Steelers first-round draft pick Rashard Mendenhall has injured his hamstring and missed minicamp practice, leading coach Mike Tomlin to question whether high draft picks have a schedule that leaves them ill-prepared to start working.
“It’s becoming somewhat commonplace for some of these high-round draft picks for this type of situation to happen to them during minicamp weekend,” Tomlin said, per Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “The schedule that these guys are on is really not conducive to preparing them to come in to meet what waits on them at minicamp. They go to the combine, they go to their pro day, then they go on this city tour.”
Mendenhall, a running back from Illinois who is expected to split time with Willie Parker, is the latest in a string of Steelers rookies to get hurt early in his pro career. Last year first-round draft pick Lawrence Timmons left with a groin injury after participating in just one practice, and second-round pick LaMarr Woodley injured his hamstring in minicamp.
Tomlin has said he expects Mendenhall to be back to full participation at the start of the next off-season workouts on May 20.
May 4th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Other teams dont seem to have much of a problem with this … Does grass just not grow well is Pittsburg?
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Rating: 2.6 / 5 with 7 rating(s)
May 4th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
And then number 3 pick and number 7 pick Joe Thomas and Adrian Peterson played at a Pro Bowl level.
Don’t blame the “environment” for your player’s subpar performances.
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Rating: 2.7 / 5 with 9 rating(s)
May 4th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
There has to be a better lead-up plan for these draft picks. Coach Mike Tomlin has a good point. On the other hand, it can be frustration speaking as well.
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Rating: 2.5 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
May 4th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Didn’t he have injury problems in Illinois. That could be why he dropped into the 20’s.
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Rating: 2 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
May 4th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Or maybe some coaches don’t know how to handle out of shape draft picks. Isn’t there another way to get them in shape without injury? It’s only the first mini camp!
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Rating: 2.35 / 5 with 6 rating(s)
May 4th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
If you are aware that early draft picks are frequently injured because of the schedule that leaves them ill-prepared for mini-camps, wouldn’t a good coach protect his investment by easing the player into action to avoid such injures? Just a thought.
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Rating: 3.75 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
May 4th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
It’s amazing how freaking stupid some of you Steeler fans are out there. These people leave great comments with no bias or trash talk, then some punk rat trolls around leaving 1/5 comment ratings on them. Goes to show, trash teams have trash fans.
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Rating: 2.45 / 5 with 9 rating(s)
May 4th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
I don’t think Felix Jones pulled his Hammy. Might be the sign of things to come for Mendenhall.
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Rating: 4.4 / 5 with 5 rating(s)
May 4th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
That’s odd, Felix Jones didn’t seem to have any problems.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
May 4th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Considering Pittsburgh can’t even keep Heinz Field in good turf, I imagine their practice facility isn’t a fast track. Still, as much as these big time prospects are working out following the season- for the combine, for pro days, etc., the shape they’re in shouldn’t be an issue.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
May 4th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
(to the commentors) Cripes, he tweaked his hamstring! Like he’s the first athlete to suffer that. Nothing to do with the team,its fans or the surface on which he practiced. He tweaked his hamstring.
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Rating: 4.25 / 5 with 8 rating(s)
May 4th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
The Steelers traditionally practice at a higher intensity
than most teams; not to mention he is practicing against
the number 1 defense in the league.
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Rating: 1 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
May 5th, 2008 at 3:56 am
Leaving a comment like “that’s odd, Felix Jones didn’t seem to have any problems”, is exactly why NFL insiders and coaches pay no attention to what pimple faced goobers who still live with their parents have to say about football. Equally amazing is how these students of the game sing a different tune when face to face where they might actually have to defend their view. Comparing Mendenhall and Jones in early May is about as ignorant as a fan can be. Now, isn’t it time for you to go clean your room?
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
May 5th, 2008 at 7:48 am
I agree comparing Mendenhall and Jones on the basis of one practice is just silly.
Steelman, if you want people to take anything you say seriously you can’t write stuff like that. I seriously doubt that today, the Steelers practice is all that different from almost every single team. There are limits to what any team can do, and it’s in every teams best interest to push themselves to the limit. Even if there were some sort of “culture” of better practices, Mendenhall hasn’t exactly had time to acclimate to it yet.
Lastly, to the ones who commented about the turf conditions… you REALLY shouldn’t comment about things that you don’t have knowledge of. A quick search shows me that the Steelers practice facilities are FieldTurf - just what everyone was clamoring for them to put in at Heinz. So…
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
May 5th, 2008 at 8:14 am
i do elieve we have 5 supperbowl rings….yea count them 5! so dont hate on the way we practice or what we put our guys threw. so until some of your teams gets 5 supperbowl wins i think you should get out a notebook and take notes on how a true team practices!
go stillers
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
May 5th, 2008 at 9:41 am
dracula58, you might want to cut down on the caffeine. Your “insiders” and “coaches” were comparing Jones and Mendenhall a week ago, what’s so wrong about a fan comparing them now?
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May 5th, 2008 at 9:45 am
I C light pounder, you also have an awful lot of rookies getting hurt awfully early.
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May 5th, 2008 at 10:49 am
geez, this is one of the lamer strings of comments around. this is a complete non-story, just some filler from a tomlin presser. tomlin wasn’t making a big deal out of anything, just saying some meaningless dribble. steeler haters jump on it as some sort of opportunity to mock the steelers while steeler lovers get defensive about it and spout back. everyone chill and move to a real story.
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May 5th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
The reality here is that rookies are always trying to impress veterans and coaches the first time they step into an NFL practice. And, like Coach Tomlin said, they haven’t had the reps they usually have had by now in College because they don’t get the benefit of winter and spring drills. It’s just a tweak, they held him out to err on the side of caution. No big deal.
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May 5th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
I C light pounder, the point is not to live in the past when you write on message boards in the present. I mean I can sit all day sipping Pina Coladas, discussing how I got to experience my Bulls win six championships. That doesn’t change the fact that I’m as pissed as hell at what we did last year.
By the way, pounder, that ‘85 Bears team would dismantle any one of your Steelers’ teams, if you choose to live in the past.
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May 8th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Wow!!! May 8th, Sean Peyton, head coach of the saints is quoted as practicing their rookies at a
Slower pace for the neophytes!!! So SamH, you don’t know what you are talking
about; as apposed to Tomlin making the remark about rookies getting on a
moving train.
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