Najee Harris Talks Lack Of Leadership In Pittsburgh, Looked For Players To ‘Learn From’
In a recent interview with Chris Hayre of KCAL News, Harris spoke about his time in Pittsburgh and his wish for more veteran leadership during his time there.
“We just didn’t know anything on offense, really,” Harris said. “We didn’t have any identity. We had a young guy coming in at quarterback, I was young, the team was young. I really didn’t have nobody to almost learn from, on the offensive side. I’m just trying to look for people, to pick their brain off of.”
“It was an interesting year there, I’ll just say that.”
Harris hasn’t been shy voicing his appreciation of the Chargers since signing with them. He made a remark about their practice facilities, and how they’re “not like this everywhere.” Given that the Steelers are the only other NFL team he’s played for, it felt pretty obvious who he was referring to.
It might not be fun to hear, but you really can’t blame Harris there. Nor can you blame him for wanting more veteran leadership. He does make it clear that he’s speaking about the offensive side of the ball, as the Steelers have plenty of leadership on defense.
Once Ben Roethlisberger retired, though, the Steelers had an extremely young offense. Harris, and a young Jaylen Warren led the backfield. They had a rookie quarterback in Kenny Pickett in 2022, and young receivers in George Pickens and Diontae Johnson. On that side of the ball, and especially at his position, Harris isn’t wrong that there wasn’t much veteran leadership he could lean on.
Harris thinks he’s more versatile than he showed in Pittsburgh. Right now, it’s unclear what his usage will look like in Los Angeles. The Chargers are in the process of rebuilding their running back room for the second offseason in a row. We know that Jim Harbaugh loves to run the ball. Najee Harris is a bell-cow back, so he should be in line for a large workload. Maybe, he’ll find the veteran leadership he wasn’t able to in Pittsburgh.
