Posts tagged Rashard Mendenhall at FanHouse

After two fumbles in one game, there's some concern that Rashard Mendenhall is a fumbler. Take away the fumbles and Mendenhall looked great against a stout Minnesota defense.

He's now carrying a football 24/7 while his teammates look to knock it out, just like Omar Epps in The Program. As the Post-Gazette explained, it's $100 out of Mendenhall's pocket for any Steeler who knocks the ball out of Mendenhall's hands, and $500 for anyone who can bring it to the running backs meeting room.

It wasn't exactly Mendenhall's idea--Hines Ward and Willie Parker wanted to figure out a way to get Mendenhall thinking about holding on to the ball.

But while he did fumble twice against the Vikings, don't get too worried about Mendenhall becoming a big-time fumbler. In three years at Illinois, over 371 carries, Mendenhall never fumbled. Yes, NFL defenders are bigger, faster and hit harder the college players, but having never fumbled in a college game, there's no reason to think that all of a sudden Mendenhall's going to be careless with the ball.

So hopefully, and likely, the Vikings game was an aberration. There's a lot to worry about with Mendehall--is he thinking too much, is he learning the blitz pickups, and will he learn to run behind his pads more, but fumbling shouldn't be a big problem for him.

It's preseason, so there's no reason to freak out too much over the Steelers loss to the Bills, but here's what jumped out to me from the game.

• Steelers fans have been noticing Santonio Holmes for two years but this is the year taht evberyone else will get to notice the third-year receiver. It's not hard to imagine Holmes going for 1,200+ yards with an outstanding yards per catch average. In two games this preseason he's looked unstoppable.

• It's hard not to get excited about the idea of James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley coming off the edges. For the second straight week, Pittsburgh generated a pretty solid pass rush just by lining up and beating people off the edge--something that hasn't been true in recent years.

The Fighting Illini were quite the surprise in college football last season, going 9-4 overall and 6-2 in the Big Ten a year after finishing 2-10. The quick turnaround in Champaign resulted in the first Rose Bowl berth for the Illini since 1983, and the team celebrated by getting their butts kicked 49-17 by USC.

Still, despite the embarrassment handed them by the Trojans, the 2007 season can't be considered anything less than a raging success at Illinois.

The question is, will the Illini be able to carry that success into the 2008 season? History suggests they won't as they've generally followed every winning season with a losing season in Champaign, but that was before the recruiting machine that is Ron Zook came to town.

So will the Illini continue their climb to becoming a Big Ten powerhouse, or will they return to the back of the pack?

I'll admit it: in the weeks and months leading up to the NFL draft, I hated the idea of the Steelers drafting a running back with their first-round pick. There were much bigger needs along the offensive and defensive lines, and running backs, in general, are pretty easy to scare up and for relatively little cost (hi, Willie Parker!).

On draft day, however, that's exactly what happened: Pittsburgh used the 23rd overall pick on Rashard Mendenhall, running back. Thing is, given how events unfolded during the first 22 picks, it was hard to fault the Steelers; they did what diehard draft nerds are always preaching: took the best player available.

And now, two days before training camp begins, the club has signed Mendenhall to a five-year deal. Obviously, Parker is the feature back (or, at the very least, is listed atop the depth chart), but head coach Mike Tomlin has plans for the revamped rushing attack.

"Our initial plan is he's going to be a supplemental runner," Tomlin said. "The growth of his role will be determined on his ability to execute from an assignment standpoint, how he deals with being a professional athlete.

"To this point he's shown he's mature and unique for a 21-year-old guy. Hopefully, that translates into him growing and developing as a member of this football team quickly."

With plenty of lingering questions about the state of the offensive line, the skill position players will be responsible for keeping Ben Roethlisberger upright. If the offense can create match-up problems at running back and wide receiver, the o-line deficiencies could be minimized. If that doesn't happen, it could be a long, painful 2008 for Big Ben.

Feel the need get a jump on fantasy football season? Then follow Tony's lead and haul-A over to Fleaflicker for free fantasy football signups using your AOL ID.

You should avoid drafting Tom Brady, Randy Moss, Tony Romo or Ben Roethlisberger on your fantasy football team this year. That's right. I said "avoid".

If you had those four in 2007, you probably did very well (which would explain why you think I'm crazy right now). Moss was easily the top receiver in all fantasy leagues, Brady was likely the top scorer in your entire league and both Romo and Roethlisberger were top-10 signal-callers across the board.

But you didn't win because you took them in the first or second rounds. You won because you culled maximum value from them later in your draft.

This year, you'll be paying a 3-to-5 round penalty -- compared to last year's draft -- for every one of them. And I'm telling you right now, pulling the trigger on these guys early, and paying for 2007's numbers, will put you in an early hole on draft day.

Hear that? It's the pitter-patter of fantasy football season approaching. Fantasy FanHouse is here to get you ready by previewing every team from a fantasy perspective.

