After Rashard Mendenhall’s knee exploded and after Kevin Colbert said Mendy may not be ready to start the season for the Steelers, a lot of yinzers have been clamoring about the starting running back’s services no longer being needed at Heinz Field.
The Steelers Depot was among those who think after Mendenhall’s contract expires after the upcoming season, he could be looking for work elsewhere. The Depot is money when it comes to Steelers news and they’ve been in the game for a long time so consider this our respectful disagreement.
This is a first-round draft pick we’re talking about, and Mendy has a lot more to offer the Steelers than some idiotic Tweets, a “disappointing” 2011 and a blown out knee.
I’ve already forgotten about the Bin Laden Tweets, and so should Steelers fans – if they can get over Ben’s issues and Harrison’s domestic stuff, I think Twitter shouldn’t be far behind.
For starters, he’s the only running back the Steelers have with starting experience, unless you count the Wild Card start Isaac Redman got after Mendenhall tore his ACL. That will most likely change to start the upcoming season if Mendy isn’t ready to return but he’s still No. 1 when it comes to experience…and he’s only 24.
The Depot made a great point that with Redman’s emergence, John Clay’s potential, and Barron Batch’s return from injury, Mendenhall may not even be missed if he’s not re-upped, but to let a franchise running back walk in favor of three unprovens is a dicey play by a franchise that doesn’t exactly make a whole lot of decisions based on chance.
Redman is a great power back and should be the Steelers’ goal line option, and even though he flashed in his TWO chances last season, he’s still an undrafted running back. That’s not meant to be a shot at Redman, but remember what happened the last time the Steelers turned an undrafted RB into a starter – what’s Willie Parker doing now? And do you really see Redman turning out like Arian Foster or Fred Jackson?
Redman put up 92 yards against the Browns when he stepped in for Mendy in Week 17 and he followed that up with a 121-yard performance in Denver in his first career start; great numbers, but the Browns and Broncos – not exactly the advanced course. Don’t get me wrong, Redman deserves everything he gets and his 4.4 yards per carry was .3 better than Mendy’s season total, but Mendy had more than twice the carries Redman did and sample size says a lot when you’re dealing with yards per carry.
Then there’s Clay and Batch. Are we really ready to write off Mendenhall because Clay ran for a 10-yard touchdown on his first carry? He’s a bruiser back and to let Mendy go, the Steelers would then have a thunder back in Redman and Thunder 2.0 in Clay. And Batch hasn’t even seen a practice field let alone a game field; he’ll most likely be a solid third-down back once he gets his legs going but to say he’s good enough to help replace Mendy? I don’t know about that.
This injury seems to be Mendenhall’s damning facet and even though ACL injuries are a ***** for running backs but are the Chiefs and Vikings giving up on Charles and Peterson? Plus, Mendy has proven over the last three years that he’s more than durable. Ever since a broken collarbone ended his rookie season, he’s only missed one game since.
And for the yinzers that claim Mendy’s a bum and hasn’t done enough to earn a contract extension, they can’t blame the running backs for the system they’re in. Let’s be honest, Bruce Arians didn’t like to run the football, and that killed Mendy’s numbers this year. In 2010, Mendy handled more than 80% of the carries among Steelers backs and he ran for 1,273 yards and 13 touchdowns. Sure, he only averaged 3.9 yards but can you really complain about more than 1,200 yards and a dozen scores? And the year before that, in his first full season as a starter, Mendenhall still had 14 more carries than he did in ’11, and ended the year 1,108 yards, 7 touchdowns and a 4.6 average.
Mendenhall’s numbers have suffered in most part because of Arian’s game plans…the diminished offensive line probably didn’t help either. But one thing that’s rock solid is Todd Haley gets the best out of his best players; wouldn’t it be nice to see what Mendenhall can do with an offensive coordinator that uses all of his weapons, not just the ones he likes?
His salary isn’t an issue, and if his $2 million salary becomes an issue this year then Omar Khan has regressed immensely since we last spoke about him. And with Mendenhall’s contract year coming at the same time as his rehab return, the Steelers could end up getting quite the deal if they decide to resign him.
All I’m saying is, let’s wait until Mendenhall is healthy and see what he can do when he comes back rather than write him off before he can even defend himself.
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