The Chargers are refreshing their run game, as it's been reported that once Free Agency opens on Wednesday, Najee Harris intends to sign with Los Angeles.

Najee Harris Agrees To Deal With Los Angeles Chargers

Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman have themselves a new bell-cow RB: Najee Harris has signed with the Los Angeles Chargers on a one-year deal worth up to $9.25 million. For those counting at home, that puts the longtime Steelers workhorse in the same per-year ballpark as guys like James Conner ($9.5 million) and David Montgomery ($9.125 million).

I know what you're thinking. “Najee Harris? REALLY?”

Hear me out: Let’s play a game!

  • Player A: 3.9 yards per carry, 2.9 yards after contact per carry, 20.7% missed tackles forced per rush, 5.8% explosive run rate
     
  • Player B: 3.9 yards per carry, 2.7 yards after contact per rush, 15.1% missed tackles forced per rush, 5% explosive run rate

Player A is Harris from 2021 to 2024 with the Steelers, and Player B is David Montgomery from 2019 to 2022 with the Bears. Note that the latter back’s offensive line actually vastly out-produced the former when looking at rank in yards before contact per carry (Chicago ranked 15th vs. Pittsburgh’s 29th).

Now, it hasn't all been ideal: Harris put forward a not-so-great (read: bad) combination of explosive play and success rate last season. He doesn't have the sort of provocative one-hitter quitter home-run speed that gets the people going, and Jaylen Warren regularly looked like the better back over the years.

And yet, as a wise man once said: The best ability is availability, and Harris has never missed a game while continuously proving to be a handful in one-on-one situations. Large volume be damned: You'll be surprised at how solid his 2024 highlights really were.

The NFL's only RB with 1,000-plus rush yards in each of the past four seasons, Harris has three-down ability (caught 74 passes as a rookie!) and is fresh off a season in which he racked up a 24% missed tackle rate–good for the eighth-highest mark among all RBs with 150-plus carries.

Fantasy Football Impact Of Najee Harris To The Chargers

Enter: The Chargers, who recently cut Gus Edwards and now presumably won't be bringing back 2024 leading rusher J.K. Dobbins. This leaves a barren depth chart featuring only Hassan Haskins (73 career touches) and Kimani Vidal (48) inside of an offense that ran the ball at the 10th-highest rate last season.

There's room for improvement here, even if Harris shouldn't be confused with Saquon Barkley:

Chargers RBs as a whole in 2024:

  • 25th in tackles avoided per carry
  • 21st in yards after contact per carry
  • 21st in explosive rush rate

Now, more work needs to be done in the interior offensive line department before we get too excited about the possibilities here (Chargers RBs ranked just 19th in yards before contact per rush last season), but the barren RB depth chart and allotted contract value sure seems to point to Harris having yet another opportunity to finish with a total touch number starting with a three.

We'll call the Chargers' offensive line a decent upgrade over what Harris dealt with in Pittsburgh for now, but the real boost should come in the scoring department. The Steelers ranked 21st, 26th, 28th, and 16th in scoring during the last four seasons, while Justin Herbert and company are fresh off an 11th-place finish in 2024, despite not exactly dealing with the world's best offensive environment.

While an early-round pick on another RB could change things and turn this into more of a committee, at the moment, it's hard to rationalize dropping Harris too far down the ranks thanks to his potential for a true every-down role inside of an offense that figures to be, you know, good. Is Harris really that much worse of a talent than guys like Kyren Williams or Joe Mixon, who are both presently priced as top-15 RBs over at Underdog Fantasy?

At worst, Harris should be priced alongside guys like David Montgomery, James Conner, and Aaron Jones along the RB2 borderline–and that'd be a pretty, pretty, pretty reasonable investment considering there's legit double-digit TD upside here.

Oh yeah, and Harris' departure means Jaylen Warren (RFA) has a legit chance to lead the way in Pittsburgh. The Steelers tendered Gen-Z Austin Ekeler at a second-round level already, making it fairly unlikely that Warren will be wearing anything other than black and yellow in 2025. Shoutout to Warren for ranking first in tackles avoided per carry (29.8%) and sixth in explosive run rate (9.5%) since entering the league in 2022.

The man is a capital D DOG with the football in his hands …

While part of this is the reality that Warren's pass-catching prowess leads to him often getting to attack lighter boxes, a featured role consisting of around 200 carries with bunches of targets (similar to what Ekeler had in Los Angeles) could be borderline erotic for fantasy purposes.

I'll be VERY high on Warren should the Steelers refrain from making a meaningful investment at the position during the offseason–even then, he'd be a strong zero-RB candidate due to the potential for fireworks should something close to a three-down role fall in his lap.