Najee Harris open to ‘500 touches’ if Steelers win games

Najee Harris was dealt a tremendous workload by the Pittsburgh Steelers in his first NFL season. However, he’s fine with shouldering an even bigger burden in 2022 — as long as it pays dividends in the win column.

Harris, who led the league with 381 touches in 2021, was asked during an appearance on the “Rich Eisen Show” if he could reach the 400-mark in touches in Year 2. Harris suggested he could go for even more than that. 

“I’ll get 500, [expletive],” Harris said. “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 way we’re winning, I can carry the load.’ I train to carry loads. It’s not something that I haven’t done before. I did it in college, high school, NFL. 

“For me to get that much carries, I was like, ‘Man, is we winning games?’ It was a long streak where someone was saying if I have 25 carries, then we’re undefeated. So OK, this is our identity right here. Let’s keep this going on. Listen, if I get 500 carries, as long as we’re winning, it doesn’t really matter.”

Harris performed well in his rookie season with the Steelers. He rushed for 1,200 yards and had another 467 yards receiving, scoring 10 total touchdowns along the way. 

A hefty workload for Harris typically led to good results for Pittsburgh, too. In the eight games that Harris had at least 25 touches, the Steelers went 6-1-1. 

No player in NFL history has recorded 500 touches in a season (former Buccaneers running back James Wilder came the closest with 492 in 1984). And according to chatter in the Steelers camp, Harris won’t come close to that mark in his sophomore season.

Running backs coach Eddie Faulkner told The Athletic’s Mark Kaboly of his plan to lessen Harris’s load a bit in 2022, even if it might be difficult considering the running back’s talent. 

“We always look at [finding ways to preserve Harris] and how we can support him better and maybe keep him a little fresher for a play here or there over the course of the game,” Faulkner told Kaboly in June. “But man, it’s hard. He’s good at everything.”

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Harris admitted that he’s been in the loop regarding his workload and how it could be lessened in 2022.

“I am going to be on the field a lot, but on certain downs, I am not going to be on the field just [to limit] the hits. I am not going to be out there for certain plays, but we still have time to talk about that because I do want to play. A lot.”