Your favorite, underrated Steeler of modern era

I say "modern era" because I don't have any opinions of players before I was alive, AND the NFL is not even the same game is was in the 60's and previous. And, I don't really have any players from the 70's that stood out as underrated. All of that said, here is my favorite underrated list.

- Frankie Pollard. Played on a Steeler team with little offensive talent, to say the least, but he wasn't a bad back. Ended up with just under 4,000 yards for his career and had a 4.2 ypc avg. which is respectable. Had he been on a decent team, I think he could have been thought as a Barry Foster type player.

- Joel Steed. Seems to be forgotten often, but he was the immovable beast before Hampton and as such, was part of some legendary Ds. Steed was vital in those top Ds of the 90's.

- Marvel Smith. Never mentioned as one of our best OL-men, probably because bad back cut his playing time short, but when healthy, he was a top 5 in the NFL at LT.

- John Jackson. Another underrated LT, we didn't fully replace him for years after he left in free agency to SD.

- Orpheus Roye. Played on bad Steeler teams and was only here for 4 years before heading to Cleveland, but he was solid but soon forgotten.

- Louis Lipps. He did get his due in his day, but played for teams with no offensive talent other than himself, including QBs. Had he been on good teams, he may have approached Hall of Fame status. Had the likes of Malone and Brister throwing to him and no other offensive weapons for opponents to worry about.

- Neil O'Donnell. I still hate him for seemingly throwing that SB, but he was better than most of us remember.

 

Larry Foote

 

Big play ray seals.

 

Aaron Douglas Smith.

 

Willie Parker. No matter what that man did Steelers fans found a way to diminish it.

 

Jeff Hartings. With all the great Steelers centers, no one ever even mentions Jeff Hartings.

 

Landry Jones. Too many comparisons to brady when he can be our brees.

 

Chad Brown, Mike Merriweather and Levon Kirkland. It's always about LB for me.
Those were also the days the Steelers let their guys walk before their 2nd contract...

 

Dan Kreider

 

Darren Perry free safety 8th round draft pick played from 92 to 98, he had multiple picks every year in the 4-5-6-7 range for a total of 32 picks and had 448 tackles, went to the chargers and saints for one year.....He coached safties for 2 years with the steelers went on to coach safties for several teams as well, he was one of cowhers best draft picks.....

 

Aaron Smith. Back in 2010, Peter King from SI did his Top Players of the last 25 years. He put in Aaron Smith, every one said he was crazy.

Peter King said Aaron Smith is the best Defensive End to play football the last 25 years and nobody knows about it.

 

Ramon foster...... the f.o. tried to replace him every yr in his first few seasons, and he continued to start... now he's one of the better guards in the league

Keith willis..... overlooked in pro bowl votes yr after yr despite recording multiple seasons with double digit sacks as a 3-4 de... he was cam heyward before cam ever suited up

Tunch ilkin...... severely undersized for a Lt (or any o-linemen for that matter), but was a mainstay at Lt and played at a high level

Jerry olsavsky ....... coach was overshadowed on the field during his playing career being surrounded by a star studded defense... he would've been a starter on most other defenses

 

Ben - never in consideration for MVP, because it’s a stats league. He does enough to win, most of the time. Is hated by others because of “having sex with a big bank account” and despised by many Steelers’ fans. But look back at the last 9 seasons and convince yourselves that the Steelers aren’t competing with the Bills for number of playoff births if he isn’t on the team.

 

Yea, he always gets lost in the mix, and maybe it's because we didn't draft him and only played in Pgh for a handful of years, albeit did win a ring. He was a good player.

 

Not sure when you were born but i have been a fan for a long time. I know people love to talk about rod woodson and mel blount is my all time favorite steeler but


Dewayne woodruff never got the praise he deserved in mu opinion. He was on some bad teams in the 80's but i always thought he was as good as it got

 

I had the opportunity to meet DW when I was a kid. His autograph is still proudly displayed in my man cave. Lots of the eighties guys get overlooked because of how bad the teams were. DW was one of the good ones.

 

Lipps,Fu Ma and Zereoue and Walter Abercrombie and Yancy

 

I 100% agree with you; I actually intended to include Woodruff but forgot as I wrote this. He was very good, on bad teams.

 

The rest yes, but Walter Abercrombie? I thought he was considered a bust by most.

 

Just some guys I remember growing up

 

I was going to say the same thing. Abercrombie wasn't underrated. He sucked. There's a big difference.

I'm not sure I'd call Fu or Zereoue underrated either. They were what they were.

 

I remember the day we sat in the little section that stuck out in the EZ at 3 rivers. The spot where the team went to the locker room. Woodruff had just intercepted a pass and almost ran it in but was knocked out at about the one or two as the half ended. I had my new wife at the times Pentax camera with the big lens on and pulled up to take his picture. He struck a pose for me and then took the ball and tossed it to me for taking his picture. I didn't have the strap for the camera around my neck and only had it by one hand and the guy to my left reached over and grabbed that ball and took off up the stairs with it. Dwayne looked at me and shrugged and said I'm sorry. The wife said well you will wear that strap next time won't you. It was still pretty cool. He was a really good player.