Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall, whose rookie season ended prematurely after Ray Lewis broke his body in September 2008, has been feeling the heat to make an impact.
But now the first-round pick is holding his own, and folks are noticing.
Mendenhall has been named the AFC’s offensive player of the week for his 165-yard rushing performance against the Chargers.
The honor, though meaningless, will make it even harder for Willie Parker to replace him, once Parker is healthy. After all, Parker was a holdover from the Bill Cowher regime; Mendenhall is a player who arrived on the watch of coach Mike Tomlin.
So look for Tomlin to eventually apply the “100 percent” rule to Parker as a way of keeping him on the bench while Mendenhall continues to play his hot hand.
Elsewhere in the AFC, Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey was named the AFC defensive player of the week (he should slice off a piece of it for Tony Romo, who continued to throw the ball to Sam Hurd), and Texans receiver Jacoby Jones is the special teams player of the week, thanks to his 95-yard return of a post-safety free kick for a touchdown (he should slice off a piece of it for Shane Lechler, who outkicked the coverage by roughly 30 yards).
In the NFC, we previously mentioned that Brett Favre is the offensive player of the week, and that Saints safety Darren Sharper is the defensive player of the week. Bears rookie Johhny Knox is the special teams player of the week, for his 102-yard kickoff return to open the third quarter of Sunday’s game against the Lions.
Well, it was actually 101.5 yards, with a fumble at the end that no one noticed.
He looked amazing gashing an undermanned sieve like the Chargers D.
Sad state of affairs in the league this week if he’s the guy earning the honors.
Florio you have a way of just making me burst out laughing every morning with you witty comments keep it up
Slow your roll high speed….I was one game. I am a huge Steeler fan, but really, it was one game..
Come on fellas, John Madden said it best, “you can not out kick the punter” you need better special team players if the ball is taking four seconds to get there and you are not tackling, so what would you have Lechler do, kick shorter? Lechler is not a problem, just ask any team in the NFL if they would sign Lechler. The Raiders have many problems, but Lechler is not one of them.
It was one f-ing game against the Chargers D. One f-ing game! Do you know how many backup running backs have had crazy games one time?
“The honor, though meaningless, will make it even harder for Willie Parker to replace him, once Parker is healthy.”
If it’s meaningless, how is it going to make it hard for Parker to replace Mendenhall?
How is Champ Bailey the Defensive POW over Robert Mathis of the Colts? OK Bailey had a pick, but Mathis had 3 sacks and 2 forced fumbles.
What no seems to take into account is the opponent. Last year when the Steelers beat the Chargers in the playoffs and Parker ran wild, everyone said he was “back.” The next week when he played a real D, he was shut down. Now, when Mendenhall runs over the Chargers he has arrived. So did Mendenhall arive or do the Chargers just suck? I think Mendenhall just got lucky starting last week and then having Detroit and the Browns this week. He should run wild not because he is better, but because the competition is horrible. Parker had to run on the Titans, Bears and Bengals who all have strong running games.
Good for him. It’s nice to see an injured player return to form. Too bad the coach’s worthless high school motivational antics will get some of the credit.
Maybe he should do it against a team that doesn’t suck first before you hand over the starting job to him.
It’s too bad Cleveland lost because Shaun Rogers should have been STPOW. He blocked a FG and the potential game-tying XP near the end of regulation; thus forcing overtime. Of course, you gotta win to get the meaningless award.
all these naysayers must be on the Redman fanclub! lol
Mendenhall has always had it, it’s just hard to show when you carry the ball 3 times per game. He’ll start the next 2 while Parker is healing and he’ll be consistent. Maybe not 165yds per game but he’ll get his 100, by the time Parker is ready to come back, he’ll be halway to his 1000 and put back on the shelf to watch SWP get dropped over and over behind the line on the first contact.
Mendenhall ran great, but you just may be overstating the significance of this award. A tad.
What do you do when your team is 0-4? You complain about the injustice of not winning a special teams player of the week award. It’s tough to be a Browns fan these days.
Do i trade Boldin to get Mendenhall? I’m pretty deep at both spots. Is the potential reward greater than the risk?
Yeah I remember when Quincy Carter got his first offensive POW award. I think Romo’s got like 3 or 4 of those and a couple of Pro Bowl appearances but everybody knows how you feel about him.
He still sucks wait till he faces a real defense like baltimore… He will get borke in half again…
I agree with Josh. Mendenhall always showed some great potential, barring his fumbles in pre-season last year and the injury of course, but I thought he looked good up until he got hurt. They just haven’t utilized him enough.
I also agree with those of you saying that it is just one game. That’s correct. But I think it shows what he hast he potential to do.
What I don’t agree with is frox who mentioned the titans, bears and bengals. Add in a couple of other teams, like the steelers and as much as it hurts me to say it, the Ravens, you will be hardpressed to find many running backs that run well against those teams. The Steelers this year have shut down Forte, L.T. and Chris Johnson who are all considered to be elite backs. It will be interesting to see how they handle All Day whenever he has to take on the Steelers D, but that will come later. For now though, I think Mendenhall is definitely heading in the right direction and he deserves the award for this past week.
Well, it was actually 101.5 yards, with a fumble at the end that no one noticed.
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Hey, just like the Polamalu int/fumble return from last years Chargers/Steelers game – the call on the field stands.
Do i trade Boldin to get Mendenhall? I’m pretty deep at both spots. Is the potential reward greater than the risk?
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Steelers play Lions this week, Browns and the Vikings before the bye. He wouldn’t get much at Minnesota, but Boldin has been a huge flake so far. I really don’t expect much from Boldin this year, seems like something is stuck up his butt.
“After all, Parker was a holdover from the Bill Cowher regime; Mendenhall is a player who arrived on the watch of coach Mike Tomlin.”
That is a bit silly. Tomlin has never shown any particular preference to anything but winning as many games as possible.
You look at the big names that left:
- Alan Faneca was offered comparable money, but he was ticked off that Wisenhunt was not named coach, and left for the Jets.
- Joey Porter had to be cleared out to make way for James Harrison. Harrison was a Cowher guy also, with more size and athleticism.
- Larry Foote demanded his release repeatedly because he did not want to lose snaps to the more athletic young Lawrence Timmons, even though the Steelers offered to keep him at his same money and his same playing time.
Tomlin has done nothing to warrant your statement. He’s got his own draft pick Limas Sweed sitting out games now, and is playing former Lion Shawn McDonald in his place as the #4 receiver. How is that an example of preferring “his” guys?
frox says:
October 8, 2009 10:02 AM
What no seems to take into account is the opponent. Last year when the Steelers beat the Chargers in the playoffs and Parker ran wild, everyone said he was “back.” The next week when he played a real D, he was shut down. Now, when Mendenhall runs over the Chargers he has arrived. So did Mendenhall arive or do the Chargers just suck? I think Mendenhall just got lucky starting last week and then having Detroit and the Browns this week. He should run wild not because he is better, but because the competition is horrible. Parker had to run on the Titans, Bears and Bengals who all have strong running games.
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And who ripped off the 40-yarder against that “strong” Chicago defense? Mendenhall made the most of limited playing time against them, and made the most out of his time vs. San Diego. (And yeah, I see the point of everybody pointing out how weak the Chargers’ run D is.)
Mendenhall will take over because he hits the hole a lot faster than Parker. Watch the film, see how Parker runs mostly delays, whereas Mendenhall blasts into the line. He won’t get as many 70-yard runs as Fast Willie (few RBs do) but he will get you 4 yards where Parker will get you -1. That’s what the Steelers are looking for right now, to resurrect their run game.
Bad form on using “POW” in the title.
Oh, jeez… one good game VS a poor rush defense & all of a sudden they want to call him another Franco.
Please… let’s see him do this on a regular basis AND against more decent run defenses.
