The Super Bowl is just a bit over a week away, but we are making our Superbowl picks for props as always on a nightly basis. Today, we look at Rashard Mendenhall, and how many carries that he will get against the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XLV.

The first thing that we have to take in consideration in this one is that Mendenhall carried the ball a whopping 371 times this year in his 18 games including the playoffs. That’s an average of 20.6 times per game. He had more than 19.5 carries nine times this year, which really should make this a 50/50 prop… right?

Wrong.

What we have to remember is that the Packers have a tremendous pass defense, and Head Coach Mike Tomlin and company know it. QB Ben Roethlisberger will have to make his plays against a ferocious bunch, and as a result, he is going to be relying on Mendenhall to take off some of the load.

Mendenhall is a horse, as he has demonstrated in the playoffs, as he has carried the ball 20 and 27 times in games against two of the toughest defenses that this league has to offer, the New York Jets and the Baltimore Ravens. Even when things aren’t going well and he is getting stuffed up at the point of attack, the Steelers continue to use him. The other critical factor is that there aren’t any running backs on this team that are stealing many of his carries, save for the short spell here and there.

The former member of the Illinois Fighting Illini also only had one run this year of longer than 38 yards, and that came way back in Week 1 of the season against the Atlanta Falcons. He’s more prone to just pounding the rock up in the hole, taking his few yards, and coming back to do it all over again.

Mendenhall will get into the 20s with ease, and he should be able to dominate this Super Bowl betting prop.

Free Super Bowl Picks: Rashard Mendenhall Over 19.5 Carries (-115) at Hollywood Sportsbook