PITTSBURGH — Did the Steelers players elect Najee Harris as a team captain for the 2022 season, or did Mike Tomlin doctor the voting?
Either way, it is a tremendous honor for Harris, who is 24 and starting just his second season in the NFL.
Tomlin never has had a captain so young and so inexperienced in his 16 seasons as coach.
I'm not sure it has happened in Steelers history.
Tomlin has been known to alter the voting. I think back to his first season in 2007, when Alan Faneca wasn't named a captain. I was told the players voted unanimously for Faneca — a five-time, first-team All-Pro at that point — who was involved in an ugly contract dispute with management and had said he didn't want the job. Tomlin obliged.
Certainly, it wouldn't be a surprise if Tomlin found a way to make Harris one of his captains, along with Mitch Trubisky, Cam Heyward, T.J. Watt and Miles Killebrew. This is just the third time Tomlin has had as many as five captains. It's probably no coincidence that he spent much of the offseason extolling Harris' leadership capability.
"I'm bridging the transitional leadership relationship between Cam Heyward and Najee," Tomlin said in June on The Pivot podcast.
"Najee is a born leader. He got good football morals. He sees the game the way we see the game. He wants to be a part of what's right. That needs to be cultivated. That needs to be trained. Going back into last year, I've challenged Cam to help him grow in that way. So what does that mean? We give all of our time and our space to that young man. We're not going to ask him to lead without teaching him how to do it, what it looks like, what it entails."
Apparently, Harris is a quick study.
"He can bring out the best in his teammates," Tomlin said.
"He doesn't say a lot, but he was destined to be a captain," Heyward said on Monday. "He is locked in. The guys follow him."
It helps Harris that Heyward is doing the mentoring. The Steelers have had some strong captains going back to Joe Greene. Jerome Bettis immediately comes to mind. So do James Farrior and Maurkice Pouncey. Heyward is right there with them. This is the eighth year in a row he is a team captain. Talk about a guy who does everything right.
It also helps that Harris leads by example. He led the NFL with 381 touches as a rookie last season. He grinded for 1,200 rushing yards and seven touchdowns behind a weak offensive line, often spectacularly turning a 3-yard loss into a 2-yard gain with his refusal to be tackled by one, two or even three opponents. He also had 74 catches for 467 yards and three touchdowns.
"Special, special player," Ben Roethlisberger said of Harris late last season. "Naj is the ringleader of that group [of young players on the team] in how he comes to play. He's going to do great. On every play, he wants it to be a touchdown. He wants it to be a home run. As he grows and learns, he'll learn every play can't be a home run and he has to pick and choose his battles. I've seen him grow and do that and learn from that."
Tomlin is counting on Harris being even more valuable this season — on the field and in the locker room.
"That dude is a bell cow," Tomlin said on The Pivot. "He's going to have to be a bell cow for us. If this train is going anywhere in 2022, he's going to have to be a major component of it. He's capable. I'm not even talking about from a talent standpoint. We know that. I'm talking about he's capable from an intangible standpoint. That's a snapshot of what I'm excited about."
This much seems clear:
Harris would not be a captain if Tomlin didn't approve.
