The Pittsburgh Steelers occupy a unique space in the national media. They have only had seven losing seasons since they drafted Terry Bradshaw in 1970. Pittsburgh has won six Super Bowls out of eight appearances. The Steelers have not finished last in their division since 1988. It is not a story when they are good, it is just expected and that does not make headlines.
The Steelers have had their share of Hall of Fame players in the Super Bowl era. Especially on defense with all-time greats like Joe Greene, Mel Blount, Jack Lambert, Jack Ham and Troy Polamalu just to name a few. The Steel Curtain defenses that won four Super Bowls in six years missed out on getting LC Greenwood and Andy Russell into the Hall of Fame because the argument that you can’t put them all in started to circulate and stuck.
On Monday, Colin Cowherd released his list of 10 players that are currently active and who he considers no doubt locks for the Hall of Fame on social media. The list included undisputable players like quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers. Aaron Donald and Justin Tucker are also not in dispute when it comes to gold jackets. Even Travis Kelce and his brother Jason Kelce make sense as appearing on the list.
The list goes off the rails when Cowherd gets to pick seven. Myles Garrett is the second defender on the list behind Aaron Donald. The host of The Herd radio program is not a fan of defense. He has made that clear on multiple occasions when he criticizes defensive-minded head coaches like Bill Belichick and Mike Tomlin.
Steelers' TJ Watt Shockingly Low Ranking In NFL Top 100 Players
Cowherd's bias against TJ Watt is frankly baffling. He puts him on a list of players in the waiting room who have not done enough yet in their careers to merit no doubt inclusion status. Garrett was the first overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft. Watt was the 30th pick in the same draft. Cowherd fancies himself as an analytics guru, but has consistently gotten this comparison wrong.
Watt has played in 87 games for the Steelers since he was drafted. Garrett has played in 84 games during the same period. Watt has missed 10 games in his career, losing a career-high seven games to injury in 2022. Garrett has missed 14 games including a career-high six games in 2019 for one of the ugliest incidents in NFL history when he used his helmet as a weapon.
During Garrett's career to date, he has 74.5 sacks, 2 First Team All-Pro selections, and two Second Team All-Pro selections. He has finished in the top five of Defensive Player of the Year voting once in six seasons. Watt conversely has 77.5 sacks and 3 First Team All-Pro selections. He has won the Defensive Player of The Year once and finished in the top three in voting for three consecutive years from 2019 to 2021. Watt also tied the NFL single-season sack record in 2021.
Watt and Garrett are both good players, but there is no objective measure that justifies the selection of the Cleveland Browns defensive end as the best edge rusher in the NFL. Garrett should be behind Watt and Von Miller who have both accomplished more in their careers. The former number-one pick gets substantially more credit for almost getting to the quarterback than Watt and Miller get for actually tackling them.
Cowherd likes to pretend he has an inside track on the modern NFL and that defense is obsolete. After a 38-35 Super Bowl shootout, it is easy to forget that defense is part of the game and it gives him confirmation bias that his position is correct. Cowherd is an adequate judge of skill players on offense, but is completely clueless about what a defensive force on the edge looks like.
More must-reads: