Troy Polamalu is one of the greatest Pittsburgh Steelers of all time, a Pro Football Hall of Famer and former Defensive Player of the Year who was a key cog in some of the great Steelers defenses in the 2000s and 2010s under Dick LeBeau. But Polamalu almost wasn’t a Steeler, as the team almost signed Super Bowl MVP Dexter Jackson to a contract before drafting Polamalu.
During an appearance on the All Things Covered podcast with Patrick Peterson and Bryant McFadden, former Steelers GM Kevin Colbert revealed that the team almost signed Jackson before trading up to draft Polamalu during the 2003 offseason. He also talked about when the team knew Polamalu could be truly special.
When did we know Troy was Troy? We didn’t, probably until that second year. Because you grow up in that same system and it wasn’t easy. And Troy had to find his way, and it took him a year to do it, but you could see his special talents while he was doing it,” Colbert said.
“But we went into that, we actually almost signed a free agent that year, Dexter Jackson. Dexter was the MVP of the Super Bowl. He was with Coach Tomlin, but of course, Coach wasn’t with us. We weren’t able to get Dexter signed, so we kept looking for that strong safety type, and Troy was phenomenal. We knew we weren’t going to get him at Pick No. 27.”
Jackson was coming off a Super Bowl MVP performance with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, whose defensive backs were coached by Mike Tomlin. He had two interceptions in the game and became just the third defensive back to win the award. Jackson ended up signing with the Arizona Cardinals, where he lasted just one season before being released and returning to the Buccaneers.
While signing Jackson would’ve been the splashier move at the time, in hindsight, it’s clear that his not signing worked out in the Steelers’ favor. The Steelers traded up, which was rare under Colbert, and got Polamalu at No. 16 overall in the first round. Jackson went on to have a solid career, playing until 2008, but he was never remotely at the same caliber as Polamalu.
As Colbert said, it took Polamalu a year to get adjusted, as it wasn’t an easy system to learn, as Colbert said in response to McFadden, who came up in the same system. But he quickly got acquainted and became one of the best safeties ever to play the game and a Steelers legend, and Dick LeBeau ended up inducting him into the Hall of Fame.
It’s quite the what-if to think about if the Steelers had signed Jackson and not landed Polamalu and just how differently their team would’ve looked. Maybe Jackson would’ve had more success in Pittsburgh than he did in his lone year in Arizona, but Polamalu was a transcendent player who helped make the Steelers’ defense during his era one that was truly elite.
It’s a testament to the scouting and evaluation by Colbert and the Steelers staff to know that Polamalu was worth trading up for, and not signing Jackson really ended up being a blessing in disguise since the Steelers ended up with one of the best players in team history. It’s also interesting that the team was interested in Jackson, as the team didn’t typically target high-profile free agents, and coming off a Super Bowl MVP honor, Jackson was certainly high-profile.
In the end, it all worked out for the Steelers, and it’s a credit to Colbert for knowing the team had a need at safety and moving up in the draft to address it. In the end, he ended up drafting a Hall of Famer.
