Steelers' Najee Harris Sounds Off on Saquon Barkley Deal
PITTSBURGH -- Pittsburgh Steelers running back Najee Harris arrived for the third training camp of his career this week. He's been one of the most productive at his position since entering the league in 2021 and one of the most-used. At 25 years old, Harris is staring down a struggle that some of his peers are slogging through right now.
The market rate for running backs - even the NFL's elite - has been steadily declining. And this summer, with stars like Saquon Barkley and Josh Jacobs being squeezed into short-term deals by their teams, the Steelers' star tailback is trying to look out for both himself and the future of the position.
"I’m upset to see that they even say that because they’re choosing when to devalue the running back," Harris said. "What I mean is there have been numerous times - I can speak on my behalf - they ask me alone that ‘The game is going to rely on you. You need to do this for the team. Hey, it’s time to close out the game. Hey, we need to lean on you right now.’ It happens in a lot of places."
Harris was one of several of the league's best rushers to join a recent Zoom call in which they discussed possible ways to fight for more favorable contracts for running backs with each other and the NFL Players Association.
Running backs do it all - running, blocking and catching, according to Harris - which is why it baffles him when teams try to undersell his peers in contract negotiations. Harris feel running backs are stuck in a bad place, without any leverage against their teams but still compelled to play well, take the physical punishment and provide value. Harris pointed to Barkley's recently-signed deal with the New York Giants, worth one year and $11 million at it's peak, as the continuation of a concerning trend.
"In Saquon’s situation, he accounted for 30% of the offense," Harris said. "Like, why can’t you look at that - and he said he’s not trying to break the market - but he’s trying to get compensated at what he thinks is fair and two parties should think is fair too. I know that they themselves know that’s not fair what he’s getting. He wanted, I guess, a long contract to get some security. Right now, he doesn’t have any security."
The length of contracts is a major issue for Harris, who's heard of teams using touches as a reason to not to award long-term and rich contracts to running backs. Teams are apt to run their tailbacks into the ground during the season and use that fact as an excuse not to pay them in the offseason.
Harris, who has 694 career touches over two seasons for the Steelers, is hoping to get ahead of this issue before he and other young rushers face negotiations over extensions and their next contract. Harris is expected to enter talks over his fifth-year option with the Steelers beginning at the conclusion of the 2023-24 season and, while he says he has nothing against the Steelers organization and isn't looking that far into the future, will continue to speak on the issue until he sees a change.
But for now, all he can do is play and play well to give the Steelers a reason to see his situation differently.
"You always want to hope for the best," Harris said. "But knowing our position and knowing what they ask us to do, I don’t know. Only thing we can do is do the best we can each year to perform and play at a good rate to see if they see anything different.”
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