In another move that makes no sense to me former Vikings running back Mewelde Moore has reportedly inked a three-year deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Moore has shown flashes of being a decent, albeit injury-prone player. Moore ran for 662 yards on 155 carries in 2005, so he is capable of putting up decent numbers. But his style is similar to Parker’s so I don’t see him as a complementary back such as the larger Najeh Davenport. So I see him as no better than the Steelers’ third option at running back in 2008 and I don’t see him getting any more playing time on Heinz Field than he did the Metrodome the last two seasons.
The cerebral running back likely will get a chance to contribute on special teams. The Steelers lost Allen Rossum to San Francisco over the weekend. Moore has two touchdowns as a punt returner and a 19.3 average on kickoff returns during his NFL career. But I think he sold himself short. With teams such as Chicago, Seattle and Houston sporting unsettled running back situations he had a chance to hook on with a team where he could potentially compete for a starting job. I don’t think that happened for Moore this time around.
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I still think Gary Russell could be good there too. I was a little worried that his year off would lead to Maurice Claurett like consquences (the out of shape and inability to make an NFL roster part–not the whole drugs, guns and jail time part). But I still think he may have been the most talented of the three Gopher running backs from that era (if the Gophers had an ‘era’).