Pittsburgh Steelers General Manager Kevin Colbert was on 93.7 The Fan today to talk about the decision to remove running back Rashard Mendenhall from the PUP list on Friday.
Colbert was asked why the decision was made today to remove the Steelers former first round draft pick today from the PUP list.
“As he continued to work with the trainers and the strength staff, he felt and they felt that he was ready to take the next step, which is being able to work with the team and seeing where he is from a contact standpoint,” said Colbert. “You have to go through a three day acclimation period, which began today, so he\’ll really join into the more active practices after Monday when we get back on Tuesday. So it\’s just a step again with the training staff felt he was ready, Rashard felt he was ready, and we\’ll see where it goes. Who knows at what point that he\’ll be able to help us, but it\’s time for him and Casey (Hampton) to take the next step and see where they are in their rehab.”
After clarifying the rules that Mendenhall could not be placed back on the PUP list now that he has been removed, Colbert said, “He\’ll either have to be an active player or whatever other list we can put him on at that point. But we anticipate him being an active player if he continues to progress as is.”
Colbert later was asked that by the sound of things that it appears that Mendenhall could be ready for the opener against Denver. “Well when you look at PUP, you\’re out definitely for six weeks,” said Colbert. “You know, maybe he\’s ready in week 5. Maybe he\’s ready in week 7. We don\’t know. But you know, week 5 could be a critical return. Every game is critical, so the optimism I think by him getting back out there, is that he might be ready sooner than we thought, but at what point we don\’t know.”
First let me say that I do not have my tin foil hat on today, but the time table that Colbert has preached all this offseason concerning Mendenhall combined with a few things in the quotes above that could be construed as contradictions, sure makes you think that something is not adding up here.
Colbert first says that he anticipates Mendenhall to be an active player to start the season should his rehab keep progressing the way it is, but later says that he might be ready by week 5 or week and that at what point, they really don\’t know.
We will dive into this a little deeper in future post, but first I need to make sure that I go look in the pantry to see if indeed I have not touch the tin foil. You tell me, am I reading too much into this, or do these quotes and the past quotes of Colbert not match up?
