Rashard Mendenhall's fantasy outlook is TRENDING upward right now. Mendenhall should be owned in all leagues, period. Even if you don't need a RB or don't think Mendenhall will produce, he is viable trade bait with upside for your bench.
There's several issues surrounding Rashard Mendenhall that many people are wondering about:
- ACL surgery
- RBBC approach
- Pittsburgh's O-line
Before we get into the three main concerns, let's take a look at Mendenhall's stats since he entered the NFL.
| Year | Team | G | Rush | Yds | Avg | 100+ | TD | Rec | Yds | TD |
| 2008 | PIT | 4 | 19 | 58 | 3.1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 17 | 0 |
| 2009 | PIT | 16 | 242 | 1108 | 4.6 | 3 | 7 | 25 | 261 | 1 |
| 2010 | PIT | 16 | 324 | 1274 | 3.9 | 4 | 13 | 23 | 167 | 0 |
| 2011 | PIT | 15 | 228 | 928 | 4.1 | 2 | 9 | 18 | 154 | 0 |
In the last two years Mendenhall has been a solid contributor to the fantasy football conversation, and his yards per carry isn't horrible either. Keep this information in the back of your head as we talk more about Rashard.
ACL Surgery
9 months removed from his ACL surgery he has looked great in practice and the coaches / teammates are all dieing to have him back as their RB1. Word is hs is cutting hard and running with speed, power and determination. Most recently we have seen J. Charles and A. Peterson come back from ACL injury, they've done fine. I'm not worried about Mendenhall being worse or more injury pron, if anything he's going to be stronger because of this.
RBBC
RBBC (Running Back By Committee) has been tossed around. Some talking head believe that Mendenhall will join a crowded backfield with I.Redman and D.Dwyer. That's the biggest load of BS I've heard all week. Redman and Dwyer haven't done squat for the Steelers run game. Once Rashard is back he's going to get the lion share of carries and resume his lead back role.
Pittsburgh's O-line
When the running backs can't find running lanes people blame the offensive line, and that's the way it should be. The Steelers line hasn't done anything to help Big Ben or the backup RBs. But, Rashard Mendenall has been dealing with this for years and made lemon aid out of lemons.. so if your concerned about the O-line impacted Mendenhall fantasy football production, don't be!
Projected Fantasy Football Value
Top 10 Running Back! No I'm just joking!!
Mendenhall has a tough week 5 matchup against the Eagles, who rank 27th in points allowed to running backs, but he still made our waiver wire picks. But don't let the stats fool you, while they have limited average running backs they couldn't contain Ray Rice so I'm interested to see if Mendenhall puts up a decent game. Mendenhall actually has a decent fantasy schedule down the stretch against mostly teams with average run defense and teams that shouldn't blow them out or force a pass heavy attack.
