What if...

Redman does like most of us are hoping and, to be honest, are probably expecting, goes out there and tears it up until Mendy is ready to come back? And Chris Rainey turns out to be a part of Haley's offense and functions as like a Dexter McCluster type player like Haley used to great effect in Kansas City. Will Mendy just come right back in and jump them both to be the starter or will he become sort of a role player? And that's not even mentioning Dwyer and Batch. Basically my question is just where will Mendy fit if even just two of these guys step up and become stars for us? Or are each one of them just keeping Mendy's seat warm until he gets back?

 

I think we can incorporate Mendy in pretty good , when he comes back off
his injury,He and Rainey are the only Steeler RB that can take it to the house.

The RB position in the NFL is not what it use to be. Unless
there name is Sweetness, its pretty much running back by committee
as we are finding out in Chicago, there is not much emphasis in
throwing large amounts of money at the RB position.

 

Unless they franchise him, they can't trade Mendenhall at the end of the year. He's in the last year of his contract I believe.

 

Even when Mendenhall comes back it's going to take time before he's able to cut and pull off his infamous spin moves. I think we'll work him back slowly, and if Redman is killing it you'll see Mendenhall become the #2 until he's 100%

I know Redman is a fan favorite but he's nowhere near as talented as Mendenhall. I'd like to see us re-sign Mendy because he'd probably come for almost nothing since he is coming off injury, and with our improved OL he could be a pro bowler.

 

if redman is holding onto the ball keep him....mendy is too fumble prone

 

Mendenhall does carry it a bit loose, which makes me cringe when he's in traffic. Redman hasn't had to be game planned against, so naturally he looks like a wrecking ball when he comes in. Reminds me of when the Steelers knock out the starting qb over the recent years. Everyone in the bar I used to watch games at would just groan, because we knew they would go generic against them and make it closer than needed. That's a far cry from the 80's and 90's where we wanted that to happen.

 

Thank you for reminding people of this fact. I don't understand how people can say that he is fumble prone and not even acknowledge that statistically it isn't true. I guess it would be because of the couple of times the fumbles were untimely (is there ever a good time to fumble?). Mendy has to be given an opportunity to, atleast, see where he is at when he gets back. If he's a player...keep him, if he isn't...get rid of him!

 

Mendenhall can easily be replaced -- for much cheaper. Willie Parker put up better numbers and very few were thrilled with Willie.

Let Mendy walk (limp) away and distribute that money to other needs (keeping Brown/Wallace intact?). I'd rather have the Brown/Wallace combo sewn up for years to come with Redman/Dwyer/Batch/Rainey/etc in the backfield than Mendy back with a huge contract in hand.

 

mendy gets in the endzone. willie had a hard time of that. yards are nice but TD's win games. i don't think he'll get a major 2nd contract. he will have been hurt a couple of seasons now. he also sat out most of his first in the doghouse. if theres an odd guy out it may be between dwyer and batch or clay now. we will have a decision to make on them soon too. dwyer let redman jump him thus far. batch had to sit a season with a knee injury( not the best injury for a RB with no expierience). clay has been said to look very quick to the hole so far in shorts. some of these guys will have to step it up this year. alot depends on the offense haley wants.

 

Agreed. Here are the 2011 fumble stats for the two players:

Redman -- 2 fumbles on 128 touches.
Mendenhall -- 1 official fumble on 246 touches.

I stress "official" because in the official stats Mendenhall had one fumble, but in my opinion that is a mistake. That fumble was against the Ravens week 1, on the play where Ngata hit him literally as he was getting the handoff. I'm not saying it should be charged to Ben. I don't think it should be charged to anyone (except maybe, in a perfect world, the offensive lineman that was supposed to block Ngata). If you take that away, he hasn't fumbled since week 11 of 2010.

