The Steelers run game has been less than stellar the first two weeks, and because of it the team may be looking to get back Rashard Mendenhall just a bit quicker.
Mike Tomlin said Mendenhall will participate in contact practice for the first time this week. “We’ll thud him up a little bit the day we’re allowed to carry our pads,” Tomlin said Tuesday.
According to Scout.com, the Steelers are 30th in the NFL in both overall rushing yardage (141) and average yards per carry (2.6) through two weeks.
Mendenhall is trying to make it back after surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament. He got hurt in the last regular season game in Cleveland.
Jonathan Dwyer is also on the injury list right now – dealing with turf toe.
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DrGeorge
September 19, 2012 at 9:15 am
Mendenhall was one of Tomlin’s #1 draft picks, and he is heavily invested in Mendy. But Redman is more powerful, and Dwyer is as fast. Having Mendy back won’t make a nickel’s worth of difference to our running game. What we need are holes for the backs to run through. Our average carry of less than 3 yards does not reflect the talent of our backs, but the quality of our blocking. Redman and Dwyer were repeatedly tackled behind the line on Sunday, either because blocking assignments were blown or because Haley ran the RBs outside the tackles where power backs have no advantage. When the line made holes, Redman excelled, and Dwyer was solid. The O-line will improve with each game they play together, but it is still is far from the dominant force it could be. Getting Mendy back won’t accelerate that process.
Ben Dover
September 19, 2012 at 7:45 pm
DrGeorge, You are right, and Rashard “flop-in-the-hole” Mendenhall isn’t the answer. The best thing the Steelers could is release “flop-in-the-hole” to free up cap space.
Mark
September 20, 2012 at 10:19 am
im not so quick to dismiss Mendy. At worse he is better than what we are showing.