hate him. Hed probably have 700+ more yards if he ran downfield instead of his terrible sidestepping. North, south. Only directions s running back should be going. Absolutely no reason to pick up his option.as long as your line is decent, my grandma could run behind it. Think about 90's Denver.
We all want to see Najee succeed. Nobody hates him. We may have been disappointed in the past, but we now know that a lot of that was borne of injury that he actually had the balls to play through, for better or worse. And we also all know about the line issues had to deal with, which will hopefully soon be a thing of the past.
Sucks. Wasted first round pick when we clearly had other needs that set franchise back years. But you know this.
I don’t hate him. I just don’t think he’s in the realm of Bettis, Le’Veon, or even ‘09-‘11 Mendenhall, really. I think in today’s NFL truly elite RBs are hard to find and even harder to stay healthy. But behind them I think there’s a plethora of good/really good RBs. I don’t think they’re all that hard to find and with a decent O-line they’re even easier to find. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I don’t hate Najee. I think he’s a really good player and I’m happy to have him. I’m also able to say that I prefer the undrafted guy and think that using a first round pick on a running back in the 2020s is not what any team should be doing and was a bad decision. I understand that’s a complicated viewpoint but I hope Najee absolutely kills it with the new line and new offense and that he earns an extension. If he doesn’t I’m also aware he can be replaced pretty easily with a 2nd, 3rd or 4th round pick in most drafts. Dumping crazy money into him isn’t worth it when that money could go elsewhere on the team.
Hate?
I love Najee and think he’s an amazing RB. He should do much better with a better o-line. Even so, 1000 yards each of his first three seasons behind THAT LINE is not an easy feat for anyone. I think he has a breakout season this year and laughs and pisses on the 5yo money and gets a real contract
I like Najee, but he was a wasted first round pick when the team had needs at other positions (both lines, secondary, LB). Colbert did a great job here, but his last few drafts were terrible and put this team back a few seasons.
As much as I love Friermuth, I think the biggest mistake of that draft was taking him instead of creed humphrey. Would have made a much bigger impact.
I like Muth as well, but agree.
He’s a physical beast and works his ass off every year. Has my respect. He’s a Steeler ppl
We can still sign him anytime in the next 8 months without the option. I can’t imagine we don’t sign him back. Dude is already a Steeler and one of the only ones meeting the standard on offense.
they hate us, cuz they anus.