Najee Harris-led rushing attack on a roll for Steelers

Because each is a “big back” of similar listed weight and that each entered the league after winning a national championship as the featured back at Alabama, Derrick Henry and Najee Harris were bound to draw comparisons.

Those similarities were highlighted even moreso when the Pittsburgh Steelers in February named as their new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, whose claim to fame was calling plays for offenses paced by Henry in Tennessee.

Smith is reluctant to evoke the comparison. But in recent weeks, Harris is doing his best impersonation of Henry.

For the first time in Harris’ career, he has three consecutive 100-yard rushing performances. The ground game has been a significant factor in a three-game winning streak that has the Steelers at 6-2 coming out of their bye.

“We just keep practicing how we were,” Harris said. “We’re just having that mindset (that) every game is a new game and every week is a new week. You can enjoy what you had for one day but just know that there’s another game coming up.”

For the Steelers, that next game is Sunday at the Washington Commanders. Though they are a first-place team at 7-2, Washington’s run defense has allowed the fourth-most yards in the NFL (143.0 per game) and the second-worst per-carry opponent average.

The Steelers have amassed 499 rushing yards over their past three games, wins against the Las Vegas Raiders, New York Jets and New York Giants. That’s a 166.3 per-game average that over the whole season would rank third in the NFL.

“Certainly we desire to have an effective running game and control the line of scrimmage to minimize one-dimensional moments and to be in third-and-manageable,” coach Mike Tomlin said. “That’s been an agenda of ours, and that’s been the component of the three-game stretch. … That really captures my attention.”

Harris (listed at 6-foot-1, 242 pounds) has 322 yards on 54 carries over that span, good for averages of 107.3 per game and 6.0 per carry that would rank third in the league over the full season.

The only back whose season totals are ahead of Harris’ averages over the past three weeks? Henry.

In his first season with the rival Baltimore Ravens, Henry (6-2, 247) is averaging 112.0 yards per game and 6.1 per carry. He has 1,120 rushing yards through 10 games. Harris’ career high for a full season came as a rookie in 2021 when he had 1,200.

“Their careers have started differently,” Smith said. “I know it’s a new scheme (this year) for ‘Naj.’ He’s doing a good job. But I think Naj has probably had more volume carries than Derrick did at this point. Different players. Both those guys are really, really fun to coach. I don’t think anybody is in better shape than Naj is. You can see that consistency, those habits. Hopefully they continue. A lot of that work is paying off right now.”

As far as the advanced metrics of NFL Next Gen Stats is concerned, Henry is the league’s best back this season with an average of 2.24 rushing yards over expected per carry. Harris rates in the middle of the pack (0.42 RYOE per carry) but has 118 RYOE over the past three games after he had been at minus-63 RYOE through five weeks this season.

Harris, for his part, credits the offensive line for the uptick in production.

“The guys up front in the trenches,” he said, “we ride the wave that they provide. So, big ups to them.”

Harris’ run roughly coincides with Russell Wilson taking over as quarterback over the past two games. By total yardage (417.5) and points (31.5), it has been rare in recent years the Steelers have had a two-game stretch so productive offensively.

The rushing and passing games go hand-in-hand.

“I think with our run game and how physical we are and how we run the ball downhill — all the things we’re able to do — we want to be able to spread guys out,” Wilson said this week. “We want to be able to get tight and run it, run it downhill. We want to, obviously, be able to play action when we get on the edge. We want to do everything.”