Unexpected Leader Brings Together Steelers Offense

HOUSTON and PITTSBURGH — As the Pittsburgh Steelers were packing up their belongings in the bowels of NRG Stadium in Houston after an embarrassing loss to the Houston Texans, running back Najee Harris did not want to speak to the media.

That’s fine. Whatever the NFL rules say, Harris is a grown man. He can decide when he wants to speak publicly.

So I have only one quote from Harris in the aftermath of that game, and it wasn’t said to me. It was said to teammate Broderick Jones across the locker room.

“I’m gonna do something.”

That something was to spark a conversation about the way things were going. In a meeting on Monday, Harris spearheaded an effort to help the team’s offensive players come together and have a consistent mindset, despite the outside noise surrounding a unit that had become a roar.

There had been calls for the team to fire offensive coordinator Matt Canada going back to the offseason, and those calls were verbalized by the fans starting in Week 2 at Acrisure Stadium. After the offense scored just six points in the loss to the Texans, the fate of the offensive coordinator had become the dominant talking about amongst the media and the fanbase.

Harris wasn’t having it.