The Pittsburgh Steelers surprised a lot of people by declining RB Najee Harris’ fifth-year option on Thursday. Not only are teams increasingly doing so as the option has increased in price, however, it also follows the Steelers’ patterns. Since the advent of the fifth-year option, they have declined (or will decline) six of their 11 available options.
And those options that they have exercised skew heavily toward the early days of the option before the rules changed. Beginning in 2011, the fifth-year option was only guaranteed for injury once exercised until the start of the new league year of the fifth year.