Najee Harris

Najee Jerome Harris (born March 9, 1998) is an American football running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL).

He played college football at Alabama and was selected by the Steelers in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft.

Harris is from the San Francisco Bay Area.

One of five children of a single mother, he grew up in several troubled neighborhoods, including time in a homeless shelter when he was in middle school before the family moved to Antioch.

Harris played high school football at Antioch High School in Antioch, California.

Harris was one of the most hyped running back recruits since Bryce Brown in 2009 and Leonard Fournette in 2014.

Multiple recruiting experts compared him to Adrian Peterson.

As a sophomore in 2014, Harris rushed for 2,263 yards with 23 touchdowns.

As a junior he had 2,744 rushing yards and 36 touchdowns.

As a senior, he had 2,776 rushing yards and 34 touchdowns.

He committed to the Alabama Crimson Tide in 2015.

Harris was considered the #1 recruit in the class of 2017, by Scout and Rivals.

247Sports rated him as the No. 2 overall recruit behind Jaelan Phillips while ESPN ranked him the No. 11 overall recruit.

Harris received offers from multiple top football programs including the Alabama Crimson Tide, Michigan Wolverines, Ohio State Buckeyes, USC Trojans, and Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Harris played for the University of Alabama from 2017 to 2020 under head coach Nick Saban.

As a freshman, Harris played in all 14 games but had limited carries as players like Damien Harris, Bo Scarbrough, and Josh Jacobs handled the main workload.

Harris finished the season with 370 yards on 61 carries averaging 6.1 yards per carry.

He scored three rushing touchdowns on the season.

In the national championship against Georgia, Harris had six carries for 64 rushing yards in the 26–23 victory.

In his sophomore season, Harris was third running back behind Damien Harris and Josh Jacobs.

Harris started the season with a rushing touchdown in four of the first five games but did not find the endzone the rest of the season.

Harris had his best game against Arkansas State, carrying the ball 13 times and gaining a career-high 135 yards.

Harris played in 15 games, recording 783 yards on 117 carries and scoring four rushing touchdowns.

With Damien Harris and Josh Jacobs off to the NFL, Harris became the starting running back for Alabama Crimson Tide.

He and Brian Robinson Jr. largely dominated the backfield production for the Crimson Tide.

On September 14, Harris had two receiving touchdowns in the 47–23 victory over South Carolina.

On October 19, against Tennessee in the Third Saturday in October, he had 21 carries for 105 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns in the 35–13 victory.

On November 9, against LSU, he had 19 carries for 146 rushing yards, one rushing touchdown, and one receiving touchdown in the 46–41 loss.

In the following game at Mississippi State, Harris had four total touchdowns in the 38–7 victory.

In the Iron Bowl against Auburn, Harris had 27 carries for 146 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown in the 48–45 loss.

Alabama finished with a 10–2 record and qualified for the Citrus Bowl.

In the Citrus Bowl, Harris had 24 carries for 136 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns in the 35–16 victory over Michigan.

In the 2019 season, Harris had 209 carries for 1,224 rushing yards and 13 rushing touchdowns while catching 27 passes for 304 receiving yards and seven receiving touchdowns.

Despite speculation that he would declare for the 2020 NFL Draft, Harris announced that he would return to Alabama for his senior year.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Alabama's season was cut to an all-conference, ten-game season beginning on September 26.

In 2020, Harris was the starting running back for the Alabama Crimson Tide.

He and Robinson continued to have a large majority of the backfield carries.

In the regular season opener against the Missouri Tigers, Harris had 17 attempts for 98 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns in the 38–19 victory.

His best game of the season was against Ole Miss, where he attempted 23 rushes for 206 rushing yards with five rushing touchdowns in the 63–48 victory.

Against the Georgia Bulldogs he ran for 31 attempts with 152 rushing yards, one rushing touchdown and 4.9 yards on average in the 41–24 victory.