Steelers RB Najee Harris Pushes Back on Criticism of Matt Canada

PITTSBURGH — There are a lot of problems that running back Najee Harris sees with the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense, but he doesn’t believe that the coaching or play-calling is one of them.

Harris gave a lengthy, unprompted push-back against the narrative that Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada has been the primary cause of the issues with the offense.

“The coaches only can coach,” Harris said. “At the end of the day, we’ve got to do what we have to do. I see everybody talking about this coaching stuff, about play calling, like bruh, do y’all know how football works? Coaches only can coach. 

“We’ve got to execute the plays. We’re not trying to point the finger at all. This is not the time to do that. It keeps being a conversation to be brought up, or not even brought up, but things that are talked about so much. It’s crazy. We have to execute at the end of the day, no matter who is back there calling the plays. I honestly say that we’re not doing that right now — not coaches. It has nothing to do with coaches. It’s just players. We have to play better.”

The noise from media and the fans reached a crescendo on Tuesday, when the sum of head coach Mike Tomlin’s promised changes amounted to wearing pads in practice on Wednesday, and not a change in the person or the method that the team selects its offensive plays.

“We can’t just keep looking at the coaches as an outlet or whatever y’all are putting out there as an outlet,” Tomlin said. “That’s just stupid what y’all doing, really. We can say what we want, but like I said, players play; coaches coach. We just can’t keep looking and pointing fingers. We’ve got to point at ourselves. It’s the man in the mirror. This is the NFL. Everybody runs the same damn plays, you know what I mean? Everybody disguises it differently, but it’s just how are we going to play it? I think we’re just not playing right with that edge right now. We need to do better.”

Echoing Tomlin’s talking point from Tuesday, Harris said the Steelers have been lacking the physical mentality that powered the team through the second half of the 2022 season, which allowed them to have success on the ground, and created more openings for the rest of the offense.

“We’re just dominating the box,” he said. “Whatever was in front of us, we were dominating. We dominated the line of scrimmage. We dominated runs. We made plays. …

“We need to be at the mentality we were at against the Ravens (last year) and this is a good time to do. They have a good defense. They always have a good defense. They always play us really good. … It’s going to be a physical game. This is a good time to get that back.”

RELATED: Mike Tomlin Sees Practice Intensity as Cause for Steelers Struggles

To that end, Harris said there was a players’ meeting earlier this week, as he and other leaders tried to get the team on the same page and eliminate the sloppy play from Sunday.

“We all had a talk as a team to kind of get that conversation going,” he said. “Me as a person who wants to spark the offense. Sometimes, I don’t like saying it. I like showing it. I try to be that guy that can show it. That’s why in the game, we came out there and I just went to emphasize that right now we’re just playing soft. … 

“This game, it’s a challenge to see who else is going to be that person. It can just keep being one person. It has to be more people. It’s a challenge for the receiver room to have that guy, the 0-line room to have that guy, tight ends room to have that guy. We have to be that, especially in this conference.”