National NFL pundits like ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. are poo-pooing Pittsburgh picking Najee Harris in the NFL draft. But one guy who knows what it takes to really roll in this league insists the Steelers just might have landed themselves the 2021 Offensive Rookie of the Year. Lynch, who’s now Najee’s agent, absolutely gushed about ‘his big, tall son’, saying “physically, he’s a G.D. freak of nature. I could see him putting up numbers. I would love to see him, you know, Rookie of the Year-type stuff. Like, you feel me?” The Steelers definitely do. But Pittsburgh broke the Cardinal Rule against drafting a running back in the first round. And they passed on making a big play on a passer, such as Ohio State’s Justin Fields, who went to the Chicago Bears at pick 11 after a blockbuster trade-up. Pick 11 – sound familiar? That’s precisely the point at which Pittsburgh landed Big Ben Roethlisberger all those seasons ago. Now Ben and the Steelers have come full circle, with Roethlisberger in the twilight of his Hall of Fame career, if not the final season. In picking Najee, the Steelers might have fixed their pop-gun ground attack that reached an unheard of low in 2020. But they failed to secure the franchise’s future. Running backs, even those selected in the first round, aren’t built for the long haul. Instead, this team is built for right now. The Steelers may run out of the gate with a bang in 2021, but they’ll wither with a whimper until they find their next franchise quarterback. Hear more thought-provoking takes on what the Steelers did and didn’t do in the draft, all in this tough-grading edition of the Steelers Update Podcast. Also, be sure to check out my print column on PennLive first thing Thursday morning. It will be packed with plenty of memes perfectly mimicking the bi-polar post-draft mood in Pittsburgh. 

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