Crazy Thought: Trade Rashard Mendenhall?

Would you rather, trade Mendy and our 1st round pick for the Jets 1st and 4th/5th rounder or trade Mendy just straight up for the Jets 2nd and 6th round picks. For me, I like option 2 better as we would now have two second round picks. If Doug Martin is available in round 3 and the Steelers have addressed OG and NT/ILB in the 1st 2 rounds and no NT/ILBs are worth the pick, I think the Steelers should pull the trigger.

I’d have absolutely no problem with trading Mendy or using him as part of a draft day package to move up, but I just don’t think the value is there for another team. He’s going to start the year on PUP, he’s going to need to be resigned or franchised after this season for another team to keep him, and his product has been good, but not special.

All the reasons the Steelers might want to part with him are reasons another team might not be too keen to pick him up. If the Mendy heals well, has a great season, and manages to get a nice contract with another team next year, the Steelers are likely to benefit with a nice comp pick. So, there’s longterm upside to keeping him even if they don’t resign him.

That being said, if somebody was willing to give up a 2nd/3rd or to flip 1st rounders so the Steelers could grab a guy like Decastro or Kuechly without giving up a 2nd I’d be all about it.

and I would get him a full fledged blocking fullback to have him follow and take on the first tackler, Mendy will be a beast when he leaves in FA goes to somewhere like the Giants, running behind a fullback every play. His 2 biggest problems are finding the right hole and making the first guy miss and a fullback would solve both problems. Just because they are pass happy doesn’t mean they are good at it as 22nd in pts scored can attest, losing Mendenhall without another number 1 back on the team would be even more hurtful to our offense.

Of course the ACL hurts value, but a second rounder is a good swap. We don’t get nearly what we should from his talent, so send him to a team that will.

Nobody will trade anything worth a snot for Mendy. We might as well keep him since he has been a workhorse for 2 seasons. If anyione could be traded it would be farrior, hampton, kiesel or a WR. Of them I only see AZ trading for them.

above a third or fourth rounder . . . a healthy santonio only got a 3rd rounder

I have zero issue with trading Mendenhall. I like the current backs of Redman, Batch (if he is healthy), Clay, and Dwyer. Moore could be back in the mix as well. Of course if the Steelers could have an OC who knows how to use RBs successfully….

However, I do not trade Mendy for anything less than a 2nd round pick.

Fire Arians.
Ask LeBeau to retire.

Yep, I said it. The Patriots, with their good-but-not-great defense, are shutting down Tebow—like any good team would do. Like the freaking Chiefs did.

LeBeau was out-coached in that game, stupidly giving Tebow the deep ball.
And why does the defense not force turnovers? The 49ers did it today. The Packers do it. The Ravens do it. The Patriots are doing so as we speak.

And Arians? Don’t even get me started.

Let Tomlin start afresh. This team is good, but won’t be great for 2-3 years. Prune the hedges now, and start over.

Sorry, it’s a total bullshit claim to say we can get a two.

Maybe a three and a five if his post-injury physicals look real good and the right team fell in love with him. And I’d actually pull the trigger on that for the simple reason that NFL RBs are easy to come by and the Rooneys seem to be better than most at finding them.

All that said, I’d rather keep Mendy and focus on fixing the OL.

Prior to his injury, I would have seen as a distinct possibility, and I believe he would have drawn a possible late first round or early second round trade (I wouldn’t trade him for less). But after his injury, he has almost no value. I agree with some previous posts that state that Mendenhall is ill used in our system, and with another team, he would be a top 5 back in the league. After all, for the past three years, he’s gained over 3,000 yards behind what is consistently one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL. He has speed, moves, and power, and most commentators speak of him already being a top 5 back. I’m not sold on Redman. Yes, he had a couple of good games late, and he is a talented runner, but he lacks the breakaway ability of Mendenhall. Still, I believe he could be a thousand yard back and I would be comfortable with him starting, but now that Mendy is injured, things will carry on as they are. Also, I’m not sold on Batch. He had a good camp until he torn his ACL, but there have been many players who had good camps and then never amounted to anything. Sylvester always has a good camp, but we’ve seen nothing on defense from him. And while we’ve seen Sylvester look good in preseason games, we’ve never even seen Batch play against another team, so I’m not counting on him until he shows something in a game. Dwyer needs to prove he can get and stay in shape. If we really want to trade someone who will bring value, trade Wallace. He really hasn’t proven anything beyond being a deep threat. And in the second half of the season, he was shut down. He can’t beat double teams. He doesn’t run good routes. He can’t adjust to balls in the air and he can’t make tough catches across the middle. Sanders and Brown both have better hands and more athletic ability, and both have great speed. Yet, teams love his speed and are high on him, so trade Wallace for a first and third while his value is high, resign Cotchery and bring Ward back at a cheaper price to be the 4th receiver. Draft a young, tall receiver that can serve as the 5th while he learns from Hines.

