Najee Harris Says He Will Play vs. Patriots Despite Foot Injury

Reports out of Pittsburgh on Monday indicated Steelers running back Najee Harris avoided a serious injury in the weekend’s season opener against the Bengals. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, tests on the ball-carriers’ foot came back negative and there was growing optimism that he would play in Week 2 against the Patriots.

On Tuesday, Harris himself confirmed that he was planning to be back on the field for practice this week and again this Sunday against New England.

“I’m good. Just got dinged up, nothing too crazy,” Harris told Adam Schein on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Radio Tuesday. “I should be ready to play and should be back to practicing. It’s good that we got today off just to let it heal for another day and get ready to go this weekend.”

Harris tallied 10 carries for 23 yards and caught two passes for three yards and a touchdown in Sunday’s 23–20 overtime victory over the Bengals before leaving the contest. The second-year running back had previously missed part of training camp this year with a Lisfranc injury, but returned to play in Pittsburgh’s final preseason game.

“It was good to get back out there,” Harris said in late August. “[I was] Kinda rusty a little bit, I’ll say. I been down for about four weeks. … I got my foot stepped on. I had a sprained Linsfranc. So that’s why I was out for the majority of camp. So to get back in the motions of stuff like that, I felt a little rusty. I wasn’t too happy about my performance, bad read on one run, had the false start.”

During his rookie season in 2021 out of Alabama, Harris tallied 1,667 yards from scrimmage and scored 10 total touchdowns. 

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