During his run of dominance as one of the most feared defenders in all of football, one that has a case for a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, former Pittsburgh Steelers’ outside linebacker and Hall of Honor member James Harrison made a living destroying opposing offensive tackles.
Harrison made it look easy at times with his dip-and-rip move, turning the corner and overpowering tackles while winning the leverage battle.
However, Harrison admittedly had a tough time against one offensive tackle who he saw twice a year in the AFC North: Cleveland’s Joe Thomas.
In a recent appearance on the “Not Just Football w/ Cam Heyward” podcast, Harrison stated that the toughest tackle he ever played against was Thomas, who was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2023.
Throughout their careers in Pittsburgh and Cleveland, respectively, Harrison and Thomas had some battles. Thomas was arguably the best tackle of his generation, and was an easy first-ballot Hall of Famer following his career, which was spent entirely in Cleveland.
While with the Browns, Thomas set an NFL record with 10,363 consecutive snaps played at a rather demanding position, went to 10 Pro Bowls in 11 seasons, was a first-team All-Pro six times (2009-2011, 2013-15) and second-team All-Pro twice (2008, 2012).
Thomas was also one of just five players in NFL history to earn a Pro Bowl selection in each of his first 10 seasons, joining Lawrence Taylor, Barry Sanders, Merlin Olsen and Mel Renfro.
He gave fits to Harrison, too.
In 2019,
Thomas recalled his first career game against Harrison and stated he knew nothing about him, but learned quickly how good he was, and then later added in a film session while talking about Harrison that there were certain types of tackles that simply couldn’t handle Harrison.
“The guys that always struggled the most with James were really tall guys that didn’t bend well…they would struggle to bend their hips and their knees to get down to his level because he was able to do his rip up the field where he was so low that he could get under your pads and actually lift you up, that’s how strong he was,” Thomas said of Harrison, according to video via from the Browns’ YouTube page. “The guys that always seemed to handle James pretty well were the guys that could handle his bull rush, but then also guys that were flexible enough to bend down and be on his level.”
Thomas was one of the few tackles who could handle Harrison, being able to bend and move with him. It’s worth mentioning that in 23 career games against the Browns, Harrison had just 6.5 sacks, which was the fewest against the three AFC North opponents in his career. Harrison had 16.5 sacks against the Ravens and 9 against the Bengals. They didn’t have a Joe Thomas.
