It’s that time of year once again! Football Absurdity will bring you a breakdown of every notable fantasy football-relevant player throughout June, July, and August. We continue with the running backs. Today, we take a look at sophomore sensation running back Najee Harris. He has a questionable offense and a bad offensive line, and he’s one of the least efficient high-volume running backs in the league. So, why is a shoo-in for top-ten at running back? Let’s take a look at the Najee Harris fantasy football player profile!
Najee Harris ADP and AAV:
Average Draft Position: RB6, Pick 7
Average Auction Value: $57
Najee Harris Statistics:
| Year | G | GS | Rush | Ru Yds | Ru TD | Tgt | Rec | Yards | TD | Touches | Opp | Total Yards |
| 2021 | 17 | 17 | 307 | 1200 | 7 | 94 | 74 | 467 | 3 | 381 | 401 | 1667 |
| Year | YPC | Rush/G | Ru Yd/G | Tgt/G | Rec/G | Catch% | Yds/Tgt | Yds/Rec | Touches/G | Opp/G | Yds/G |
| 2021 | 3.91 | 18.1 | 70.6 | 5.53 | 4.35 | 78.7% | 4.97 | 6.31 | 22.41 | 23.59 | 98.1 |
| Year | Std Pts | HPPR Pts | PPR Pts | Pts/G | HPPR Pts/G | PPR Pts/G | Pts/Tch | HPPR Pts/Tch | PPR Pts/Tch |
| 2021 | 226.7 | 263.7 | 300.7 | 13.34 | 15.51 | 17.7 | 0.60 | 0.69 | 0.79 |
2022 Najee Harris Fantasy Football Overview:
If you look under the hood at Najee Harris’ rookie season from an efficiency perspective, there isn’t much to like, to be honest. He ranked #41 with 4.4 yards per touch, he had a breakaway run on just 3.9% of his rush attempts (28th), and he ranked 24th in yards created per touch, all according to playerprofiler.com.
But, Najee more than made up for his inefficiency by being one of the most-used running backs in the league. He ranked first or second in snap share, carries, targets, receptions, and routes run. And, in fantasy football, opportunities are king. It’s why (if you consider the fact that a target is worth 2.4 as many fantasy points as a rushing attempt), Najee was the league leader in fantasy point opportunities. He had the equivalent of 540 rush attempts if you convert his targets to equivalent rush attempt fantasy point opportunities. So, he has an incredible floor.
2022 Najee Harris Fantasy Football Draft Strategy:
Najee Harris Salary Cap Value: $60
Draft Ranking: Find out for your league settings in a Beersheet! (coming in early July)
While the offense and offensive line are a mess, there’s nobody else in the running back room to take a single touch, or even a single snap, from Najee Harris. Harris is due for another massive workload, and he’s due that workload with better quarterbacks under center.
But, all of this—his workload and his inefficiencies—are all baked into his draft price. He’s the eighth-highest priced running back in salary cap drafts and is the RB6 in snake drafts, between Christian McCaffrey and Joe Mixon.
As for snake drafts, that’s a good spot for Najee Harris. He has some upside thanks to the fact that literally, nobody is coming to take any of his touches or opportunity this year, but his inefficiency (through his skills, the Steelers’ offense, and the offensive line) make him a middling RB1 as a baseline, with a chance to become a high-end RB1 if he continues his volume.
Best Case Scenario:
Najee Harris gets a bump in scoring opportunities and leaps up from his RB6 rookie campaign to RB3 or RB4.
Worst Case Scenario:
Ben Roethlisberger refuses to stop texting Najee Harris “wyd” at all hours, forcing Najee to switch phones. He forgets to tell the Steelers about the new phone and misses updated practice information. He gets disciplined for this and suspended for multiple games for conduct detrimental to the team when he yells in the middle of practice “IT’S BECAUSE BEN WON’T LEAVE ME ALONE COACH, MAKE HIM STOP” and balls up into the fetal position in the middle of the field and refuses to move.
Check out all our 2022 player profiles, here.
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[Statistics are sourced from pro-football-reference.com, airyards.com, and ftnfantasy.com]
[Image Source: Pittsburgh Steelers on Twitter]
