Najee Harris Speaks Out On Behalf Of Running Back Value
Photo Credit: D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports
Najee Harris speaks on behalf of all NFL running backs. At least that is the sentiment the Pittsburgh Steelers’ star repeated several times on Wednesday as he aired out grievances over the recent Saquon Barkley deal. With incentives, Barkley’s new agreement is worth up to $11.1 million, far less than Harris feels is fair.
“Saquon accumulated for almost 30% of the offense,” said Harris. “Why can’t you look at that and say, ‘OK, well he said he’s not trying to break the market or set the market, but he’s trying to get compensated of what he thinks is fair … I know that they know themselves, that ain’t fair what he’s getting. He wanted a long contract to know his security there. Right now, he doesn’t have no security. They’re just going to probably utilize him the same way. And if something happens to him again, they’re going to probably look somewhere else.”
As new rules have driven the NFL towards a passing-centric league, coaches and analytics have buried the value of the modern running back. Superstars who would’ve been untouchable even a decade ago have flooded the trade wires and free-agency market over the past year.
Harris believes the reduction in value has not been met by a reduction in expectations.
“They ask me alone — ‘The game’s going to rely on you, you need to do this for the team, you got to do this right here. Hey, it’s time to close out the game. Hey, we need to lean on you right now,'” Harris said Wednesday. “And it happens a lot of places like Cleveland, Tennessee, even with the Niners; there’s numerous teams where this happens at… Only time when they choose to say that [the position] is devalued is when it’s time to pay the running back. … It’s not devalued at all. They just don’t want to pay a running back.”
“It’s like, man, what is the security that we have?” Harris continued. “We don’t have no security right now. You guys are using us to accomplish what you guys want. And then when it’s time for us to re-up or ask for something that we think is right, you guys just turn the cheek and say, ‘Well, you have wear and tear.'”
Harris’ comments were pointed and aggressive, but don’t let some media outlets convince you that that means the Steelers are going to have a problem on their hands.
“It has nothing to do with the Steelers, Mr. Omar, Mr. Rooney, or Mike Tomlin,” Harris said before jumping into his thoughts on Barkley. “I’m just speaking on behalf of running backs in general. With this team, the Steelers, I have no vendetta against them or anything like that, I really like this organization and feel appreciated. When I have time to talk about that I will but right now I’m just talking about all running backs.”
Harris likely won’t be the last star that backs up his fellow position mates as the leagues battle over running back value is only sure to increase.
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