The Steelers are typically patient in constructing their roster. Since 2000, general manager Kevin Colbert has held true with the method, finding bargains that have contributed to contending teams.
As seen time and again, Steelers fans revel in the success their team enjoys in the fall. However, the approach that the storied franchise takes to building its product can at times be frustrating. Those who keep a close watch on Pittsburgh’s organization have come to realize that it traditionally prefers to develop its own draftees rather than shell out pricey paydays on imported players. Each and every spring, notable talents wiggle into the free agency pool and other clubs cough up mounds of cash to lure them. Not the closefisted Steelers.
From his hiring at the turn of the century, Kevin Colbert has remained steadfast with this conservative philosophy. He hasn’t emptied the vault for glittery names, nor has he overpaid to retain familiar faces soon to wane.
Yet, a number of Colbert’s low-risk investments have proved to be invaluable. Some, such as quarterback Charlie Batch, provide a much-needed veteran presence, and others, like mainstay defensive lineman Kimo Von Oelhoffen, move into solid starting roles.
With Colbert’s final say on roster matters, the Steelers are the only squad not named the New England Patriots to construct at least three Super Bowl teams since 2000. Pittsburgh also has the third-most postseason victories in that time.
Diehards can hope that this year’s crop of under-the-radar pickups, namely offensive tackle, and Super Bowl champion Joe Haeg and defensive back Miles Killebrew, further championship prospects. For now, here are Colbert’s five best pledges in his time as the head of the Steelers’ front office.
Honorable Mention: Kickers
When it comes to kickers, Kevin Colbert seldom misses. In fact, he’s recruited three of the Steelers’ top six all-time scorers. Ten games into the 2002 campaign, nine of placekicker Todd Peterson’s field goal tries had gone awry. Following a game in which Peterson, nursing a broken rib, missed a pair of attempts inside 40 yards, Pittsburgh brought in Jeff Reed, a rookie who had previously been working on a farm in North Carolina.
Reed would boot footballs in Pittsburgh for the next eight years. Entering what would be his final go-round with the Steelers in 2010, Reed had the 9th-highest field goal percentage in league history. Still today, he ranks second on the Steelers’ all-time scoring list.
When Reed was released in November 2010, the kicking game didn’t miss a beat with his replacement, Shaun Suisham. Having posted the sixth-most points in Pittsburgh lore, the Canadian-born kicker nailed almost 90% of his field-goal attempts in over five years. His career was ended by a torn ACL suffered on the opening kickoff of the 2015 Hall of Fame Game.
It took three tries, but Colbert was able to find an effective answer to the team’s subsequent kicking struggles in Chris Boswell. Save for a 65% field goal percentage in 2018, the seventh-year pro has been dependable, even being named to a Pro Bowl in 2017.
Since his down year, Boswell has connected on 48 of his previous 51 field goal attempts, including a Steeler-record 59-yarder in Dallas this past season.
DeAngelo Williams
It’s not often that another franchise’s all-time leading rusher departs with tread still left on the tires. DeAngelo Williams arrived in March 2015, a two-year, $4 million agreement in tow. From his third year in the league, on, he’d split the rushing load with Jonathan Stewart. In Pittsburgh, he acted as emergency insurance for Le’Veon Bell, who missed 14 games over a two-year period.
With the All-Pro Bell barred for the first two games of the season, the former Carolina Panther filled in, stepping up and rushing for 207 yards and three scores in Bell’s absence.
The veteran would amass only 23 carries over the following six games but, after Bell tore his MCL in the schedule’s eighth week, he was thrust back into the starting position. The next outing, against Oakland, Williams played his best statistical contest as a Steeler, scurrying for 170 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Notching—and bowing after—eleven rushing scores, Williams tied for the league lead in touchdowns on the ground that season. An ankle injury kept him out of the playoffs.
Bell was suspended once again for the beginning of the 2016 season. Two weeks in, Williams had rushed for more yardage than anybody in the league. The opening night, at Washington, saw Williams scamper for 143 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries, enough to be named the AFC Offensive Player of the Week. In his spell as a Steeler, Williams rushed for a total of 1,250 yards and 15 touchdowns.
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.
Jeff Hartings
In relation to blocking exemplars such as “Iron Mike” Webster and Dermontti Dawson, Jeff Hartings’ period in black and gold is undervalued.
Coming out of Penn State as a first-round selection in 1996, Hartings was one of five Hall of Famers chosen in that year’s draft. As a Detroit Lion, he aided in paving the way Barry Sanders’ final three years. Then slotted as a right guard, Hartings opened holes for the six-time All-Pro’s 2,000-yard single-season effort in 1997.
In 2001, Matt Millen was brought on as the Lions’ president and chief executive officer. With no prior front office experience, he made extensive changes that played a large part in Hartings wanting out. Shortly after, the lineman turned down a larger signing bonus from Detroit to take the place of the recently retired Dawson.