Meet The ...
Most balanced offense in the NFL. With the addition of Rashard Mendenhall the Steelers now have a talented between the tackles runner to go with Fast Willie Parker. This is thunder and lightning to a higher level with the single-back abilities each guy has. They can go deep to Santonio Holmes, or to the reliable possession receiver Hines Ward. Add the extremely athletic 6'4" Limas Sweed to the fray to catch jump balls, and the very solid over-the-middle TE Heath Miller. Oh yeah, and Ben Roethlisberger is coming off easily the most prolific season of his career.

The Breakout
Really tough call here. Did Santonio already have his breakout season last year? (YES) Is Sweed really ready to have a good enough season to call it a breakout? (HMMM ... ) Hasn't Mendenhall received enough hype that he's accurately "rated" (as opposed to underrated or overrated)? I guess if pushed I'll go with Mendenhall. Ward seems a lot less ready to yield his spot outside than Fast Willie is in the backfield to me, plus Nate Washington clouds things at WR. Mendy (yeah, just made that up) will at least vulture the goal-line TDs and has enough speed to fully take over should Parker go down via injury.

Last week, the Steelers released Najeh Davenport, a 245-pound running back who was signed to replace the ineffective Duce Staley in 2006. Staley was signed two years earlier to take over for the soon-to-be-retiring Jerome Bettis (he's from Detroit, you know). The common theme among the three backs? They were all big, plodding bruisers who could move the pile and excelled in short-yardage situations.

But as Pittsburgh heads into 2008, Gary Russell is the "heaviest" runner of those destined for the final 53, and he weighs 215 pounds (according to NFL.com). Rookie Rashard Mendenhall is 210, and Willie Parker and Mewelde Moore are listed at 209. But it's Moore, signed this offseason to a three-year, $4.95 million deal, who could be the key component to the new-fangled running game.

Not so much for his ability to actually run the ball, but because of his many other talents.

Rashard Mendenhall just finished the most productive season in the history of Illinois running backs and was drafted in the first round by the Steelers. He is, of course, rapt with ecstasy when talking about the guy who put him in this position:

"To tell you the truth, as long as Ron Zook is there it will be hard for me to support the University of Illinois football team," Mendenhall said.

Uh. Dude. In a wide-ranging interview with an Illinois newspaper named the News-Gazette that declines to mention where the hell it's located, Mendenhall drops that bomb and many others. To wit:

• His brother and teammate Walter is the only reason Mendenhall didn't transfer before his breakout 2007: ""There was a point where we were at the stadium and I was ready to start walking out and my brother stopped me."
• His animosity had nothing to do with "what happened to" his brother, who is going to graduate and transfer to I-AA Illinois State for his final year of eligibility: "It's so much more than that. It's so much that's going on right now, that went on with me that people don't know. It's hard for me to support how things are done."
• Ron Zook eats babies.*

Like I said: dude. I think we now know why the hyper-talented Mendenhall spent his first two seasons stuck behind decent but uninspiring backs. Well... sort of. At no point in the article does Mendenhall say why he wants Ron Zook to play in traffic, just that "everything wasn't as it appeared to be."

Well, why not? Does Zook have three heads? Does he shave his legs? Did he walk over to Mendenhall's apartment every morning and take a dump on the porch? INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW.

*(Silly blogger, Ron Zook doesn't eat babies. Babies are for Maxiell.)

You've seen them talk big on the red carpet of the EA Sports Rookie Madden Bowl, but do these NFL rookies actually have Madden skills? Follow along with underdog Dexter Jackson and overdog (?) Devin Thomas to find out how the tournament panned out. Stay tuned at 0:32 for an embarrassing cameo by Rashard Mendenhall. I ain't mad at you, Rashard!


AOL Video link. YouTube link.

There was some consternation among Bears fans that the front office had taken leave of all their senses following last month's draft. First, Chicago sat idly by during free agency despite needs up and down the roster. And then, with the 14th overall pick, the team passed on the obvious choice, running back Rashard Mendenhall, to fill another (some might say equally as) pressing need: left tackle.

Vanderbilt's Chris Williams -- and his T-Rex arms -- will get every chance to earn the starting job, and there's a good probability that the team's second-round pick, running back Matt Forte, could be in the starting lineup sooner rather than later too. From Scout.com's Ed Thompson:

A league source told Scout.com that when Matt Forte went through his paces at a private workout for Chicago and showed his football intelligence during a film session, at least one influential member of the coaching staff was set on adding him to the roster over Mendenhall.

So even though Mendenhall was available to the Bears when they ... patiently waited until the 13th pick in the second round and still got the running back it wanted.

Some may disagree with the Bears' decision, but it's hard to argue with landing a franchise left tackle and still shoring up the rushing game. Plus, give the Bears credit for learning from their previous mistake: at least they didn't spend another high first-round pick on a running back. Now if somebody could just convince them that it's okay to draft a quarterback.