The Pittsburgh Steelers' decision to move on from Najee Harris and commit to Jaylen Warren continues to look better by the day.
Harris, who signed a one-year deal with the New York Giants in August, was released following the team's Week 5 loss to the New Orleans Saints.
Coming off a torn Achilles he suffered as a member of the Los Angeles Chargers in 2025, Harris recorded just 99 yards on 31 carries for the Giants before being let go.
Warren, on the other hand, has emerged as one of the NFL's top running backs now that he's landed an opportunity to be the Steelers' featured back. He has 460 yards and a touchdown on 84 carries over six games, along with 258 yards and a score on 21 receptions.
Warren and Harris' Time Together in Pittsburgh
A first-round pick out of Alabama in the 2021 NFL Draft, Harris was supposed to be a workhorse and star-level running back for the Steelers.
To a certain extent, that came true. Harris finished his rookie season with 1,667 yards from scrimmage and 10 touchdowns.
The issue for Harris, though, has always been his lack of true explosiveness, and that was never more evident than when Warren entered the picture.
As an undrafted rookie in 2022, Warren finished with 379 yards and a touchdown on 77 carries (4.9 yards per attempt), while Harris had 1,034 yards on 272 carries (3.8 yards per attempt) with seven scores.
Then, during the 2023 campaign, Warren rushed for 784 yards and four touchdowns on 149 carries (5.3 yards per attempt). Harris, meanwhile, logged 1,035 yards and eight touchdowns across 255 carries (4.1 yards per attempt).
Pittsburgh did not pick up Harris' fifth-year option before the 2024 season, yet he remained ahead of Warren in the pecking order despite the latter being far more efficient and dynamic, both on the ground and through the air during their time sharing the backfield up to that point.
Harris posted 1,043 yards on 263 carries (4.0 yards per attempt) with six touchdowns in 2024, while Warren had 511 yards and one score on 120 carries (4.3 yards per attempt).
From there, Harris hit free agency and joined the Chargers while Warren signed a two-year, $11.904 million extension ahead of the 2025 campaign that looks like one of the biggest bargains in the league.
Did Steelers Wait too Long to Prioritize Warren?
It's not surprising that Warren was far more efficient than Harris during their overlapping stints with the Steelers, given that the former had a smaller workload and was a prototypical change-of-pace back at 5-foot-8, while the latter fit the mold of an old-school, physical back at 6-foot-1 and a little over 230 pounds who thrived in short-yardage situations while being fed a boatload of carries.
Still, just based on the numbers and the film, it became clear very early on in Warren's career that he was the higher-upside option for Pittsburgh and offered far more dynamism than Harris ever could, both on the ground and through the air.
Harris filled his role in a viable manner, but the Steelers' opting to prioritize him so heavily over Warren, particularly in the running game, held back the offense as a whole for several years.
Pittsburgh did pivot from Harris at the right time, though, and Warren has now proven to be an elite running back.
He was excellent in 2025 with 1,291 yards and eight touchdowns from scrimmage despite Kenneth Gainwell eating into his workload quite significantly, and he's set to exceed that total by a good amount in 2026.
Over 17 games, Warren is on pace for 1,303 rushing yards and 731 receiving yards, which would come out to 2,034 yards from scrimmage.
Those numbers are a bit inflated since Rico Dowdle missed three games with a toe injury before returning in the Steelers' Week 6 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, though Warren still finished that contest with 16 touches and should command a vast majority of the workload moving forward.
If Warren does exceed 2,000 yards from scrimmage, he'd become just the third player in franchise history to accomplish that feat, joining Le'Veon Bell (2,215 in 2014) and Barry Foster (2,034 in 1992).
We're still a ways away from that becoming a reality, but it speaks to just how dominant Warren has been and further hammers home the point that Pittsburgh made the right choice to move on from Harris.
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