Najee Harris in line for impressive season in 2023

PITTSBURGH — Steelers RB Najee Harris is a player whose first two years in the NFL are a weird conglomeration of positives and negatives. For one, he’s grown into a leader who has moments of brilliance on the field. On the other hand, his inefficiency as a running back and some inconsistencies have led to doubt about him.

His rushing yards over expectations are in the red. If you want explosive runs, he’s not a boon there, either. But there are some signs that point to that inefficiency at least being out of his control in a few ways. The two stats that stand out are his yards before contact and his forced missed tackle rate per carry.

According to Graham Barfield of FantasyPts, Harris ranks dead last in the NFL in yards before contact among running backs with more than 250 carries since he entered the league. He averaged only 1.12 yards before contact, which certainly showcases some of the poor offensive line play. However, Harris has forced 0.23 missed tackles per carry, the 7th most in the NFL in that time span.