Troy Polamalu is one of the best Pittsburgh Steelers of all time. The Steelers have a history of legendary defenders, and Polamalu is near the top of that list. Over his 12-year career, he became one of the best safeties of all time. Polamalu made eight Pro Bowls, was named a first-team All-Pro four times, a second-team All-Pro twice, and won a Defensive Player of the Year award. Despite all of that, analyst Gregg Rosenthal didn’t include him on his list of the 25 best NFL players of the last 25 years, even though Ed Reed landed at No. 7.
“I did have Ed Reed this high,” Rosenthal said Friday on his NFL Daily podcast. “I did not have Troy Polamalu quite make the list. He was one of the very few people that got cut off. There were some reasons for that.
“The Hall of Fame All-2000s team, Ed Reed was a first-team [pick]. Polamalu actually wasn’t on it. He was behind guys like Brian Dawkins, John Lynch, for what it’s worth. Polamalu, an outstanding, outstanding player, but you have to make decisions on this.”
It’s unclear what 2000s All-Decade team Rosenthal looked at. The official team made by the Pro Football Hall of Fame includes Polamalu. Yes, Reed and Dawkins are on the first team, but Polamalu is on the second team, with Lynch nowhere to be found.
Also, that list only includes what players did from 2000-2009. Polamalu was a quality player during the 2010s, even being named the 2010 Defensive Player of the Year. Therefore, that metric might not accurately reflect how good Polamalu was compared to his peers.
Is there a good argument to be made that Reed was better than Polamalu? Yes. The two of them are often talked about in the same conversation because they dominated their position during their era, and they both played in the AFC North. However, that doesn’t mean that the comparison is one-to-one.
While Polamalu and Reed were both safeties, they had different roles. Polamalu was a strong safety, while Reed spent most of his career at free safety. The two of them were asked to do different things. Reed often roamed on the back end of the Baltimore Ravens’ defense. In contrast, Polamalu saw more time closer to the line of scrimmage.
It feels wrong to have Reed so high on that list but not include Polamalu at all. Reed had more interceptions than Polamalu, but that isn’t the only statistic that matters. If you’re listing the best players of the last 25 years, Polamalu’s name should be included. He was one of the best playmakers of his generation, and a key part of the Steelers’ Super Bowl-winning teams in 2005 and 2008. Maybe Reed is better than him, but not by that much.
