Najee

Harris

Harbaugh didn’t leave much to the imagination following Sunday’s game when he said preliminary tests indicated a torn Achilles for Harris, who went down on a non-contact play. It’s a season-ender for the 27-year-old running back whose 2025 challenges began with a fireworks accident on July 4th. Harris signed a one-year contract with the Chargers this offseason and sees his season come to an end with a 15-61-0 rushing line to go with three receptions for 25 scoreless yards. Harris will be a free agent this offseason and could be faced with having to sign a one-year prove-it deal wherever he lands next.

Harris is undergoing imaging to confirm, but speaking after Sunday’s game, Harbaugh didn’t hesitate to say what the team expects to learn. Harris went down with a non-contact injury in the second quarter while taking a handoff from Justin Herbert and was eventually helped to the sideline. A torn Achilles would be a season ender for the veteran running back who signed a one-year contract with the Chargers this offseason. We would expect to have a more definite answer on Harris’ injury soon.

Harris’ left leg collapsed as he pushed off to accept a handoff from Justin Herbert in the second quarter. He was down on the turf for several minutes before being helped to the sideline. It would be surprising if Harris returned anytime soon, or if he played at all for the rest of this season after an apparently serious injury. Omarion Hampton will likely see a small bump in touches with Harris out.

After touching the ball just twice in Week 1, Harris was more involved in the gameplan Monday, and he ended up with 10 touches in Week 2 compared to Omarion Hampton’s nine. It’s also worth noting that Hampton had a late fumble, so Harris finished the game and clinched the win with a seven-yard gain on third down. This is a tough backfield to figure out right now, but it still seems like Hampton will be the leadback even with the turnovers against the Broncos in Week 3.

Harris was a distant RB2 behind first-round rookie Omarion Hampton and was completely uninvolved in the offensive game plan. Hampton carried the rock 15 times and was the team’s primary back on passing downs, converting that role into a pair of receptions. Harris missed all of training camp with an eye injury that looked like it would likely force him to miss action during the regular season at one point. The lack of a normal ramp-up period and little time to learn the playbook likely affected his Week 1 role, but Hampton isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Fantasy managers can cut ties with Harris on the next run of waivers.

He did lead with “all he would allow,” so we’re not exactly predicting this to not be a timeshare or anything. But it makes plenty of sense that the Chargers would go with the healthy young back as the main portion of their game plan as compared to Najee Harris coming off a lot of missed time in camp. Harris should probably mix in and take up to 30-40 percent of the snaps, perhaps more if the coaches like what they’re seeing.

Harris missed the entirety of training camp while recovering from an eye injury suffered during a fireworks incident over the weekend of July 4th. He managed to avoid the NFI list to start the year and is at least going to be active for Week 1. Still, missing that much time during the offseason likely has Harris at less than his peak conditioning. He also gave first-round rookie Omarion Hampton two months to run with the starting offense. Harris will open the year as a backup running back and an RB5 for fantasy purposes.

While Jim Harbaugh has been careful to lower expectations when asked about Harris, it certainly seems like he’s good if perhaps not in complete football shape yet. This listing definitely puts Harris in line to play against the Chiefs on Friday in Sao Paolo. He’d probably only qualify as a FLEX play while splitting snaps with Omarion Hampton.

Speaking to reporters Monday, Harris said “I feel good though, and we’ll just see where it leads.” Harris has been on the practice field for almost a week now as he works his way back into football shape following a July 4 fireworks incident. He continues to claim the injuries to be superficial, insisting he is doing everything he can to be on the field Friday in Brazil against the Chiefs. He also noted that his vision has not been affected but did not want to go into details about the circumstances of the incident. While Harris is certainly trending in the right direction to play in the team’s season opener, his potential workload is a topic of another discussion considering the time he has missed during camp and preseason.

Things have been trending in a positive direction for Harris over the last two weeks, but Harbaugh has yet to out-and-out say that he will play in Week 1. Greg Roman said a few weeks ago that Omarion Hampton will split snaps with someone in Week 1 — Harris if he plays, or (likely) Hassan Haskins if Harris sits. We’ll be monitoring Harris’ practice status all week but being cleared for contact is a good sign.