The Steelers wrapped up their mandatory minicamp on Thursday with one final practice. Now, the team is off until the start of training camp at Saint Vincent College July 26.
Speaking with the media this week, Najee Harris said the plan for 2022 was to lighten his work load.
“We are doing that a lot this year (that) I will not be on the field, I guess, (as much),” Harris said at the UPMC-Rooney Sports Complex. “I will be on the field a lot — but on certain downs, I will not be on the field. Just (pick my spots), I guess. Extra rest.”
I'll believe it when I see it.
Harris led the NFL with 381 touches last season, an average of 22.4 per game. Le'Veon Bell averaged 24.9 touches per game in his five seasons with the Steelers.
That was Bell's average over five seasons. In his final two seasons with the team, he averaged 27.4 touches per game.
In one of those final two seasons for Bell, backup DeAngelo Williams had 98 rushing attempts. But that was only because Bell missed four games in 2016, three because of suspension.
Here's the problem. I'm sure the coaching staff and Harris have had talks about lightening his work load. But on third-and-three in the fourth quarter of Week 1 against the Bengals, who is going to be in the game?
Lightening Harris' workload sounds good in theory, but like Bell, Harris is an all-around running back. He's good in short yardage. He's good in pass protection. He's good catching the ball.
And there's not a running back on the roster who does anything better than Harris. There's not a back that's even close to being able to perform like Harris.
But the Steelers selected Harris in the first round for a reason. He's an every-down running back. And he wants the football. He never wants to come out of a game.
And he's a power runner. Power runners need carries to wear a defense down.
Now, that could change if the Steelers sign a veteran running back. But currently, that player is not on the Steelers roster.
The Steelers might lighten his load a bit. But he's still a good bet to average more than 20 touches per game.
• There's such a thing as good weight and bad weight.
When Harris said last week he was now 244 pounds, some took that to mean he was somehow overweight. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Harris looks like he's added all of that weight in his thighs. They're not quite Earl Campbell-like, but they're in the same class as Eddie George.
Still, Harris took umbrage with one report that made note that he now weighs more than Jerome Bettis' listed weight early in his career.
"I didn't weigh 232. I was 242 last year, and now I'm 244," Harris said of his listed weight. "But, if you guys didn't know, you're heavier in this than you are playing in the season. So, I'm going to play at 242.
" 'He's bigger than Jerome Bettis.' No he's not. Shout out Jerome because that's the homie, but you're making it seem like I'm fat as hell."
Listed weights, as I noted a couple of weeks ago in Friday Insider, are rarely correct. Bettis played at 290 pounds at times during his career.
Harris is a big back -- especially by today's standards -- but he's not a BIG back.
"I think he's exactly what he was last year at the end of last year," Mike Tomlin said. "I got no issues at all. So, nothing really to add, no color."
The Steelers are not concerned about that aspect of things with Harris at all. In fact, they have very high expectations of him -- and should.
• The Steelers will not finish 29th in the league in rushing in 2022.
I do believe they will be better at run blocking than they were in 2021 with the additions of James Daniels and Mason Cole on their interior line.
They should average more than the 3.9 yards per carry they did last season.
Improvements from Harris will help that, too.
But the biggest addition to things with their running game will come from the quarterbacks.
Last season, the Steelers got 58 rushing yards on 25 attempts from their quarterbacks. Ben Roethlisberger had 5 rushing yards on 20 attempts.
Now, certainly many of those were kneel downs at the end of a game, but the fact remains that Roethlisberger couldn't scramble an egg last season.
Mitch Trubisky and Kenny Pickett are both athletic enough to hurt opponents with their legs. Heck, for that matter, so is Mason Rudolph. He had 53 rushing yards on five attempts last season.
If the rest of the team produces the 1,525 rushing yards -- taking the quarterbacks out of the equation -- it did last season, but the Steelers get league average rushing production out of their quarterbacks, things will look much different.
Last season, teams averaged around 200 rushing yards out of their quarterback position. Obviously, there are outliers to that, but the Steelers were also well below that number.
And Trubisky has rushed for as many as 421 yards in a season himself.
That will make a big difference.
• Yes, I expect quarterback runs to be a part of this offense. In fact, I expect quarterback movement to be a huge part of this offense with plenty of rollouts, play-actions and read-option.
