Steelers workhorse Najee Harris says he's ready for 500 carries 'as long as we're winning'

Pittsburgh Steelers running back Najee Harris wants the ball.

Even after he led the NFL with 381 touches during his rookie flavor, Harris said he'south comfy toting the rock 400-500 times in 2022 if information technology ways the Steelers are winning games.

"I can get 500, god [expletive] it," Harris told "The Rich Eisen Show" on Th. "Listen, I didn't have an issue with it. It was the media who had an issue with it. I told them every game, 'If this is the manner nosotros're winning, I tin carry the load.' I train to behave loads. Information technology'due south not something that I haven't done before. I did it in college, high school, in the NFL. For me to go that much carries, I was like, human, is we winning games? Information technology was a long streak where someone was saying if I accept 25 carries, then we're undefeated. So OK, this is our identity right hither. Let'due south keep this going on, allow'southward keep this going. Human being, listen, if I get 500 carries, as long as we're winning, information technology doesn't actually matter."

Harris referenced a June study on the Steelers' plan to lighten his workload heading into his second year after he led the all running backs with 980 snaps in 2021 — 171 more snaps than Dallas Cowboys' Ezekiel Elliot who played in the second-most snaps. Harris said on the get-go day of Pittsburgh's minicamp that "on certain downs, I will non be on the field."

Merely that doesn't seem to be the case subsequently Harris' well-nigh contempo remarks.

Earlier in the interview, Harris noted that he knows the Steelers' identity this upcoming season could feature a run-heavy crime with either rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett under center or former commencement-round castoff Mitchell Trubisky. Harris added he's willing to cede himself if it means the quarterback and pass-catchers will have an easier fourth dimension making plays.

"I'm trying to be everything I tin can to be a trouble for the opposing team'southward defense so they can look at me a lot and maybe pack the box upwardly," he said, "and we can get a lot of one-on-ones with Hunt [Claypool], Diontae [Johnson] and Pat [Freiermuth] and all the other guys"

The legacy of the 400-behave running back

While Harris' selflessness is admirable, history isn't kind to those who take on that type of responsibility.

Merely iv running backs take carried the ball at least 400 times in one season: Larry Johnson, Jamal Anderson, James Wilder, Eric Dickerson and Eddie George. Johnson'south 416 carries in 2006 are an NFL tape, just he was never the same afterwards that season. Johnson tallied merely 535 carries in 37 games over the next five years and was out of the league after 2011. Anderson, who rushed 410 times in 1998, lasted only iii more than years and only one full flavor. Wilder, who fix the NFL record for most touches in a flavour with 492, played six more years, but only one with at least 400 touches.

Dickerson and George were 2 outliers: Dickerson had four more than years with at least 300 touches, while George enjoyed iii more than seasons as a bell-cow before his final season in 2004.

Only Harris isn't but a stud in the backfield. He tied the NFL for most running dorsum targets with 94 and led the league with 74 receptions. That makes his situation even more than complicated given what happened to Christian McCaffrey the by ii seasons. The Carolina Panthers star hasn't been good for you ever since he finished the 2019 flavour with 403 combined touches — 298 carries and 116 receptions.

The Steelers should know better than to wear down a star running back, too. They famously did information technology with Le'Veon Bell in 2017 before he took a twelvemonth off in search of a lucrative contract. He touched the brawl 406 times that year and never looked the aforementioned even afterward his year-long hiatus. Now, he's gearing up for a battle match against Adrian Peterson on July xxx. Exercise the Steelers really want to ruin another promising role player in Harris?

Could Harris break the mold?

The biggest reward Harris has is his age. He just turned 24 and only has ane twelvemonth in the NFL nether his belt so far. Every other role player who rushed for more 400 yards in a flavour did it after they turned 26.

Eisen besides compared Harris to Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry, in that both went to Alabama and both are noted workhorses. Henry led the league in rushing attempts, rushing yards and rushing touchdowns from 2019-xx, including a league-loftier 397 total touches in 2020. However, even Henry succumbed to injury this past season when he broke his human foot. Possibly because of overuse, perhaps considering of inevitability.

But Harris dispelled the Henry or Alabama comparisons. For him, it'southward non well-nigh annihilation only himself. And only certain players can do what he does.

"It'due south a Najee thing," he told Eisen. "The more carries you become, the better y'all are. You get a more than feel for the game. You become a better understanding of how defenses are playing. You wear them down. I guess it's only a dog mentality. You gotta exist a dog to do that."