Firing follows Najee Harris’ âtired of this (expletive)â
After Pittsburgh lost to the Cleveland Browns 13-10 on Sunday, Steelers running back Najee Harris told reporters in the locker room: “There’s just a lot of stuff that just goes around that you guys don’t see. That’s what I’m trying to say. It’s just I’m just at a point where I’m just tired of this (expletive).”
Harris was asked if what he was tired of could be fixed.
“Is it fixable? Yeah,” Harris said. “Are we going to fix it? (Expletive.)”
Since Harris’ postgame laments had to do with the Pittsburgh offense, the former Alabama All-American might have been surprised on Tuesday when Steelers coach Mike Tomlin announced offensive coordinator Matt Canada had been fired.
Tomlin was asked if the discontent of Pittsburgh players such as Harris and wide receivers George Pickens (a former Hoover High School star) and Diontae Johnson had figured in his decision to move on from Canada.
“I’ve given you guys my statement respectfully,” Tomlin said. “Out of respect to (Canada), particularly professionally, I’m just not going to get into a lot of details and give you the pound of flesh you’re hunting.”
The loss to Cleveland left Pittsburgh with a 6-4 record, and the Steelers are holding the final playoff spot in the AFC with seven weeks remaining in the regular season. Pittsburgh holds a winning mark even though it has been outgained by its opponent in every game this season.
“You could look at the record and say, ‘OK, we’re still good right now,’” Harris said. “Or you could look at the record and be like, ‘If we keep playing this type of football, how long is that (expletive) going to last?’ I look at it like, ‘How long is that (expletive) going to last?’
“Y’all could look at it like it’s a good record. But, I mean, it’s the NFL. Winning like how we did, it’s not going to get us nowhere.”
Harris ran for 35 yards on 12 carries and caught a 1-yard pass against the Browns.
“I couldn’t get things going,” Harris said. “It seems like every time I’ve got it, it seems like it was just either the defense was playing to minimize my role or something like that. And coming out in the second half, I just couldn’t get anything going. Lucky thing Jaylen (Warren) got going, so that was good. But even for me, they were just sitting on screens for me. Then in the run game, just blowing things up in the run game. I couldn’t get nothing going personally.”
Harris ran for 2,234 yards and 14 touchdowns and caught 115 passes for 696 yards and six touchdowns in his first two seasons with the Steelers. This season, he has run for 499 yards and three touchdowns and caught 19 passes for 116 yards in 10 games.
But it hasn’t been Harris’ production that has changed all that much. It’s his opportunities.
In his first two seasons, Harris averaged 3.858 yards per carry. This season, he has averaged 3.898 yard per carry. But he has averaged 4.2 fewer rushing attempts and 1.4 fewer receptions per game in 2023 than he did in his previous two seasons.
After playing a whopping 84 percent of Pittsburgh’s offensive snaps as a rookie, Harris played 66 percent in 2022. This season, his participation rate is down to 54 percent.
Harris is sharing the Steelers’ backfield work with Warren now. After running for 230 yards and two touchdowns on 24 carries in the past two games, Warren is only 6 yards behind Harris for the team rushing lead despite having 48 fewer carries.
“I just don’t know what to do,” Harris said. “I feel like I’m just stuck in this situation where I just don’t have an answer to it. I don’t have an answer to it, man. All I can do is just ride this little wave until it’s out.”
Canada is out because Pittsburgh hadn’t scored enough. Among the NFL’s 32 teams, the Steelers are 28th in points per game and yards per game.
“I just want to see points,” Tomlin said. “I want to engineer victory more fluidly, and points do that.”
Pittsburgh plays another AFC North rival when the Steelers face the Bengals at noon CST Sunday at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati.
Running-backs coach Eddie Faulkner will handle the offensive-coordinator duties, and quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan will call the plays.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.