Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall has been reinstated to the team on Monday following his one week suspension for conduct detrimental to the team. Upon his reinstatement the team asked for and received a 24 hour roster exemption which means that they now have until 4:00 p.m. Tuesday to make a corresponding roster move to make room for him.
Mendenhall was suspended last Tuesday after failing to report to Heinz Field last Sunday for the game against the San Diego Chargers after being told that he would not dress for the game. Mendenhall claimed that he didn\’t know that he was supposed to report being as he wasn\’t going to dress.
The Steelers activated Baron Batch to the 53 man roster to take the spot of Mendenhall on the roster and now they must make another move by Tuesday evening in order to meet the 53 man roster limit. The Steelers in all likelihood will put either guard Willie Colon or cornerback DeMarcus Van Dyke on injured reserve on Tuesday. Colon had surgery on his knee last Monday while Van Dyke separated his shoulder in the loss Sunday to the Dallas Cowboys.
Mendenhall\’s agent said following the suspension that his client would return to the team with a good attitude. With the Steelers running game currently struggling it would not be surprising to see the former first round draft pick start against the Cincinnati Bengals after being dropped to the bottom of the depth chart following his two fumble game against the Cleveland Browns.
Mendenhall will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and despite reports that surfaced on Sunday that claimed the two sides intend to have contract talks at the end of the season, the Illinois product is not expected to be back in 2013.
