Najee Harris is a powerful, workhorse running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He’ll look to make an impact on the field and on your fantasy team in year three of his young career. He has demonstrated plenty of skills related to strength and dependency but has also struggled with speed and durability issues. With his young age and early production, he tops many dynasty running back rankings. In his rookie season of 2021, he set the Steelers’ franchise record for rushing yards by a rookie with over 1200 yards. He also had close to 400 touches (total carries + receptions) in the 17 games he played as a rookie. He battled injuries and an incompetent offensive line this past year in 2022 and had slightly lower production. With a revamped offensive line, could Najee Harris be on his way to his best season yet?
Najee Harris 2023 Fantasy Football Profile
Najee Harris 2022 Season Recap
Harris slightly took a step back from his rookie campaign in his sophomore season. This was mainly due to a reduced workload and a few lingering injuries. He had 381 touches in 2021 but had 313 this past year. With Jaylen Warren proving he can be a dependable backup; Harris should see a similar workload in his second year this year. In 2022, Harris ran for 1,034 yards and seven touchdowns, and finished with an average of about 3.8 yards per carry. He also caught 41 passes for 229 yards and three touchdowns. In each of his first two years, Harris has had ten total touchdowns (seven rushing, three receiving) in each year. In terms of fantasy football, he finished with an average of about 12.09 PPR fantasy points per game. This placed him as the RB14 by the end of the year.
Najee Harris Fantasy 2023 Season Prediction
As stated above, Harris will likely see a similar workload of about 300-325 touches this season. This gives him plenty of opportunities to rack up fantasy points but some shifts in the Steelers offense will certainly impact his week-to-week standing. Kenny Pickett is entering his second year and will look to take some big strides forward, which could both help and hurt Harris’ fantasy rankings. The Steelers will look to expand Pickett in the passing game, which will both give more targets/receptions to Harris but also less carries. But with a healthy Harris and a much better offensive line, I think he improves his yards-per-carry average to about 4.5 which should help his overall yardage.
My prediction for Harris’ final line is about 1,150 yards (~67 per game) and nine touchdowns on the ground. I also think he takes on a bigger role in the passing game and goes for about 350 yards and three touchdowns. These stat predictions put Harris with about a 15-16 point per game average. Things could definitely change but I think that he takes a big step forward in his career and really works hard as the featured back this year.
Najee Harris 2023 ADP
As of now, Harris averages being taken as the RB 11-13 off the board in most drafts. This puts him as a third or fourth-round pick in standard 8-12 team leagues. His numbers at the beginning of 2022 were concerning but his late-season surge should give him some leeway heading into 2023. Like I said earlier, Harris is due for an expanded role in the Steelers’ growing offense. If Kenny Pickett takes a big step forward, I believe that Harris will too. His range in most drafts goes from RB6 to RB18 and he could very well place himself in the top-five in a couple of weeks of the season.
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