Another UFA has Steelers grateful for his availability

Vikings castoff Mewelde Moore has stepped in nicely while Willie Parker heals.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — In the NFL, they’re known as UFAs — unrestricted free agents. Players that other teams didn’t want, didn’t need, didn’t sign or didn’t care about.

In Pittsburgh, UFAs have a way of becoming MVPs.

The Steelers traditionally don’t pay megadollars for players; they’re never guaranteed any regular more than $36 million, a relative pittance these days. Yet they won a Super Bowl in 2006 and have averaged 10-plus victories since 2001.

They’ve stayed competitive —three seasons of 11 or more wins and three AFC title game appearances during that span — by drafting well, keeping the right starters for salary cap-friendly dollars and digging up players who are overlooked or unwanted elsewhere.

Players like Mewelde Moore.

Moore, the latest in a long line of “where did he come from?” finds by director of football operations Kevin Colbert, filled in for injured Pro Bowl running back Willie Parker by gaining 120 yards, catching five passes and scoring three touchdowns during a 38-10 rout of the winless Bengals on Sunday.

“He’s become the locker room favorite,” coach Mike Tomlin said of Moore, who has rushed for 219 yards in his last two games — or nearly as many yards as the 244 he had in 2006 and 2007 combined. “This guy is delivering time and time again with his legs, with his hands.”

Even if some casual fans might not have known Moore was on the team when the season began. Much like they once didn’t know much about Parker, linebacker James Harrison or left guard Darnell Stapleton, three undrafted players who also signed with the Steelers as unrestricted free agents but now are starters.

Moore played for the Vikings from 2004-07, starting eight games in 2005 but none after that. He was let go after gaining 113 yards on only 20 carries in 12 games last season, and signed with the Steelers in March to compete for their third-down back’s job.

Tomlin was the Vikings’ defensive coordinator in 2006 and felt Moore would be a good fit.

“It’s awesome to come here, be the new guy, step in, study hard, work hard and see your work paying off,” Moore said. “I’m just working hard to get respect.”

Still, Moore wasn’t expected to see any regular duty, not with Parker and first-round draft pick Rashard Mendenhall in front of him. Mendenhall, one of the nation’s top college backs at Illinois last season, was added as a power back to complement Parker.

When Parker injured a knee Sept. 21 and Mendenhall was lost for the season with a shoulder injury during his first career start a week later, the Steelers were down to Moore — and, well, no one else.

They were so thin at running back before going to Jacksonville on Oct. 5, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was jokingly asked how many bootlegs he could run. But Moore, who had gone nearly three years without a start, went out and ran for 99 yards, nearly equaling his 2007 season’s output.