No sinister motives or acts of revenge drove New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh’s decision to release veteran running back Najee Harris earlier this week.
Harris was named the starter last week over Cam Skattebo, who had struggled with ball security, but he carried the ball just four times for two yards.
After the loss to the Saints, Harris admitted to being perplexed over the lack of consistent carries, noting that it was hard to get into a rhythm without that consistency.
When Harbaugh was asked about the comments on Monday, he bluntly said no running back had stepped up to claim the RB1 spot, and he challenged the players on the roster to do so.
On Friday, Harbaugh offered more detail on the decision to release Harris.
“It’s hard to carry four backs,” he said. “There were some other moves we had to make to get guys on the roster. And I just felt like in this situation, like I told him, nothing against what he did.
“I thought he ran super hard. I didn’t think he had a lot of room, in all fairness, in the plays he happened to have in the last couple of weeks, but it was just the direction we decided to go at this time going forward. So, nothing that he did or didn’t do.”
Harbaugh said the plan is to go with the three backs remaining on the 53-man roster: Skattebo, Tyrone Tracy Jr. and Devin Singletary. He didn’t address why the team bothered to add Harris in the first place, a move made before the season, though perhaps it was because no one stepped up to claim the job.
Skattebo, who said after the loss to the Saints that he was punished for his fumbling problem, has taken the lesson in stride and vowed to put his ball-security issues behind him.
Still, Skattebo said the decision to release Harris sends a message that “nobody’s safe” and that it’s all about performing.
“If we’re not performing, we understand there’s a possibility of not being here,” he said on Friday. “If I don’t perform, I know there’s a possibility of me not being here. We came in this week. We continue to work. We know where we’re at. We know what we have. If we put that on display, we’re going to be just fine.”
Sign up for our free newsletter and follow us on Facebook and X for the latest news, and send your mailbag questions to us.
Add us as a preferred source on Google