Najee Harris; Most exciting #1Pick since Big Ben

[Shawn]

If this isnt wishful thinking.. I dont know what is. I like your style though. "A" for effort for sure!

I'm not sure it's wishful thinking. I believe Harris is the best back to come out since Barkley. Harris is a better back than Bell was at this stage in their careers. He does all the little things well. He is cerebral and incredibly athletic. I think we got a steal.

[Northern_Blitz]

And Clark said he saw early on that Brown was gonna be a problem.

Moats had an interesting take on that in the video.

[NorthCoast]

I'm not sure it's wishful thinking. I believe Harris is the best back to come out since Barkley. Harris is a better back than Bell was at this stage in their careers. He does all the little things well. He is cerebral and incredibly athletic. I think we got a steal.

I like what I am hearing in his interviews. The guy speaks confidently and intelligently. I hope success doesn't ruin him. I hope the Steelers learned their lesson with Bell.

[NorthCoast]

Apparently a rumor going around social media that Harris had a football implanted in his calf... you be the judge:

[feltdizz]

I like what I am hearing in his interviews. The guy speaks confidently and intelligently. I hope success doesn't ruin him. I hope the Steelers learned their lesson with Bell.

what is the lesson? Bell left over money.

IMO the only lesson we need to learn is extend Harris early if he is a beast.

[Steel Maniac]

what is the lesson? Bell left over money.

IMO the only lesson we need to learn is extend Harris early if he is a beast.

We need to hold off on the “ extend him early “ stuff. Harris will be 28 by the time his first contract is up and 28 years old is the age most RB’s start to drop off.

[feltdizz]

We need to hold off on the “ extend him early “ stuff. Harris will be 28 by the time his first contract is up and 28 years old is the age most RB’s start to drop off.

no.. first extension is fine as long as we don’t wait until his last year. Extend him for 3 years but make it voidable after the first or second year.

Again, that is if he lives up to expectations.

[Northern_Blitz]

no.. first extension is fine as long as we don’t wait until his last year. Extend him for 3 years but make it voidable after the first or second year.

Again, that is if he lives up to expectations.

Voidable contracts pull the delayed SB cap hits into the current year.

I think I'd rather see:
- 4 year contract
- 5th year option if performance is good
- Tag if performance is still good
- Tag 2 if performance is still good

At that point, he's 30 (currently 23). And we didn't have to ever give a market value contract with term.

We actually get him for an extra year than we did Bell because he's a 1st round pick and not a 2nd (so we get the 5th year option).

There's a great path to get 4 cheap years. Then year-to-year. And it's probably not a bad cap value if he's an elite RB even if RB tag numbers stay the same (instead of continuing to decline).

[feltdizz]

Voidable contracts pull the delayed SB cap hits into the current year.

I think I'd rather see:
- 4 year contract
- 5th year option if performance is good
- Tag if performance is still good
- Tag 2 if performance is still good

At that point, he's 30 (currently 23). And we didn't have to ever give a market value contract with term.

We actually get him for an extra year than we did Bell because he's a 1st round pick and not a 2nd (so we get the 5th year option).

There's a great path to get 4 cheap years. Then year-to-year. And it's probably not a bad cap value if he's an elite RB even if RB tag numbers stay the same (instead of continuing to decline).

If he plays well and we tag him it will end just like Bell.

There is no way a RB wants to play on the tag twice. I think our FO won’t make that mistake again.

I would rather see 4 years, extend him in the 4th year to a 3 year contract. Didn’t we end up paying Bell like 27 mill guaranteed on the tag (I know he sat out one year).

["BuzzNuter"]

The Rooney's learned their lesson from dealing with Bell. They won't do the same with Harris. If he is successful they will give him a good deal. Bell messed up not reupping with the Steelers. The OL was set up to block for him. I believe he didn't want to stay in peak performance shape hence the more guaranteed $ requirement. He would have made more money and had more success with the Steelers.
We will have to watch Harris. He appears to be a take charge person who puts himself out there. I think he has a good chance of a 10 year career with the Steelers.

[Northern_Blitz]

If he plays well and we tag him it will end just like Bell.

There is no way a RB wants to play on the tag twice. I think our FO won’t make that mistake again.

I would rather see 4 years, extend him in the 4th year to a 3 year contract. Didn’t we end up paying Bell like 27 mill guaranteed on the tag (I know he sat out one year).

The FO didn't "make the mistake".

They put the tag on him to buy time to negotiate a long term deal. Not doing that makes him a UFA on day 1.

They offered a reasonable long term deal (arguably unreasonable for the team).

My guess is that not many RBs would want to follow in Bell's footsteps given the results, but you never know.

Either way, there's no way you extend him before exercising the 5th year option. Even if he doesn't play under the option, doing that extension prevents him from getting poached from another team. And that's not just for RBs. Same thing to Watt and Minkah.

Maybe a 3 year deal at around the tag level would be better than him actually playing under the 5th year option (assuming he's good enough to want to keep at that point). If he's in the probowl 2x, he'll be at the tag level anyway.

But you'd want a Steelers type contract with no guarantees after year 1 so it's not too painful if you have to walk away.

If you can't get a good medium term deal like that, you let him play the option year. Then you tag him and try to get a reasonable medium term deal again.

And you repeat with the 2nd tag if you couldn't get a good deal the time before.

The team played it almost exactly correct with Bell. At least process wise. You could argue that we were too generous with the long term deal, but he never signed it anyway.

The lesson from Bell is that trying to reset the market - to literally try to charge more than the market will bear - is a dangerous game to play.

I don't think there's any moral failing in what Bell did. I would have wanted to know what my market value was too. I may have done the same after already being set for life and seeing a team mate have his career ended while almost getting paralyzed. But I don't know that too many players are going to look at that situation and say "I want to do that".

[hawaiiansteel]

We need to hold off on the “ extend him early “ stuff. Harris will be 28 by the time his first contract is up and 28 years old is the age most RB’s start to drop off.

why don't we just wait until that time comes to make that decision before you start making uninformed statements.

[steeler_fan_in_t.o.]

An amazing talent.

I wonder if it was the Burfict hit? Things started to unravel after that.

I think to the outside observer it looked like it only began to unravel after Burfict, but there were other indications that he was an a$$, and an awful teammate already.

[feltdizz]

why don't we just wait until that time comes to make that decision before you start making uninformed statements.

well I brought up the scenario. Just wondering how we handle a talent like Najee IF he lives up to the hype.

[hawaiiansteel]

well I brought up the scenario. Just wondering how we handle a talent like Najee IF he lives up to the hype.

same answer.

if he's playing well, we do our best to re-sign him. if we end up losing him like Le'Veon so be it.