Steelers’ Najee Harris weighs in about his weight
Sports Steelers’ Najee Harris weighs in about his weight Published: Jun. 01, 2022, 5:30 a.m.
Pittsburgh Steelers running back Najee Harris practices on May 24, 2022, in Pittsburgh.(AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
By Mark Inabinett | [email protected]
As Najee Harris rumbled to 1,200 rushing yards last season, he banged through enough would-be tacklers on the way to the Pro Bowl to testify to his status as a big, physical running back.
For a little while on Tuesday, it appeared Harris would be a substantially bigger back in 2022.
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The former Alabama All-American told Steelers Nation Radio that he was working at 244 pounds during Pittsburgh’s Organized Team Activity practices.
When a reporter pointed out on Twitter that Harris’ roster weight was 232 pounds as a rookie (and remains at that figure), the 12-pound weight increase might have become a cause for concern – until Harris weighed in.
Harris tweeted: “Bra, I weighed 240 last year. Reporters really don’t be knowing nothing, just be tweeting (expletive).”
During a video interview for the Steelers’ website on Tuesday, Harris detailed his offseason conditioning program.
“I watch film, and I see what I need to focus on mainly,” Harris said. “In the weight room, if I need to get more lower-body strength, upper-body strength, I focus on that. If I want to work on picking up my knees while running, I work on that.
“Then I’ve got a cardio aspect of it. I got swimming as an aspect of it. I train with boxers, too. Their cardio is amazing, so then I box, too. I kind of like boxing now, so I box more and put that in my workout. It’s a multitude of all types of things I do.
“I focus on a lot of things. For a running back, I feel like you can’t just focus on one thing if you want to be an all-purpose back. You got to focus on catching, sprinting, cardio. You got to focus on agility, cuts. You got to focus on vision, pass blocking. So there’s a lot of things that I do.”
In addition to his 1,200 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns on 307 carries, Harris also caught 74 passes for 467 yards and three touchdowns as a rookie.
The Steelers opened their second week of OTA practices on Tuesday.
“Right now, this is the perfect time to get to know each other,” Harris said. “We do got a lot of new people. … Right now, this is the perfect time to build our chemistry together. It’s a long season so we got to be on the same chemistry together, and it’s really figuring out what type of people we are, how to talk to them and get to know each other, man.
“This is the perfect time right now just to lay a foundation of what we want to do and what we can accomplish this season, and that’s what we’re doing right now.
“I’m mad because there ain’t no contact, but that’s just me. I’m ready to go anytime.”
Pittsburgh has two more OTA practices and a three-day mandatory minicamp remaining in its offseason program.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
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