James Harrison hasn't played much more football this season than most 39-year-olds.
The only difference is, while most of his contemporaries have moved on with their life's work, he remains on an NFL roster. Not that you'd know it on game days. He has appeared in just four games this season for the Steelers, none since Oct. 22.
Needless to say, Harrison isn't happy about that fact.
"No," he told me frankly when I asked Friday at the Rooney Sports Complex if he would have re-signed with the Steelers this season. "I would have signed somewhere else."
If he sounds frustrated, it's because he is.
"No doubt," he told me.
Some might think there isn't a market for aging pass rushers, but 37-year-old Dwight Freeney appeared in four games for the Seahawks this season before being released. He was immediately signed by the Lions, who were looking for a pass rusher to help replace injured Ziggy Ansah. Freeney has three sacks in five games this season.
Harrison signed a two-year, $3.5-million deal to return to the Steelers in the offseason after he appeared in 15 games in 2016, making seven starts after splitting time early with Jarvis Jones. And he was the team's most effective pass rusher for much of that time, recording 5.5 sacks -- including the playoffs -- in his last nine games. All told, he had 53 tackles, five sacks, two forced fumbles and an interception in the regular season, adding 20 tackles, 2.5 sacks and a forced fumble in three playoff games.
He returned this season with the thought the Steelers would use him, if not in a similar fashion, at least in some kind of impactful way. Outside linebackers coach Joey Porter said in training camp the team could use Harrison as a "relief pitcher" behind rookie T.J. Watt and Bud Dupree at outside linebacker.
But outside of playing 16 snaps in a 19-13 win at Kansas City when he had three tackles, two pressures and a fourth-down sack late in the fourth quarter, Harrison has largely been unused. In fact, he's been a Sunday inactive for half the games, appearing in just four for a total of 29 snaps.
"If you look at everything except my age and look at all the other numbers from last year, I think I’m around there with some of the best," Harrison told me. "But the only number they can seem to look at is the age right now."
It's not as if Harrison doesn't understand. When the Steelers put him into the starting lineup in 2016, for example, the team was foundering at 4-5. They needed a spark. And Harrison, who has a team-record 80.5 sacks and 82.5 for his career, provided that. But with the Steelers at 10-2 heading into Sunday night's game at Heinz Field against the Ravens, the team hasn't needed that spark this season. Pittsburgh is ranked fourth in the league in total defense and fifth in scoring defense.
It still doesn't take the sting away of not playing.
"Last year, we had also dropped some games. Even in ’14 and 16, we had dropped three or four games before I began starting. Now we’re doing well," Harrison admitted. "They want to go younger. It’s obvious. The guys are playing well. There’s no need to change them."
But even at midseason, Porter said he had been in constant communication with Harrison -- who, ironically, replaced him in the lineup in 2007.
"I try to tell him how fortunate he really is and I know how hard he works in the offseason and it’s easy to get frustrated," Porter said earlier this season. "I try to tell him, you’re 39 years old ... You’re in a fortunate spot to where a lot of people don’t get that. Nobody plays linebacker here at 39. When we hit 30 we’re always looking to do something different. So the simple fact that they still have you here, that just shows you how much loyalty they have to you and they still think that you can still play. As long as you know that, you can’t be mad at the situation.
“We want you to be here to win a championship; we want you to be part of it. No matter how we use you. And when we do use you, I know you’re going to go out there and make a play. As long as we have the same understanding and we don’t hide anything, he knows exactly what it is, there’s really nothing you can be mad about.”
Porter also said there would come a time, such as when a team comes into Heinz Field in December and wants to run the football, that the team could need Harrison to go out and perform.
Harrison feels that's all well and good. But he also doesn't feel it's fair to put him in that situation.
"I don’t know how many people you say you’ve got a plan for and you don’t use them two or three quarters of the year and then you expect them to perform when you put them in," Harrison said. "I’ve never heard that. Obviously, if that’s their plan, that’s their plan. I don’t think that’s their plan. It may be just how things play out just because of circumstances within the team and the health of people."
The health of people has certainly changed the dynamic. With Ryan Shazier and his backup, Tyler Matakevich, both officially out for Sunday's game against the Ravens, the Steelers were forced to move Arthur Moats to inside linebacker this week and sign veteran Sean Spence. But they have just eight healthy linebackers going into the game and Moats said Thursday that the injuries should mean Harrison is active on game day for the first time in over a month.
Harrison said he'd not been told that.
"You got more news than I do," he replied when I informed him that it looked like he would be active. "I hope that’s the case. You’re telling me something new."
Ultimately, the decision goes beyond Porter or even Keith Butler. It goes to Mike Tomlin. And Tomlin apparently hasn't communicated any kind of plan to Harrison the way that Porter has.
"We understood each other. We were in communication," Harrison said of Porter. "He’s not in control of who plays. Let’s be honest. It is what it is."
