6 best Steelers free agent signings under Kevin Colbert
By Brendan Howe
Ryan Clark
When Daniel Snyder gifted Adam Archuleta what was then the grandest contract at his position in NFL history, Ryan Clark was labeled as an undrafted overachiever.
Unclaimed in the 2002 NFL Draft, Clark began his 13-year NFL stretch battling for two seasons to keep a roster spot with the New York Giants. But it was his brief term alongside the late Sean Taylor in the nation’s capital where he started to make a name for himself.
While the prized signee invited to replace him lost his luster after just one season, Clark would prove that he wasn’t just temporarily exceeding others’ expectations. Inking a four-year, $7 million agreement in 2006, he came to be known as the heart and soul of the Steelers defense.
His career in Pittsburgh began unremarkably. He started only 18 games in his first two seasons and was limited to six starts in 2007 before getting his spleen and gall bladder removed.
Always a threat to deliver a bone-jarring knock—the collision that hospitalized former Baltimore tailback Willis McGahee after the 2008 AFC title game comes to mind—Clark was an excellent counterpart of Troy Polamalu’s ad-libbing.
Clark on the back end, the Steelers finished with the NFL’s best air patrol on three separate occasions. In 2011, he led the league’s stiffest defense with 100 tackles.
Over eight campaigns in the Steel City, he collected 667 tackles and a dozen interceptions in 111 games played. He earned his first and only Pro Bowl bid in 2011.