Jerome Bettis Believes Steelers’ Running Game is in ‘Great Hands’ with Najee Harris

Even with running behind a less-than-stellar offensive line last season, Najee Harris still put up impressive numbers as a rookie, recording 1,200 yards rushing on 307 carries (3.9 average) and seven touchdowns. Harris also had 74 receptions for 467 yards (6.3 average) and three touchdowns. In total, Harris racked up a whopping 1,667 yards of offense.

Harris was also a workhouse last year for the Steelers, leading the league in touches with 381 and snap share at 85%. Heading into Year 2, former Steelers running back and Hall of Famer, Jerome Bettis, expects Harris to take it to the next level.

“They’ve got a really good running game with Najee Harris. I think he’s going to take it to another level in his maturation process,” Bettis said on NFL Total Access on Wednesday. “But I really believe the quarterback is going to be the question because right now if one of these guys can really step up, this team can be a little bit better than a lot of people think.”

With Ben Roethlisberger retiring in January after an 18-year Hall of Fame career, the Steelers are entering uncharted waters at the game’s most important position. Veteran Mitch Trubisky is the favorite to win the starting quarterback job, but first-round pick Kenny Pickett shouldn’t be disregarded.

“It’s going to be very competitive, I believe, because they’ve got to figure out who’s going to be the quarterback,” Bettis said. “They’ve got a playoff-caliber football team, we saw that last year, and now they need a leader. They need a quarterback that can complete that third-and-6, third-and-8.”

Along with hiring new offensive line coach Pat Meyer this offseason, the Steelers bolstered the interior part of their offensive line by signing center Mason Cole and guard James Daniels. The new additions could be beneficial to improving the Steelers’ run game which ranked 30th in the league last season. Harris has the measurables and skillset to become an elite back in the NFL. If the offensive line improves and creates holes for Harris consistently, the sky’s the limit for the Alabama product.

“What I love is his hunger to learn, to want to be better,” Bettis said. “A lot of times, you get a young guy, first-round draft pick, you come in and you say, ‘Okay, I’m here now, and I’m the best thing since sliced bread.’ And that’s not the case with Najee. He reached out to me. He wanted to learn more. ‘Hey, talk to me about this. Explain to me this.’

“And that tells me that he wants to be a better football player, every year he steps on the football field. So that tells me that I think the running game is in great hands. Now we’ve got to figure out who’s going to be throwing the football and can we get it down to these really good wide receivers that we have?”

Mike Tomlin often talks about how he expects second-year players to take a significant jump from their rookie year. It wouldn’t be surprising at all if Harris takes that leap and develops into one of the league’s premier running backs. And if the running game ends up being a strength as Bettis envisions, that will only help the development of either Trubisky or Pickett. It will also open up the play-action and bootleg schematics that Matt Canada loves to run.