Scott Brown of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes that the Steeler are still expecting to have RB Rashard Mendenhall back at some point during the 2012 season.
“To clarify, what I said was I never think players coming off an ACL are 100 percent for a full year. It doesn’t mean they can’t play,” said Steelers GM Kevin Colbert. “At some point, we’ll have Rashard back. I’m confident of that.“
Mendenhall unfortunately torn his ACL during the final game of the teams’ regular season. As far recovery time is concerned, Mendenhall would be available at some point during the year, but the question will be whether or not it’s even worth playing him at that point.
There were some rumors that Mendenhall may have played his final game for the Steelers, as he’ll be a free agent at the end of next season.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are still hoping to re-sign WR Jerricho Cotchery at some point in the near future.
“It’s not like (Cotchery is) looking to leave,” said GM Kevin Colbert, via Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “I think he’ll leave if it’s best for him and his family, but I think deep down he wants to stay.“
It’s kind of surprising that the market for Cotchery has been so limited. He’s met with the Chiefs already and the Jets have shown some interest in pursuing him, but that’s really about it. Pittsburgh still has limited cap space to work with and Mike Wallace has yet to sign his tender so I’m sure that’s been one contributing factors to limited the progress between the two sides.
We have him listed as the #20 best available free agent in our recently updated Top 50 Free Agents list.
Byron Leftwich, Charlie Batch & Mewelde Moore
Speaking of player that the Steelers are hoping to retain, Scott Brown of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review mentions that QBs Byron Leftwich and Charlie Batch, as well as RB Mewelde Moore can be added to that list.
Pittsburgh appears to be willing to allow QB Dennis Dixon to move on after they signed Troy Smith a few weeks back. Leftwich is probably their best backup quarterback option at this point, but it’s hard to imagine them keeping Batch.
Steelers GM Kevin Colbert mentioned that they’re still open to re-signing OT Max Starks.
Starks is coming off of an ACL injury and has drawn very little interest thus far. I can understand that they would like to maintain some depth on their offensive line, but Starks has hardly been an effective player for the Steelers and the fact that he’s coming off of an injury makes him even more of a liability.
Cuts
Colbert also mentioned that more cuts could be coming if they needed to created some extra cap room.
“We’ll do what we have to do to field the best team in 2012,” Colbert said, “and that could include making more subtractions.“
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