A comment made by Giants running back Saquon Barkley on Sunday about the running back market caught the interest of Najee Harris.
Barkley has skipped the Giants' mandatory sessions as the organization and he attempt to negotiate terms of a new contract, as Barkley is in the final year of his rookie deal and is set to become an unrestricted free agent after this season. The sides have until July 17 to come to terms on a new agreement, or he will play the 2023 season under a franchise tag of $10.1 million ... or continue to hold out.
Harris is nowhere near that same scope just yet as he is set to enter his third season, but this 2 minute, 24 second-long video of Barkley talking about the state of the running back market was retweeted by Harris:
Saquon Barkley on the RB market: "They tagged the top 3 guys. We didn't even get a chance to hit the open market. They put the cap at $10M. And when they have the tag, they have all the leverage. That's the reality."
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) June 12, 2023
Honest answer here:
(🎥 @SNYGiants)pic.twitter.com/D9TbdRRKOO
The perception of the running back position has changed with the evolving explosiveness of pass-happy offenses around the NFL, which has sparked debates about the valuation of the position altogether. Recent examples show that contesting a second contract for a running back can come with risks. Take, for example, Todd Gurley, who was a two-time All-Pro with the Rams on his rookie deal before fizzling out of the league at 26 years old after just one additional season with Atlanta. There is also Le'Veon Bell, who sat out the entire 2018 season following the expiration of his rookie deal before earning a contract with the Jets -- one he wasn't able to live up to with respect to his production with the Steelers -- and bouncing around before being out of the league after the 2021 season.
Harris isn't buying into that as a trend, as some would perceive.
“They say what they say about the running back, the position’s going downwards, but if you look at some of the offenses the running back is featured a lot," Harris said after Tuesday's mandatory minicamp opener on the South Side. "Kind of what the guys are saying is to show appreciation. Obviously it’s a rough position. What we go through is probably one of the roughest positions, so I’m just advocating and I’m joining that team of -- I agree with, pretty much, what those guys are saying.
"I’m a running back, myself, and I’m pretty sure any running backs that would want to come in the league or just even people going around and telling them they just want to get paid (then) don’t be a running back. The position is an art to me. I’ve always loved the position. You can do so much. It’s as if you’re a queen in chess because you can do a lot of things. Line up wide, run the ball, protection. You can be in the offense so much. It’s like for them to say it’s a position that’s not as valued is kind of crazy.”
In addition to former Cowboys star Ezekiel Elliott still looking for a new home, the Vikings released Dalvin Cook, a four-time Pro Bowler and a four-time 1,000-yard rusher, on Friday, further sparking the debate about the valuation of the position Harris plays. Harris, at 25 years old, is coming off of back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons and will be a major focal point -- if not the focal point -- of the Steelers' offense in 2023. But, regardless of his role on the field, he is clearly not shy of advocating for his position and how it's being perceived.
“Yeah, especially if they say that when you turn a certain age then you’re out of your years of playing, which is crazy," Harris said of the 27-year-old Cook's release. "If you feel like you’re able to play still, then who is it for somebody else to say that you can’t? They don’t know your body that you can have at any position, there’s just people writing behind the internet. They don’t really know how you train, they don’t know how you take care of your body. It’s just people making assumptions which they don’t know anything about. So, to see people like that get released, especially at my position, it’s like, damn, what did they do? Is it because of the age? Dalvin Cook’s coming off of multiple thousand-yard seasons. I don’t know. Is it money from the team? They’ve got to pay somebody? I don’t know, but it’s eye-opening."
Harris acknowledged the importance of taking care of his body as a key to his position, which has become more of a monetary investment among pro athletes. He borrowed an example of NBA star LeBron James and how he spends a reported $1.5 million a year on his body maintenance.
“You can’t stop time. I can’t do nothing about that," Harris said. "All I can do is take care of my body and show them that I’m still available. I guess all running backs can do is really just show that the best ability is availability, so me just showing that I’m still who I said I was when I first got in, that’s important, but with age you can’t stop that. Like I said, they just think that when you turn a certain age then it’s over with, which is the craziest thing possible. There’s people in his league who’s 30, 40.
"… But, yeah, there’s people in all types of age groups but I think it’s a matter of how you take care of your body. I think it plays a big role. LeBron said something like he spends millions of dollars on his body. I feel like I spend a lot of money on my body, too, because I know the best ability’s availability, especially in my position, taking a lot of hits from all types of people. Linemen, backers, you’re getting hit by the whole team, so for me to take care of my body’s really important, and I think that I do a good job of that, and that’s when I look at that it just blows my mind. I never get it, but that’s what’s written, that’s what somebody put out there. Now it is what it is.”
The Steelers' offense is built on running the ball, so a productive and a healthy Harris is paramount to its success. The undrafted Jaylen Warren emerged as a fine backup for the former first-round pick, and was able to shoulder part of the load as Harris dealt with a Lisfranc sprain and played part of the season with a meal plate in his shoe, which gave a new wrinkle beyond the style that Harris runs with and what Matt Canada can do with spreading the ball around by design.
In the second half of the 2022 season, the Steelers were ninth in the NFL in rushing, which coincided with a 7-2 record to close it out and with the continual development of Kenny Pickett and his leadership of the offense. That comfortability, as Harris noted, led to the Steelers establishing an identity that they were able to carry into the offseason.
“I feel like we found our identity," Harris said. "Early on we didn’t know what we were. There was a lot of stuff going on, especially at the quarterback position. Bringing new guys in. Really we didn’t have our identity, we were trying to look for it, and later on after that bye we kind of figured out what we did best, and that’s playing Steelers football. That's what we do. We run the ball, we have a good defense, we’ve got good players on the outside so we’ve got to get them the ball in space and try to get those deep balls down the field, but we’ve got to control the line, we’ve got to control that rushing attack so we can put more pressure on the defensive coordinator and figure out what to do. If they want to stack the box, then we’ve got people on the outside, if they want to play a six-man box then we can run the ball. I think we just got into an area where we found out who we are."
Better late than never, as the Steelers were able to turn a 2-6 start into a 9-8 overall record and show up on the "in the hunt" TV graphics by the time the latter stages of the season rolled around and the playoff picture began to take shape. In the nine games after the bye, Harris rushed for 673 yards (4.10 per carry) with six touchdowns. In the eight games prior, he rushed for 361 yards (3.34 per carry) with two touchdowns. This came with less involvement in the passing game, which was picked up by Warren as he began to see the field more often. Warren was targeted 14 times in the passing game pre-bye week, compared to earning 19 post-bye.
Harris teased that the running backs' involvement within Canada's offense has evolved over the offseason -- “I don’t want to go into details, but, yeah," he said -- while he maintained his best pathway to becoming the "queen" piece is by trusting in the system he is in.
“I anticipate coach Canada and all them, whoever else works upstairs, to do what they can to get me the ball in space, to put me in the best positions possible," Harris said. "That being said, it can be that, but I’m a player, so I just say my position and place and I let the coaches do what they’ve got to do, and I just listen.”
And, that is figuring to become a positive as Pickett continues to develop into Year 2 as a pro.
“He’s a lot more comfortable. Kenny’s a lot more comfortable," Harris said. "He’s a quick learner, too. He has a lot -- him being vocal, him understanding coverages, him being more in a comfortable place, I think that’s what’s going to separate him a lot. He’s still learning and stuff like that. But, Kenny, when he comes out here, you see that he has complete -- he wants to have control, he wants to win, he’s very competitive. You want that in a quarterback when you see that. I think there’s some things that I see that’s different from him from last year. It’s not like he’s looked like a rookie. He’s more like a vet, now in a way.”
