(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Ben Roethlisberger said during OTAs that Najee Harris is a "really hard worker" and revealed that running backs coach Eddie Faulkner had to tell Harris to go home because he was working at the facility for long hours.
Faulkner touched on the subject more when he spoke with the media last week at minicamp.
“I’m for all the hard work and the extra,” Faulkner said. “I’m all here for that. I love it. But he also has to learn – part of Najee and getting to know Najee in the draft process is he also has to learn how to give hisself breaks, too. He works his butt off, and sometimes it’s a reward, like, ‘Hey, man, go home. Relax. Watch TV. Do something different than football.’ And so with him being the kind of guy he is and so engaged and always after it, always wants to do drills, always wants to be developing, sometimes I’m trying to teach him sometimes you got to take a deep breath. …
“Most of the time -- and I’m going back my entire career -- you encourage guys, like, ‘Hey, man, come in and get extra tape. Come in and do extra work, etc., etc.’ Have not had to have one single conversation with Najee in that regard because he’s always soaking it up and wanting it, so that’s a coach’s dream. I mean, that’s what you want.”
Steelers free safety Minkah Fitzpatrick played with Harris for one year at Alabama in 2017 before entering the draft in 2018, so he knows all about Harris' work ethic and he said it fits the mold of the Steel City.
"I love Najee as a man and as a player," Fitzpatrick told former NFL safety and current NBC Sports analyst Rodney Harrison last past week. "You know, he's a great dude, has a great story, but as a player, he's a competitor. ... I love playing him. He's fast, he's challenging us out of the backfield, catching passes, going against the linebackers. You know, he has that you're not gonna outwork me type mindset. That's something that we love having in the city of Pittsburgh."
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