I wouldn’t trade him but I would work on his patience at the line and him running left. The Steelers have probably 9n% of their runs going to the right, but many times he could be patient and take the run left to the backside and make yards. 22 Double doesn’t work all the time and teams looked for it and filled the holes quickly.

This would have been a great idea before the injury occurred. Unfortunately, the only reason it’s being considered is the success of Isaac Redman when he had to step up. If he was allowed to do so before the injury, other teams would have jumped at it. As it is, no team will trade for a hobbled running back when there are so very many recent successes from low draft picks or UFA’s. For whatever reason, stats and success seem to make no difference to the coaches. Isaac’s better prduction with the opportunities he received always seemed to be shrugged off week to week. “Now” is the most important..but I feel peeking at “later” isn’t illegal. If they had given Redman a few more carries to see if he could continue his superior production-what would it have hurt? It may have helped. If they had tried it and Mendenhall did not get hurt- “Bye, bye Mendenhall…” And we would get value for a talented, perhaps disgruntled running back. But that didn’t happen, and it’s just too late now…Oh-and I’d wait to see how Baron Batch has recovered in the off season before I’d draft any more running backs this year.

Shonn Greenes terrible, Michael Turner is fastly slowing down and the Colts since theyre going to rebuild with Luck they need a decent back and Donald Brown and Delone Carter are not going to be the answer for them, i could see one of these 3 possibly dealing a 2nd or 3rd rounder for a 25 year old RB even if he is coming off an injury. Give Jonathan Dwyer a chance to be the lead back next year! keep Redman as the short yardage back and Baron Batch takes over for Mewelde in the 3rd down spot. Draft Burfict or Kuechly to take over for Farrior, I know we dont go after free agents EVER but change that this year and go hard after Brent Grimes or Cortland Finnegan. Draft a young defensive tackle like Alameda Ta’amu from Washington or Josh Chapman from Alabama. I love Da Beard Brett Keisel but its time for Cam Heyward to take over as starter. The Steelers are a loyal organization and the best in the business but its time to let the old men walk and reload with youth! We’re not going to get to the top of the stairway to seven with these old men using their walkers.

Mendenhall has a year left on his current deal, and is coming off of a major injury. No GM in their right mind is going to trade a draft pick for a player who won’t be able to play at 100% for the one season that they are guaranteed to have him on the roster. They also won’t be able to come to terms on a contract extension, because who wants to give a long term deal to a RB who just wrecked his knee.

BA and a porous o line is the problem. Empty sets with 15 yd routes kill us , especially with a hobbled QB.
Need speed and power on the defensive middle- nt and ilb
Give 2 ol in the draft
And sign a few ol- free agents. Shocked that we did not sign Shaun Ohara this year.
Cut-
Smith
Hoke
Mc fad den
Farrior
Chris k let me play
Scott
Essex
Suisham

I would hope we would get better value that what we got for Holmes. I was very, very dissapointed with that and while I am no expert or insider as to what the option were, I sure felt like we could have held out and got something better for Holmes.

Any idea what kind of money the team would save with a trade? I think that is also something to consider in the analysis.

Mendenhall’s 9.11 comments were an unnecessary distraction and his open style of carrying the ball gives me heart palpitations, but he has been effective at times. If we can save money for cap room and get a reasonably decent draft number for him, it is something to think about. But what is decent? It is easier to do the calculus when we are talking a 1st rounder or a 2nd plus 6th, but what about a 3rd and a 5th? Or, what if the most interest is a 4th and a 5th?

Anyway, the article is an interesting scenario to consider.

…someone to run behind.

If they can run on third and two, Mendy and Redman will be an awesome duo. And Ben won’t take as many hits.

Controlling the LOS and opening holes for the RB’s are the two best ways of protecting Roethlisberger and re-establishing ball control. And that will keep the defense fresh for the fourth quarter.