Mendenhall could play in opener?

This could be looking like one of the more remarkable recoveries that we’ve seen in a long time. Just eight months ago, Pittsburgh Steelers RB Rashard Mendenhall shredded his ACL. On Tuesday, he was practicing and apparently looked really good.

Head coach Mike Tomlin was asked about the availability of Mendenhall, James Harrison and Mike Wallace for this week’s opener.

“I’ll leave the door open for all of them,” said Tomlin. “We’ll see how they respond to the workload.”

We’re pretty sure that Mendenhall won’t be rushed back, so we don’t see him playing this week. Tomlin is probably just making sure that Denver has to at least be aware that he might be out there. But, still, the fact that him playing is even a possibility added to the fact that he’s drawing rave reviews in practice?

“I thought he looked great. He was running well, finishing runs. I’m excited for him,” said Lawrence Timmons.

And yes, this is all good news. But, the real test of an ACL injury is cutting. We’ll be more excited when we hear reports that he’s showing explosiveness in and out of his cuts.