The Pittsburgh Steelers’ decision to reject Najee Harris’ fifth-year option on Thursday is not particularly concerning for the future. any way. By declining the option, Harris’s contract will expire in 2024 and they will be free to hire a different, less expensive running back if he is injured or performs poorly. At that point, the action will have been wise.
If Harris plays well, the team may try to work out a short-term, multi-year contract that would guarantee him slightly more money than the $6.7 million he would have received in 2025. The money would be prorated so that the salary cap hit for the following few years would be significantly less severe (if at all), with Harris accounting for less than 3% of the team’s cap. Say it with me: till they let him walk and find another less expensive running back to finish the job.
In that case, they may spend a little bit more, but they will do so when the ceiling rises further, allowing them to spread the cost according to their terms and avoiding the risk of having $6.7 million sitting on the books in ’25 in the event that ’24 doesn’t work out. Strangely, the Steelers’ supposedly tough decision is actually not that tough at all, given how carelessly running backs are handled. When (and wherever) they wish, they should have no trouble finding another good player to take his place, even if they lose him too soon.
Really, a running back was selected with 41st overall choice in this year’s draft. This offseason, the NFL community hardly raised an eyebrow when Derrick Henry, Saquon Barkley, Joe Mixon, Josh Jacobs, and Austin Ekeler—all current and previous Pro Bowl players—jumped around from team to team. Over the course of two years in Washington, Ekeler will only earn $4.25 million on average. Over the last three years, he has scored 44 touchdowns overall. Aaron Jones’s career total of scrimmage yards is around eight thousand. His Minnesota cap hit is expected to be a mere $3.5 million this year and $3.2 million in 2025. Henry will become a Hall of Famer. His new cap hit in Baltimore for 2024 is a mere $5.1 million.
It won’t be extremely expensive, hence the Steelers can find a way to retain Harris. But if that were to happen, could you really blame him for being resentful and moving elsewhere for about the same amount of money? No, I wouldn’t. After all, if the Steelers had committed to Harris’s fifth-year option, would the damage have been that great? It wouldn’t have been, sorry. $6.7 million is what? That is the wage cap hit that Alex Highsmith will have in 2024—a mere 2.6% of the team’s total.
The Steelers had 1,029 offensive snaps in 2023. Harris was thrown the ball 293 times between carries, receptions, and targets. That means one player will receive 28.4% of the offense. Translated: It would have secured the player who received the ball on more than a quarter of the team’s snaps last year for about 2.6% of the team’s cap space next year. I don’t think that sounds very expensive. To put it another way, if GM Omar Khan and head coach Mike Tomlin had chosen to accept or decline the option on Thursday, it would have been difficult to hold them accountable.
However, what is now easy to say is that forgoing the fifth-year option is a complete indictment of choosing a first-round running back in the first place three years ago. I was all for the Steelers drafting Harris in the first round. I liked the pick. I wanted the player. Running back was an obvious position of need. He was in the bottom third of the first round. And (drum roll) Pittsburgh was going to have him for five years.
Unless Harris was a total bust, the organization was getting a quality running back for less than $13 million in total cash over the five freshest years of his career. Harris hasn’t been great. But he hasn’t been a bust, either. And now that the Steelers are just giving away the last year of the deal, they are ostensibly admitting, “Eh, we shoulda waited until Day 2 to take a back like Javonte Williams or Rhomandre Stevenson. Maybe we could’ve taken Landon Dickerson and his two Pro Bowls and started the offensive line rebuild earlier.”
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