PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers decided they’d leave the question on the table for the 2024 season, choosing to decline running back Najee Harris’s fifth-year option and this fall as a contract year for the former first-round pick.
The news was uncertain up until the deadline, with the Steelers choosing to keep their decision close to their vest throughout the offseason. When it broke that they would not pick up his option, Harris said he was disappointed but that the emotions didn’t last long before he turned his attention to the season.
“I was disappointed for a minute,” Harris said. “It’s nothing really where me sitting around, being disappointed for too long would do anything to help me out. It is what it is and you’ve just got to keep it pushing. Coming out here, doing what’s best for the team, and coming out here, is what’s most important right now. Yeah I was for a minute, couple days, but it passed my mind so fast.”
Harris will enter 2024 without knowing if it’ll be the last season as a Steeler. The team has said they’re open to a deal with the running back, but nothing has been in the works to this point. That being said, Harris is making it known he wants to remain in Pittsburgh after the season.
“Yeah, most definitely,” Harris said when asked if he wants to remain with the Steelers. “I like it here in Pittsburgh. I like Coach T, Mr. Rooney, Omar, even Kevin Colbert when he was here. It’s a good city. Obviously, the people here are nice and are welcoming.
“But, you know, it’s a business. It comes and goes. I’ve been around this stuff all my life. What I always take from it is I’ve always been in the driver’s seat of this and God’s been steering it. Wherever he stops the car, is whoever I’m working at. If it’s here or somewhere else, by all means, I’m going to do everything I can for that team. That’s just the mindset you’ve gotta have with this sport.”
The Steelers’ top two running backs, Harris and Jaylen Warren, are both entering contract years. Neither have began negotiating long-term deals with the Steelers.
That may not mark the end for either, but it certainly leaves question to whether or not the team will have a new backfield in 2025.