Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Isaac Redman Wins PIT Short Yardage Role (Not Really?)

Pittsburgh announced today that RB Isaac Redman will get "first crack" at the short yardage role.

Fantasy Impact: It was nice of Pittsburgh to announce this right after the vast majority of fantasy owners, but I've been stating all along that this was an unsettled situation.  This obviously delivers a blow to Rashard Mendenhall's fantasy value.  Mendenhall will be the 3rd down RB, so he's going to get plenty of touches as the primary ball carrier and primary pass catcher out of the backfield.  However, since we all know TDs are very important in fantasy football, it dulls Mendenhall's upside for this season.  It's hard to saw what happened in practice, so who knows if Mendenhall lost the job, or they just really love Redman.  I assume it was moreso the later as Redman did earn the nickname "Redzone" last preseason.  At any rate, I think Mendenhall is still a top 10 RB, but don't get pissed off when Redman replaces him inside the 5.

**EDIT**: A new report has just come out that Mendenhall will maintain goal line duties.  Odds are that he won't get every short yardage and goal line carry with Redman taking the ones that he does not get.  This is, obviously, good news for Mendenhall's fantasy value.  He should end up with a nice amount of TDs, and he's a threat to score 10 or so this year.

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