One of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ old rivals from the days of the AFC Central were the Jacksonville Jaguars. While the divisions realigned in 2002, that rivalry continued in the early 2000s, and the Jaguars got the better of the Steelers in four-straight games from 2005 to 2008 when the Steelers won two Super Bowls. The running back during those days was Fred Taylor, who was a Hall of Fame finalist for the first time in 2024.
Taylor took to X on Tuesday morning to post some clips from his games against the Steelers during those years and had some high praise for the Black and Gold.
“Look at those names on that Steel curtain secondary. Legendary defenders!!” Taylor wrote. “These guys always came to play and always brought the best out of you. Much respect and big salute men.”
The play that he posted was his The Pivot Podcast co-host Ryan Clark coming downhill, setting up one of his signature bone-crushing hits. Only Taylor sidestepped him and made him miss with Troy Polamalu cleaning things up.
He made a second post as well, with different play where he made Polamalu miss.
“It’s only right to include one of my favorite humans and fiercest competitors, Troy Polamalu,” Taylor wrote. “Didn’t matter if you won that rep/snap or not because you knew the other guy was coming back. The Steelers made me better, major respect to them.”
On this play, Taylor was in the open field and cut to the outside to make Polamalu miss—a rare occurrence for the now Hall of Fame safety. Opposite of the other play, it was Clark who eventually brought him down.
Taylor played 11 games against the Steelers in his career and totaled 215 carries for 934 yards, and 9 touchdowns. Those were the days when the defense was very stout. It wasn’t easy to run on the likes of Casey Hampton, Aaron Smith, James Farrier, Larry Foote, Joey Porter, and the talented secondary that included Polamalu and Clark.
While there are a couple running backs below Taylor on the Pro Football Reference Hall of Fame monitor, he is behind the pack in terms of his career accomplishments and could have an uphill battle to get over the hump of being a finalist to have his bust in Canton, Ohio. Taylor has said in the past that he wishes he could have played for Mike Tomlin and the Steelers late in his career, so he has been an admirer of the team for a long time.
