Each Friday during the 2022 NFL and fantasy football season, Eric Karabell will bring his always-reasonable perspective to highlight the biggest fantasy football storylines heading into the weekend's games.
The esteemed Mike Tomlin has never had a losing season in his long stint coaching the Pittsburgh Steelers, but things sure aren't going well this season, and they may get worse Sunday against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett, a college star in the city, now leads the way, and much is expected of him and rookie wide receiver George Pickens. There's been turnover defensively as well. The fantasy football world, however, seems to be focusing on last season's exciting rookie Najee Harris, and for good reason.
Harris enters Week 6 ranked 27th in PPR scoring among running backs. Last season he finished fourth in PPR scoring at the position, thanks in part to overwhelming volume, and it led to him being a first-round pick in most leagues this season. Tomlin promised the big volume before Harris played an NFL down, and he delivered. This season he promised to lessen his workload, and volume is way down. Harris wasn't efficient last season, but he topped 1,600 yards from scrimmage and scored 10 touchdowns, so nobody cared. We cared that nobody had more touches from scrimmage, not even Colts RB Jonathan Taylor, and no running back caught more passes.