Pittsburgh Steelers All-Time Starting Roster: Their defense stacks up to be the best

It has been a long and windy road for the Steelers from when they were founded in 1933 to modern day. They have seen long stretches of failure and other more successful eras where they saw plenty of victories. With those different stretches and a family business built on structure and consistency, plenty of history is made.

With the 90 years of history formed, there are plenty of great talents that have played for Pittsburgh football. Their defense has been the most storied throughout history as most of their championships were built off the back of those groups. Constructing an all-time defense for this franchise was difficult to try and figure out who to leave off and who to keep.

Steelers start off their All-time defense with an elite run-stopper

Starter at nose tackle(NT): Casey Hampton

Perhaps one of the most iconic and dynamic nose tackles in the history of the franchise is Casey Hampton. He was never "in shape" but he was always a player that would be ready to go on game day. Hampton was a stable defensive lineman that helped set the precedent of shutting down the run during the iconic defenses of the 2000-2010 teams.

Adding Hampton to this roster and having him penciled in as the starter will solidify the end of the run game. He was so low to the ground that it was nearly impossible to make him move out of the way. The Steelers had a great player here who had his work go unnoticed a lot of the time. Big role on this defense was filled by a large man.

Nose tackle honorable mention: Ernie Stautner

With the honorable mention here goes to Ernie Stautner to fill in as the backup to Hampton. He was a strong force during his playing time with the Steelers during a time when the franchise struggled to find any success. Stautner would be a nice option to plug holes in the middle and provide a tough force for offenses to overcome.