Great points Frank! if you watch the difference in running styles… Mendy gets the go from me. Look at Mendy’s 3-4yd TD against SD. He was hit at the line, drove through it, hit again at the 2 and then a good hit at the goal line where Mendy spun and pushed through it and into the endzone. Parker would have been down at the 4 when he took the first hit because he doesn’t drive his legs after he gets hit. He is built for speed, not power.
If the steelers want to fully utilize their talent, they start Mendy and give Parker about 10 carries. This keeps Parker fast and fresh for some big breakaway runs after Mendy has beat the defense up a little and got them tired.
workhorse says:
October 8, 2009 10:01 AM
How is Champ Bailey the Defensive POW over Robert Mathis of the Colts? OK Bailey had a pick, but Mathis had 3 sacks and 2 forced fumbles.
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I’m sure he was took into consideration, but since the Seattle offensive line is piss poor, the honor goes to Bailey.
Also, Bailey just didn’t have a pick. Bailey was thrown at 13 times and pimp slapped Romo with every one.
POW = Prisoner of War, to my knowledge there are no former POW’s in the NFL’s player ranks. Don’t dishonor the former POW’s by trivializing what a POW is.
josh says:
October 8, 2009 11:13 AM
Great points Frank! if you watch the difference in running styles… Mendy gets the go from me. Look at Mendy’s 3-4yd TD against SD. He was hit at the line, drove through it, hit again at the 2 and then a good hit at the goal line where Mendy spun and pushed through it and into the endzone. Parker would have been down at the 4 when he took the first hit because he doesn’t drive his legs after he gets hit. He is built for speed, not power.
If the steelers want to fully utilize their talent, they start Mendy and give Parker about 10 carries. This keeps Parker fast and fresh for some big breakaway runs after Mendy has beat the defense up a little and got them tired.
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Don’t forget the most impressive play of all, which wasn’t even a run — how he absolutely blew up the Charger LB when he blitzed. Parker couldn’t dream of ever blocking like that. Like I said, Mendenhall is the back the Steelers want — Ben’s been doing it all himself for too long with no run support. (And for those who dare to even argue with that, remember, Parker didn’t even average a stinking 3 yards a carry during the last two playoff runs.)
I agree with your idea of using Parker late, after Mendenhall has worn down the defense. Watch Willie start ripping off those long gainers again. Bad news for Steelers opponents as the Black and Gold reintroduce the Thunder and Lightning.
With a year under his belt, Mendenhall is ready to roll — his goal-line leg-drive run was awesome to watch — and he has a revenge date coming with Ray Ray Lewis. Ray, get ready to be blown up like Kreider used to do to you. Can’t wait.
Tomlin has already replaced Cowher’s “when I get an 11 point lead I win 99% of the time” rule.
Italianarmyguy…I agree with your entire post….except for one trivial detail. James Harrison does not have more athleticism than Joey Porter. No way in hell. Actually, he doesn’t have more size either. Joey Porter is a large human being. Harrison is around 6’0″ 242lbs, while Porter is around 6’3″ 255. Harrison is just freakishly strong and he knows how to use his short stature for leverage. That’s about it. We were very fortunate that he was able to step in and be the beast that he is. Joey Porter was still more than capable of great production, we just didn’t want to pay him. It all worked out though, I’m not complaining.
Lechler may have “outkicked” his coverage, whatever that means, but that was an amazing kick.
@Krow … When a guy shows up three consecutive days not knowing his assignments and/or the plays the offense is running, you have no choice but to sit him out. It’s not a “worthless high school motivational antic.”
@Florio … ItalianArmyGuy summed it up. Your swipe at Tomlin didn’t make any more sense than Krow’s. We let Joey go for a reason that had nothing to do with Cowher (but, sniff, I still miss him). And I didn’t like the POW head either.
Yes, Mendenhall and the o-line looked great and I’m excited to see how they’ll do against better defenses, but until then …
I agree with … steeler-hater (good grief).
Hahaha Florio you are such a homer. Sure Mendenhall put up great numbers against a terrible run defense who is without one of the best nose tackles in the game. You say he has “arrived” after one good game? If Limas Sweed catches 5 passes or one touchdown next week will you say he arrived?