Steelers news: Rashard Mendenhall calls out Big Ben, Brian Flores interviews for HC job, and more
By Tommy Jaggi
Pittsburgh could be losing Flores soon, while Rashard Mendenhall takes a jab at his former quarterback. Here’s the latest Steelers news you need to know.
Football watchers are gearing up for championship weekend after the final eight were reduced to just four teams remaining in the NFL playoffs. Though the focus is still on the post-season, there has been some Steelers news that hasn’t gone unnoticed.
We now know that Matt Canada is returning in 2023 as the offensive coordinator — a move that many fans opposed. However, the Pittsburgh Steelers could be losing an assistant coach that many hope will stick around. Here’s the latest Steelers news.
Steelers news
On Monday, former Steelers running back, Rashard Mendenhall went on a social media rant about former quarterback and teammate, Ben Roethlisberger. Seemingly out of the blue, Mendenhall sarcastically called Big Ben a leader and says that he never took credit for the fall of the team. Here’s what Mendenhall said on Twitter:
"If @_BigBen7 is the “leader” you say he is, why hasn’t HE taken credit for the fall? What manager of a company goes to HIDE in the shadows when the results come in? We win it’s him, lose it’s me… or Tomlin huh.."
These were some pretty blunt remarks from a player who already has a questionable social media track record. Mendenhall certainly has had no issue throwing teammates under the bus in the past and his latest outburst seemed to be unprovoked. As you can imagine, it was not received well on Twitter.
More Steelers news
In more meaningful Steelers news, Brian Flores officially interviewed with the Cardinals for the vacant head coach job on Monday, per NBC Sports. Flores was Miami’s head coach before being fired and joining Pittsburgh as the senior defensive assistant for the 2022 season.
If Arizona does hire Flores to be their new head coach, the Steelers would receive third-round draft choices in each of the next two drafts because of the minority hiring initiative. We don’t know at this time how many interviews the Cardinals wish to conduct for their vacant HC job or when we will get an answer regarding Flores.
NFL news
The Chiefs, Bengals, Eagles, and 49ers have each advanced to the championship round of the NFL playoffs after taking care of business against their foes in the divisional round. Remarkably, all four teams almost have identical Super Bowl odds.
According to Frank Schwab of Yahoo Sports, all four remaining teams have Super Bowl odds between +250 and +280. You don’t see this very often, but it’s clear that there’s not a major frontrunner at this point in time. Kansas City currently has the best odds to win with San Francisco as the worst of the remaining teams, but the difference is minuscule.
This should make for a very exciting weekend with the AFC and NFC championship games. It’s clear that oddsmakers aren’t sure exactly which way to go with this and the spread on both of these games are between 1-3 points. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.