Three former members of the Pittsburgh Steelers made Peter King’s all-time 53-man roster, which only includes players who were able to play at least half of their career since King started covering the NFL in 1984. So you won’t see Joe Greene or Lynn Swann or Jack Lambert on the list, but Hines Ward and Troy Polamalu made the team while James Harrison was on the bench.
Ward made it along with fellow wide receivers Jerry Rice, Randy Moss and Tyreek Hill. Of note, King said “…the players I picked are the ones I liked the most over the last four decades to impact games, to be winning players, to be the kind of players who don’t rest till they succeed.” So that means the list is not necessarily purely based on talent or numbers, which can explain Hill’s inclusion here.
Ward’s attitude helped him make the list.
“Ward’s here because he’s the best blocking wide receiver I’ve seen, and he caught 1,000 passes. Loved his unselfishness,” King wrote. “Teams with diva wide receivers who don’t block might have hated Ward (I can tell you—they did), but he knew his job, and his job was to be the most physical blocking receiver on the team, and to catch passes. In that order.”
Widely regarded as one of the best blocking receivers of all time, if not the best, Ward, who’s still struggling to make the Hall of Fame, was pretty dang good catching the ball too. Playing in more of a run-heavy era for a Steelers team that ran the ball a lot, he still managed to have six seasons over 1,000 yards. A three-time All-Pro and four-time Pro Bowler, Ward was critical to two Steelers Super Bowl-winning teams and was the Super Bowl XL MVP. A tough, physical player who was a weapon in all facets of the game, it’s nice to see King give Ward some love here.
Polamalu’s physicality and ability to time the snap helped him earn a spot on King’s all-time team.
“Polamalu, obviously, is the more physical one; he lived to jump over the center at the precise right moment to ruin the play for the offense, and his timing was impeccable,” King wrote.
Not only was Polamalu physical and able to get downhill and make plays at or behind the line of scrimmage, but he was also a ball hawk with 32 career interceptions. A member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Polamalu was the 2010 AP Defensive Player of the Year with seven interceptions, 11 passes defensed, and 63 total tackles. He was truly a one-of-a-kind player, and it’s fitting he makes the list alongside one of his AFC North rivals in Ed Reed in addition to Tyrann Mathieu.
Harrison made the roster but would come off the hypothetical bench. The bench had the most bizarre pick of the list in former New England Patriots wide receiver Chris Hogan, who had 220 receptions for 2,836 yards and 19 touchdowns in nine NFL seasons, but Steelers fans still have nightmares over his performance in the 2016 AFC Championship Game. Did you know he played lacrosse, not football, at Penn State? Anyway, Harrison was the lone Steelers defensive player on the bench, and King called him the “Jack Lambert of the modern Steelers.”
“The Jack Lambert of the modern Steelers, with the glare and the anger and the hammer-hitting,” King wrote. “Cut four times in his early career, Harrison ran 100 yards with a Super Bowl XXXI pick-six off Kurt Warner for the play of the game.”
Obviously, the Super Bowl pick-six was in Super Bowl XLIII, but it was still one of the greatest plays in the history of the sport and a major reason why the Steelers won that game. Harrison was also the 2008 AP Defensive Player of the Year and racked up 84.5 career sacks over 15 NFL seasons.
While it’s weird to see an all-time list not featuring someone like Greene or Lambert, given King’s criteria, it’s good to see Ward, Harrison and Polamalu recognized. I’m sure you could nitpick and argue for the inclusion of someone like Alan Faneca or even T.J. Watt, whose brother, J.J., made the list, but all in all King did a good job here compiling a group of impact players to make up an all-time roster.
