[B]Walter Mendenhall, RB, Illinois State[/B]

[eaglefan1]

From everything I've read and learned about Walter Mendenhall, he maybe the missing element to the Eagles running game? What is his upside? Will he make the team?

[Tommy_Lawlor]

I am very interested to see what Walter can do. He has NFL size and speed, but only had 6 carries in 3 years at Illinois. Only took over as the starter at Illinois State in the final month. Once he got on the field, Walter looked great.

He has the kind of size/speed that our offense could use. We've got fast tailbacks, but not in the form of 225-pound downhill runners. Walter has a lot of tread on the tire because he was used so little, but that also means that he's pretty raw from an experience standpoint. He was a good student at Illinois, so hopefully he'll pick up the offense quickly and really listen to his coaches. Walter is probably a longshot to make the roster, but guys like him are what the Practice Squad is made for.

Think about another RB we all know. This guy went to a football school. Things didn't work out and he went to a small school to play. He put up big numbers at that level of competition. He came to the NFL as a 225-pound guy and it took a couple of years, but once he was on the right team and in the right role, he thrived. I'm talking about Derrick Ward, formerly of the Giants. He started at Fresno State and ended at Ottawa College in Kansas. Walter has similar size and skill set as Ward. We can only hope he pans out anywhere near as good as Ward. I don't want to build up false hopes. Walter has an uphill battle to just make the team, let alone develop into a productive NFL player. He's just a really intriguing guy. I can't wait to see him play.

Profile:

http://scoutsnotebook.com/scno0809/running_backs/viewrb.php?id=113


Additional comments are in my column:

http://www.philadelphiaeagles.com/news/Story.asp?story_id=17742
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[renegade]

Once the Eagles learned that Brian Westbrook was going to be out for the summer with his ankle injury, they cut Mendenhall. I guess that says something for how they feel about him.