When the Dallas Cowboys released running back Ezekiel Elliott in March, it may have caught the attention of Najee Harris. Now that the Minnesota Vikings have followed suit and cut Dalvin Cook, Harris has his antenna way up.
The NFL trend line of devaluing running backs has come to a head this offseason. Elliott was let go from his $90 million contract after his least efficient season in 2022, and Dallas will save $10 million. But Cook got the ax coming off four consecutive 1,000-yard seasons, in a move that will save Minnesota about $9 million this year.
“Obviously, they say what they say about the running back: The position’s going downwards,” Harris said Tuesday as the Steelers finished their first practice of minicamp. “But if you look at some of the offenses, the running back is featured a lot.”
In light of the Cook news, Harris has retweeted and reposted some pro-running back views on social media. One of those messages was an interview with Giants running back Saquon Barkley, who’s staying away from his team’s minicamp because they placed the franchise tag on him. Barkley hasn’t rejected the idea of sitting out this season if he doesn't get a new deal.
That should sound familiar. The Steelers have been down that road, back in 2018 with Le’Veon Bell. Barkley’s contention is that teams have “all the leverage” and that reduced salaries across the board for running backs is in turn lowering their franchise tag number, which puts them in a bind when it comes to negotiations. So what does Harris want to see as he enters his prime earning years?
“Just kind of what the other guys were saying — just show a little bit more appreciation,” Harris said. “Obviously, it’s a rough position. What we go through is probably one of the roughest positions. I’m just advocating and joining that team. I pretty much agree with what those guys are saying.“
To some extent, the Steelers put themselves at the forefront of this again when they invested a first-round pick in a running back. Harris has bristled at the notion of a depressed market for his position since he was picked in 2021 and suggested again Tuesday that it’s become a cliche to say: “If you want to get paid, don’t be a running back.”
Of course, Harris has every reason to resent that mindset entering his age-25 season. But it might be an inevitable crossroads for him, though he’d hope he’ll first cash in on the kind of second contract Elliott and Cook received before their respective teams took cost-cutting measures.
Barkley and Raiders star Josh Jacobs are more apt comparisons, as both were first-rounders and neither has hit free agency yet. Harris has one more season to state his case before the Steelers decide to exercise or decline the fifth-year option in his rookie deal. He looks at playing the position as “an art” and thinks it equates to being the queen piece in a game of chess. But front offices are playing chess, too, and in this league, quarterbacks are king. Running backs are pawns, taking the brutal hits but sometimes only as effective as the line in front of them or the offense around them.
“Can we do anything?” Harris asked. “Rather than what people would do or say, which is hold out? I don't know if that would do anything. I don't know.”
In a tweet, longtime Saints and former Ravens rusher Mark Ingram suggested a separate union within the NFL Players’ Association or a separate clause in the collective bargaining agreement for running backs.
“I mean, I’m open to it,” Harris admitted. “I'm not trying to go into the details of what to do. I’m just saying I understand what they're saying.”
Ingram’s idea is something of a complex solution, but history has shown — including recent history right here in Pittsburgh — that one high-profile star at the position withholding his services might not make much of an impact. Perhaps all of them doing it would.
In Bell’s case, most observers would agree the Steelers made the right move by not caving to his demand of more guaranteed money. James Conner stepped in and rushed for nearly 1,000 yards as the team made the playoffs, and they rode him as their workhorse — until his contract expired.
Injuries caught up to Conner, as they have Elliott and will do to running backs across the league. But Conner has had a resurgence of sorts in Arizona and parlayed that into a three-year, $21 million gig with $13.5 million guaranteed. Meanwhile, his replacement has hit 1,000 yards his first two seasons, and someone with a much longer track record of production in Cook is looking for work.
“It’s crazy,” Harris said. “They say when you turn a certain age, you're out of your years of playing, which is crazy. If you feel you're able to play still, who is it for somebody else to say that you can’t? They don't know your body, neither have they been in your position. They're just people writing behind the internet. They really don't know how you train. They don't know how you take care of your body. It’s just people making assumptions, which they know nothing about. To see people like that get released, especially in my position, it’s like damn, what did they do? Is it because of their age? ... Is it money for the teams, they've got to pay somebody [else]? I don't know, but it’s eye-opening, for sure.”
Harris is right that age has a lot to do with it, given that running backs play a dangerous game. He’s wrong that it’s only media and fans who are skeptical of a back’s longevity, even in the modern age of the sport.
It’s one thing for fantasy football coaches to avoid older running backs or target other positions in their draft. We’re also seeing it in real life with real general managers. The reaction is ultra-marketable athletes with their eyes wide open, which is always worth keeping an eye on.
Minicamp attendance
T.J. Watt was excused from Tuesday’s session, coach Mike Tomlin said, as were punter Pressley Harvin III and backup center Ryan McCollum. Tomlin joked that Watt’s absence was surely more conspicuous than McCollum’s.
One player who was present and working was outside linebacker Alex Highsmith, despite entering the last year of his contract and being in ongoing negotiations with the team. Tomlin called Highsmith “an elite Robin” on a day Batman was missing from Gotham.
Tryout guys
The Steelers have two players trying out this week, and both are inside linebackers. One is a local product in Nick Kwiatkoski, a Bethel Park High School graduate who played his college ball at West Virginia. The 6-foot-2, 242-pound Kwiatkoski was drafted by Chicago in the fourth round in 2016 and spent four years there before two with the Raiders and last season with Atlanta. Kwiatkoski, 30, played in 12 games in 2022, all on special teams.
Also in Pittsburgh on a trial basis is Jermaine Carter, a 2018 fifth-round pick from Maryland. Carter spent his first four years with the Panthers before bouncing around Kansas City, Cleveland and, most recently, Houston until last month. Kwiatkoski is wearing No. 46 and Carter No. 26.
