Every Thursday, Steelers offensive coordinator Bruce Arians meets the media. Here is today's transcript from "BA" on the state of the Pittsburgh offense.
On Rashard Mendenhall's status:
"You'll have to watch his conditioning and how the thing responds. You definitely don't want to overwork it and have him tweak it really bad. We'll see what tomorrow brings and what Saturday brings as far as how much each guy goes. [His hamstring] was bad enough to get him out of the ballgame. He didn't feel like he could burst with it. If he's healthy and full speed, missing Wednesday and Thursday is just giving him some rest. 'Cause the running lanes don't change and the reads don't change. He studies tape extremely well; he's a pro. He'll be more than ready and probably as rested as he's been in a while. That may even help him rather than hinder him. That doesn't concern me as much. But, I want to make sure he's 100% because it's a long, long season."
Do you need to see Rashard practice tomorrow?
"No, I need to see him run fast on Sunday, and not hurt, that's all I need to see"
Can Max Starks come in and in three days start [at LT]?
"Yeah. It'd be different if he was learning a new offense. He has shown up in great shape and he picked it right back up. We'll see again tomorrow which way we go and, it's nice to have flexibility. He is in the mix for sure."
Who is the starting RG?
"Starting RG is Ramon [Foster]. For good, right now (laughs). Until someone else gets dinged and we have to shuffle again. [Doug Legursky] is going to play let guard, and it's a better mix. I like what the right side did last week in the running game together, don't want to break that up. Doug is as flexible as all get-out, so, we're used to an athletic left [guard], and so it doesn't change us as much to have Dougie on the left side."
And when Kemoeatu comes back?
"That would totally depend on how those two guys play. It would be a nice feeling to have them all healthy. It's kind of like going through training camp right now, everybody's fighting for jobs and we're in the middle of the season. But it's due to injuries, and it could be a blessing in the long run, we'll have a lot of depth."
How's Kemoeatu's knee?
"He's got a number of injuries that he played with last week and had we had other healthy bodies probably wouldn't have played. He's the toughest guy I know, and he gutted it out and played for us and struggled. He struggled because he didn't have the use of one hand and his knee was killing him, but he battled as hard as he could, and that's all you can ask of a guy. Right now we've got enough bodies to try to get him healthy and it may take a week or two."
On dealing with this year's Roethlisberger foot injury compared to last year:
"Well, you're used to it, you've seen him play extremely well whether it was in the pistol when it was really broken and bad, you know. So we have a lot of options to use for him to be able to play and play effectively. He moved around pretty good today, and I think he'll get better each day and we'll take it on Sunday as far as what we need to do as far as positioning him to be able to play at his best."
On hot route mistakes with Ben and his WRs:
"Well, yeah Ben is right on target. Antonio missed one that Ray Charles should have seen. It was a true young guy mistake, he was all anxious to run a route and had he seen the hot he probably would still be running. Those are the kind of things that have cost us a couple big third down conversions and stopped drives. It's that youth, second year growing that we continue to grow and hopefully that doesn't happen any more."
Would John Clay be next up as the third RB if Mendenhall can't go?
"He'd be the next guy up, yeah. That would be a lot of decisions on coach's part as far as roster moves, but he'd be the next guy in line."