We saw hints of that last training camp, particularly when Dwayne Haskins was running the offense. They were concepts with which he was familiar coming out of Ohio State.
It's no coincidence the Steelers added two mobile quarterbacks in the free agency and draft process in Trubisky and Pickett. And they've worked those things to death in drills.
Everyone here is being very respectful of Roethlisberger and the talent he brought to the table. His seven fourth-quarter wins last season can't be overlooked or undervalued. He often just found a way when the game was on the line.
And in that regard, Trubisky has five fourth-quarter comebacks and seven game-winning drives -- second-half drives that put his team ahead to stay -- in his career.
He won't be Roethlisberger in terms of comebacks.
But the fact that he's only needed five fourth-quarter comebacks and seven game-winning drives in his career and owns a 29-21 record as a starter, is noteworthy.
In fact, if you look at his career numbers, he owns a 96.8 first-quarter passer rating. It is 86.0 in the second quarter, 90.4 in the third quarter and 76.3 in the fourth quarter.
That's almost the exact opposite of what Roethlisberger was in 2021.
Faster starts to games will lift all boats in the water offensively and -- perhaps more importantly -- defensively.
The Steelers led the league in sacks last season despite averaging 6.7 points per game in the first half last season, which ranked 31st in the league.
• To be clear once again, Trubisky will be the Steelers' starting quarterback this season -- unless he completely falls on his face in training camp. And I don't see that happening.
This Matt Canada statement this week said it all: "Coach (Tomlin) has been very clear that Mitch is 1 and he’s been working with the 1s and doing a real good job of that. Mason is at 2 and Kenny is 3. We’re doing it that way based on experience, based on resumes. Coach made that decision. You can read whatever you want into it."
They'll continue to call this a quarterback competition because that's what you do in these kind of situations, but the Steelers obviously valued Trubisky very highly to agree to terms with him on a contract less than a half an hour into the free agency legal tampering period.
Everyone raves about Trubisky's leadership skills. And don't overlook the fact that Tomlin's closest confident in the head coaching world just might be Buffalo's Sean McDermott. The two played college football together and talk regularly.
The Bills wanted Trubisky back. New Giants' head coach Brian Daboll wanted Trubisky in New York, as well, after being his coordinator last season in Buffalo.
There is value to that leadership, as well, especially with such a young offense.
• Pickett displays the makings of that, too.
In fact, any time the offense did something good over the past month of practices, Pickett was right there high-fiving guys and congratulating them -- even if he wasn't the quarterback who had directed the play.
• George Pickens is the real deal.
I've got nothing more to add to that observation. But he has the looks of the next great Steelers wide receiver.
• I had a conversation with Pat Freiermuth this week about what he would go back and tell himself a year ago if he could.
His answer was interesting. He said he would tell rookie Pat Freiermuth to stay in the weight room all season to maintain his body.
Freiermuth admitted that things got more difficult physically around November. But he also said that was about the same time he began to understand the playbook fully.
Now, with a better understanding of the grind of an NFL season, he's primed for big things.
• The same could be said of a lot of players on this offense. Remember, the Steelers were starting four rookies most of last season, and a fifth-player on offense, in John LeGlue at guard down the stretch, who was seeing his first real NFL action.
When people wonder how this offense can be better in 2022, the answer is simple. Young, talented players will be better than they were a year ago.
The offense is just scratching the surface.
• Defensively, don't be surprised if Isaiahh Loudermilk becomes not necessarily a breakout player, but one who steps in to fill the very large void left by the retirement of Stephon Tuitt.
There doesn't seem to be anyone in the building who isn't raving about the second-year defensive lineman.
"Milk is doing a nice job picking things up," Tyson Alualu told me. "And the playing time he got last season will only benefit him."
His presence, along with that of rookie third-round pick DeMarvin Leal, are reasons why I don't necessarily expect the Steelers to sign a veteran defensive end-type player.
The Steelers typically keep just six defensive linemen. Cam Heyward, Alualu, Chris Wormley, Loudermilk, Leal and Montravius Adams would be those guys right now.
Now, Wormley didn't practice at all during these sessions after having what he called a minor procedure done. So, if that continues to linger, that could change things.
But having Wormley out also got Loudermilk a ton of additional snaps. And the Steelers have liked what they've seen -- albeit not in pads.
