Najee Harris could be the Next Derrick Henry, Here's How | Gridiron Blitz

in Derrick Henry's fourth season he became known as the king in that season he rushed for over 1500 yards and 16 touchdowns this is when the Titans hired Arthur Smith to be the offensive coordinator now going into Harris's fourth season the Steelers have hired Arthur Smith to be the offensive coordinat wait wait did I did I write that down twice [Music] the 24th pick in the 2021 NFL draft the Pittsburgh Steelers select Naji Harris running back Alabama the selection of Naji Harris was met with lots of criticism however since being drafted Harris has been a solid contributor to the Steelers offense where he's rushed for over a, yards in every season since being drafted now going into his fourth season the Steelers are looking to upgrade their run game with Coach Arthur Smith who has orchestrated some of the League's best rushing attacks since 2019 Smith took the Falcons from 31st in rushing yards and 27th in rushing touchdowns to ninth in yards and 15 in touchdowns a substantial Improvement now with Arthur Smith inheriting another 62 230 plus pound running back the stage looks set for Arthur Smith to Crown a new [Music] king former Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada was probably one of the worst offensive coordinators in the past 10 years his offense was hard to watch and his Run game was probably the most uncreative things in the NFL I don't know how many times I watched the Steelers one inside Zone into a stacked box it's almost a wonder how Harris was able to run for over a th000 yards last season with Canada as the offensive coordinator Harris was horribly inefficient running for around 3.8 yards per carry after he got fired that jumped to 4.3 yard per a carry a significant difference Canada's High School offense didn't do anyone anything favors now with Arthur Smith as the offensive coordinator the Steelers new offense looks to be a heavy wide Zone play action oriented offense during Smith's time with the Titans they averaged 153.7 rushing yards per game and 5.1 yards per carry in Smith's first two seasons second in that 2-year stretch only to the Baltimore Ravens the Titans also rushed for 2.02 yards after contact and 133 rushes of 10 plus yards both both of which ranked second in the league even without King Henry Smith was able to find success with Tyler ajir who rushed for over a th000 yards as rookie season now this being the case with another back in the same mold as King Henry Naji looks to be the new Prince of the league with Henry the primary run call for Smith was outside Zone he called it 227 times with the titans this total them about, 1300 yard and about 6 yards per attempt very efficient in Pittsburgh Harris fared well on outside Zone runs himself with an expected 4.3 yards per attempt compared to Jaylen Warren's 3.7 yards per attempt comparing that to inside Zone by far the most common run the Steelers called Harris's yards per attempt was only 3.9 while Warren was at 4.2 with a scheme more suited to Harris's skill set a breakout season is starting to look more and more possible by the second [Music] when you look at their measurables Henry and Harris are nearly identical to each other height both are around 6'2 weight both are 230 lb plus that's well above average for the modern NFL arm length both have 33 Plus in arms and size both have big hands their 40 times are almost identical too heny ran a 4.54 official while Harris clocked a 4.45 unofficial so he's probably a tick or two slower than that we'll be generous and say he's also in the low 4 FS I hope you guys can start to see where I'm going with this if not it all makes sense in a bit what you're looking at here is Derrik hen's run splits from before the Titans transition to the wide zone offense as you can see on runs up the middle he was only at 3.26 yards per carry runs to the edges he was at 7.83 yards per carry and specifically on runs to the left edges he was 9.97 yards per carry and when you look at the numbers it's absolutely absurd he was just averaging a first down almost every carry to the left Edge and I would also like to give it a shout out to Brett Coleman this is actually his graphic from his video If you haven't seen it you should definitely go watch it it's called Welcome to smashville if you haven't seen the video I'd highly recommend you check it out Brett gives a very detailed analysis into Derrik hen's running style and why he's a good fit for wide zone offense but I'll give you the clip notes version of it here basically because Henry is so tall and heavy it takes him a lot of time to build up to his top speed when he has to jump cut and stop all his momentum he loses all the power he's built up his legs outside Zone allows him to build up the power and keep his momentum because he doesn't have to make super hard Cuts or wait for holes to open up instead he can just bend his runs which allows him to keep his legs moving and thus maintain his power and speed Henry's arm length is also very relevant in making him a great outside Zone Runner his arms are extremely long if you don't know yet they're 33 in which allows him to basically throw incredibly good stiff arms his arms are so long they're in the 95th per of ring backs and because this people can't really touch him because his arms are so long all these things apply to Harris too again their builds are almost identical in fact Harris actually has slightly longer arms so in theory a switch to the wide Zone run scheme could help Harris have his best season yet I got you from oh no you don't what are you doing stop God I love o sunny and Philadelphia anyway if you don't believe that Harris is an effective stiff armor well here's a few Clips just to prove my [Music] point here's one against the [Music] Seahawks man I don't know about you guys but I would not want to be on the end of this stiff arm here okay last clip here I hope you guys are starting to see what I'm getting at [Music] here I think people might be underrating Arthur Smith as a play caller I mean obviously as a head coach there's plenty to criticize but there's no doubt that those Falcons offenses are pretty decent despite having Desmond Ritter as a quarterback for most of his time in Atlanta not only did the Steelers upgrade at offensive coordinator but they upgraded their unit as a whole the Steelers did a whole lot of making over in the off season signing free agents left and right one of the biggest additions though was Russell Wilson he should again in theory give them starting level of quarterback play they also traded for Justin fields and between the two of them hopefully one of them gives you better quarterback play than Kenny picket did last year the Steelers also upgraded offensive line on the draft drafting left tackle Troy Fu from Washington him sliding into one of those tackle spots should be a huge upgrade for the Steelers they didn't just get a tackle though they also drafted Center in the second round and Zack Fraser who's no slaps himself one more addition they made in the draft was Roman Wilson who you know is going to block because he went to Michigan and you don't play there unless you blocked for your running back this Steelers offense might surprise some people this year well maybe not us but some people last year Naji Harris LED all players with 618 yards after contact according to pro football reference on a per carry basis he was averaging 2.4 yards after contact he didn't get much help last year from both his play caller and his own line as Harris only had 1.6 yards before contact this was the second worst in the league if Harris was that good at getting yards after contact last season imagine how good he'll be with a better scheme and a better play caller currently Harris is rated as running back 22 in fantasy rankings this year however I fully expect him to shatter that ranking and finish in the top five in rushing this year if you took anything away from this video it should be draft Harris and fantasy the king's time in Tennessee may have come to an end but there's a prince in the north who's looking to take the throne and his name is Naji [Music] Harris and this game is is underway [Music]