Should Najee Harris be in fantasy football lineups in Week 14?

Week 14 kicks off with the Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots on Thursday Night Football. When teams have these short weeks, it doesn't give players as much time to recover and there are questions about their availability.

One of those players this week is Steelers running back Najee Harris, who has not practiced at all this week due to a knee injury. However, NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reported on Thursday morning that Harris was still expecting to play tonight.

Pelissero did say that this is not a new injury but one that the Steelers running back has been managing all season. He said if this was a normal week, he would have practiced today.

The past two weeks have been some of the best games of the season for Harris in this new offense for the Steelers. He has had over 160 rushing yards and a touchdown during that stretch.

Should fantasy football managers start Najee Harris in Week 14?

Even with the improvements as of late, Najee Harris is a player who should be benched for this week's matchup against the Patriots. The good news is that this is something he has been dealing with and has been productive at times.

However, the Patriots have been excellent against the run this season and are allowing only 88.7 rushing yards per game and have given up only nine rushing touchdowns.

In addition to the matchup, it wouldn't be surprising to see the Steelers reduce Harris' workload a bit being a short week. The reason they can do that is because Jaylen Warren has been playing great and could pick up the extra snaps and touches.

The official inactives won't be released until about 90 minutes before the game tonight but at this point, fantasy football managers should be exploring other options to keep Najee Harris out of the lineup.