Hartings also visited the Arizona in his free agency, but the appeal of blocking for Jerome Bettis, then a four-time Pro Bowler, closed the six-year deal and the shift to center in the Steel City.
Hartings fit the Steelers’ fabled blocking mold as the fulcrum of the offensive line from 2001-2006. He helped widen running lanes for Bettis and Willie Parker, both of whom enjoyed a pair of 1,000-yard rushing seasons behind him.
In all but one of his campaigns in Pittsburgh, the team’s rushing offense finished within the top third of the league. With Hartings snapping the ball, the Steelers led the league on the ground in 2001 and secured a Lombardi Trophy in 2005.
Joe Haden
In August 2017, feeling that their highest-paid player’s performance no longer aligned with his compensation, Cleveland implored franchise cornerstone, Joe Haden, to take a pay cut.
The cornerback declined any reduction in his salary and when the Browns couldn’t find a partner to barter with, was cut loose.
It took only a few hours for him to find a new dwelling. The Steelers, familiar with Haden’s guarding abilities, promptly picked up the phone and offered him a helmet and pads.
Seven months earlier, Pittsburgh’s championship hopes perished in the AFC Championship in dreaded Foxborough, the team watching helplessly as Tom Brady disassembled its secondary and, soon after, won a fifth title.
Mike Tomlin had come to realize that he needed to gear his defense more toward man coverage than the zone scheme that Brady had been so effortlessly picked apart. Even having disappointed the year before, Haden was an obvious upgrade over letdown Artie Burns and Ross Cockrell.
While hampered by concussions in 2015 and groin injuries in 2016, Haden played in only 18 combined games in his final two seasons with the Browns. Still, when he put pen to paper, he ranked third in the conference in interceptions since his rookie year.
Since joining forces, Haden has played in more games than any other Steeler defensive back. Dating back four seasons, he leads the division with ten interceptions. In 2019, after ranking second in the AFC in picks, he was named to the Pro Bowl for a third time.
James Farrior
It’s hard to visualize James Farrior in anything but a black and gold no. 51 jersey, but he dressed in hunter green and white for the first five years of his professional career.
Supplanting the bungling Rich Kotite, newly-hired head coach Bill Parcells and the Jets held the first overall choice in the 1997 NFL Draft. Snubbed by soon-to-be college senior Peyton Manning, New York traded down twice and ended up plucking Farrior with the 8th turn.
An inside linebacker at the University of Virginia, Farrior was pushed outside in defensive coordinator Bill Belichick’s 3-4 arrangement. He never panned out with Gang Green like his coaches hoped, rather serving as a substitute for the majority of his time in Gotham.
Despite the Jets making an effort to retain him, Farrior left in 2002, taking a three-year, $5.4 million deal to replace Earl Holmes in Pittsburgh.
A defensive co-captain, Farrior was a pillar of a commanding defensive group for a decade. At the heart of the Steelers’ unit beside the likes of Kendrell Bell and Larry Foote, the inside linebacker played a total of 170 games with Pittsburgh. He started 169 of them.
Farrior, a two-time Pro Bowler, paced the team in tackles in five different seasons and, since 1994, when tackles began to be consistently recorded, he leads all Steelers with 740 solo takedowns.
In 2004, Farrior earned his only All-Pro nod while also finishing as runner-up to Hall of Famer Ed Reed as NFL Defensive Player of the Year.
James Harrison
If not for another linebacker cracking a few fingers in a weightlifting gaffe hours before the Steelers’ 2004 training camp opened, Kevin Colbert’s best find might have instead been tending to sick pets or hauling freight across state lines.
Being let go four times had taken its toll on James Harrison. An unsuccessful, miserable layover with the Rhein Fire of the now-defunct NFL Europe almost convinced the Steelers’ future all-time sack leader that rushing quarterbacks wasn’t for him. Then came, in the literal sense, a big break.
Harrison went to camp with a heap of flashcards. In the evenings, he sprawled out on a mattress, poring over his playbook and handwritten notes. He finally stuck on.
After Joey Porter was cut in 2007, Harrison showed out by notching three-and-a-half sacks, causing three fumbles, and intercepting a pass on Monday Night Football. Even sweeter was that the performance came against the team that once shipped him to Germany, the Baltimore Ravens.
The next season, James Harrison cemented his place in Pittsburgh history. With 101 tackles, a league-best seven forced fumbles, a team-record 16 sacks in a season, the man nicknamed “Deebo” was named 2008 AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year.
His 100-yard interception return for a score in Super Bowl XLIII will always be recognized as one of the league’s most remarkable plays.
A two-time All-Pro, Harrison spent 14 seasons with the Steelers. His 177 regular-season games played in a Pittsburgh uniform are second only to David Little.