Career stats among a few selected running backs (I chose to do the rest of the major backs in the amazing 2008 draft):

Darren McFadden -- 669 touches with 13 fumbles = 51 touches per fumble
Jonathan Stewart -- 823 touches with 10 fumbles = 82 touches per fumble
Felix Jones -- 613 touches with 10 fumbles = 61 touches per fumble
Rashard Mendenhall -- 888 touches with 5 fumbles = 178 touches per fumble
Chris Johnson -- 1381 touches with 10 fumbles = 138 touches per fumble
Matt Forte -- 1237 touches with 12 fumbles = 103 touches per fumble
Ray Rice -- 1216 touches with 6 fumbles = 203 touches per fumble
Jamaal Charles -- 667 touches with 10 fumbles = 68 touches per fumble

And some other notable backs:
Adrian Peterson -- 1560 touches with 22 fumbles = 71 touches per fumble
Maurice Jones-Drew -- 1762 touches with 19 fumbles = 93 touches per fumble
Arian Foster -- 786 touches with 10 fumbles = 79 touches per fumble
LeSean McCoy -- 801 touches with 5 fumbles = 160 touches per fumble
Isaac Redman -- 195 touches with 4 fumbles = 49 touches per fumble

The only person out of all of these names with statistically better ball security is Ray Rice, who is famous for his extreme ball security. And Mendenhall is gaining on Rice fast. This time last year, Mendenhall had 128 touches per fumble, with Rice at 212. Now Mendenhall's at 178 and Rice at 203. Those two players, along with LeSean McCoy and Chris Johnson, are miles ahead of the rest. Everyone else looks like they're giving the ball away by comparison. Redman is dead last at 49, but he's also the only one on this list that hasn't been a starting running back and his sample size is small. He's obviously a strong guy, but that doesn't always equal good ball security. I think his numbers will rise to somewhere in the middle of the pack with more playing time.

But... yeah, Mendy is fumble prone. Thanks for keeping the belief alive, bigsteelerfaninky!

 

What if? Why is anyone thinking about Mendenhall? He should be gone with Arians!!! Man his time is up. First of all, Redman is gong to make everyone forget about Mendenhall this season. I personally have seen enough of Mendenhall in a Steelers uniform. Again, his time is up. I think the Steelers should move on. He is not the one. Infect, Parker was better then him. With this new O-Line of the Steelers, Redman is the perfect fit, thats why he will make Steeler Nation forget about Mendenhall this season. I have always looked at Mendenhall as being SOFT, a SOFTEE for real! Now it's time for the Steelers to move on.

My feeling is that as soon as Redman shows that he is the man, Mendenhall will be gone, they will not re-sign him. They will use that money to keep Brown and/or Sanders. Both of them are more valuable then Mendenhall. Can you imagine us having Wallace, Brown, and Sanders for years to come instead of Mendenhall. Besides, Chris Rainey is the Speed that will replace Mendenhall. The hard nosed guy will be Redman. Batch will be the 3rd down guy. So, what do they need with Mendenhall. Let him ride out of town to some other sorry team.

 

Now don't get me wrong, we have got a lot of talent at RB, but Rainey, Batch, and Redman are more or less role players until they earn something more.

If Mendy comes back healthy he will take Dwyer's spot and be thrown in as a roleplayer with the other backs until he's 100%. Mendenhall is the closest thing we have to a 'franchise' RB, we would be crazy to let him go if he's healthy.

It will be a nice problem to have and I imagine we may even see a 3 RB set every now and then.

 

Because they watch games, analyse stats and generally make informed decisions about player's abilities, rather than peddling out the same old nonsense about "he dances"/"he fumbles"/"he's not a steeler-type player"/etc. etc.?

I've said it before, but I think I would be surprised if we just "drop" Mendenhall when his contract is up. Even if we are potentially stacked at RB.

 

I tend to agree with you Thigpen.. I dont understand all the hate for Mendy. As snack pointed out with the statistics Mendy is not the fumble machine people are led to believe. The statistics are showing exact opposite. he has an amazing record when comparing touches to fumbles. He is not a great RB but he is better then Redman and both are different backs which should be used in different scenarios. We have alot of depth and options this year and for the next couple. Will be interesting to see what plays out

Bman

 

Yes Redman has power, and yes Rainey has speed, but since when do people not realize that those are two different guys in two different bodies? I know! Why don't we just line up Wes Lyons and Chris Rainey up at wide receiver every play! Then we'll have more height and speed at the position than Calvin Johnson!! We'll be unstoppable!!!!

