Following a keen rookie campaign, Pittsburgh Steelers running back Najee Harris won the support from plenty of former players, including Jerome Bettis.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame running back once again offered his stamp of approval to Harris during a recent interview on the NFL Network’s “NFL Total Access” program. He noted that Harris has what he needs to go on and take his game to “another level,” and more so, the former Alabama Crimson Tide standout simply has the “hunger” to want to up his play.
“What I love is his hunger to learn, to want to be better,” Bettis said. “A lot of times, you get a young guy, first-round draft pick, you come in and you say, ‘Okay, I’m here now, and I’m the best thing since sliced bread.’ And that’s not the case with Najee. He reached out to me. He wanted to learn more. ‘Hey, talk to me about this. Explain to me this.’
“And that tells me that he wants to be a better football player, every year he steps on the football field. So that tells me that I think the running game is in great hands. Now we’ve got to figure out who’s going to be throwing the football and can we get it down to these really good wide receivers that we have?”
In October, Harris reached out to Bettis, and the two wound up watching game film together.
respect. pic.twitter.com/9ZVpDiZVc1
— Jerome Bettis (@JeromeBettis36) October 14, 2021
Harris sure closely listened to Bettis’ stern advice, as he ended up finishing his first season in the league on a strong note, which included the 188 rushing yards game in the Week 17 home win over the Cleveland Browns.
Overall, Harris made the most out of his debut season in the NFL, from leading the league in touches with 381 to also scoring 10 total touchdowns.
In the big picture, Harris is slated to be called on to help balance out the Steelers offense for either Kenny Pickett or Mitchell Trubisky in the upcoming campaign. He will next get a chance to work with the two quarterbacks later in the month at the team’s training camp program.
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