I won't speculate about Mendenhall's health, but if he's 100% healthy then he is definitely the best back of the bunch with the most to offer. He may not have the power Redman does, but he still has excellent power. He has very good speed and quickness. He is a good receiver. Redman and Rainey have unique skill sets, and Batch figures to fit a skill set too. Mendenhall's the only one with all of it wrapped in the same guy. And for those of you keeping score at home, only one running back gets the ball each play. You don't get to use Redman's power to break a tackle and then Rainey's speed to run to the goal line. Shoot, you can't even do mid-play substitutions like that on Madden, let alone real life. Having it all in one player is a big deal.

I'll go one step further and say that yes, Redman will be better than ever with a new OL and a new OC. But for as much as he'll improve, it will be the speed backs that will improve even more. The tools that Redman has set him apart from other RBs more when there is terrible blocking. Improved blocking will help Mendenhall (and Rainey, and Batch) far more than it will Redman. For all of these reasons, along with the fact that basically all of edog55's points were predictions rather than anything based on fact, it would be foolish to let Mendenhall go before the season.

If Mendenhall sucks after his injury, that'll be a shame and we can let him walk after the season. If he can return to form, we'd be foolish to let him go. I'm not saying give him a monster contract, but a fair contract would be well worth it.

As for the original question of what happens when he returns if Redman has been playing awesome ball (does he come back as a backup? does he leapfrog Redman and start?) I think Mendenhall will automatically leapfrog Dwyer and anyone else, but not Redman. I think if Redman has truly been amazing, they will work Mendenhall back in slowly because there won't be any rush. He can take 30 while Redman takes 60. If Mendenhall looks like he did last year, then his playing time will go up until it's either even with or more than Redman's. Ultimately, with everyone healthy and playing at their best, for me the ideal ratio is 60-40 between Mendenhall and Redman. With more running room and passes to the RBs compared to years past, Mendy gets more touches during traditional parts of the game. Redman takes over short yardage, goal line, and close-out scenarios, (which is actually a lot of touches when combined), and the occasional regular series.... As obvious as that sounds, Arians/Tomlin still got that backwards all the time.

 

Aye.

I think the key is how rotation is handled. Hopefully Haley will be more proactive with swapping players in and out situationally, in which case there's no issue (other than cap space) with have a bruising Redman and a finesse Mendenhall.

 

Seriously. It's truly hard to believe that in the NFL they didn't bother to sub backs based on situation, but instead appeared to just roll with one guy for an entire drive no matter what. "It's Mendy's turn, it's Redman's turn." What? Put in the guy you need for that play! I can do it coaching 9 year olds. You can do it in the NFL.

 

I agree with most of what you said, and I'll add this...

With our formerly terrible OL... Redman really was better than Mendy. Redman was willing to just put his head down and go, where Mendenhall would search for a hole that wasn't there.

The difference with a (hopefully) improved OL is Redman will probably look the same as always. He'll have a hole to hit, but his lack of burst will mean he probably only gets 5 yards on a well blocked play. Mendenhall will bring the home run factor because he'll have a hole AND the ability to make a guy miss, or the speed to run by him that Redman doesn't have.

It's not a knock on Redman, he's worked very hard to get to what I think is his ceiling. I just think Mendenhall has more natural ability, and with some good blocking could be a stud.

 

Mendenhall clearly has more talent than Redman. The other backs are TBD.

I think what we do with him comes down to Haley. BA was a, I want 1 guy to be the guy. In an offense like that you need someone who can do it all. You need a guy who isn't just power, but also throws in some speed. You need a jack of all trades...master of none. Haley's offensive philosophy, even in the pass heavy team in Arizona, was about putting a group of guys together who had specialties. A speed guy. A power guy. A guy who can catch. Etc. Mendy may come back and be a great back taking one of those roles or he may come back and turn into the FUTON of the running back world. Not a great couch or a great bad. It is still too early to tell.

 

if healthy, mendy should be offered a lowball contract. if he takes it, great. if he doesnt, i wont mind seeing his racist, terrorist loving arse go.

 

Good to see we're focuing on the football, here. The last time I checked, superbowls weren't won on player's ability to use Twitter.