What players from the AFC North would you have wanted on the Steelers over the years?

I would have loved Troy next to Reed but it be hard seeing Troy in purple lol. Hell I would take in his prime Suggs and T.J Watt

 

Well, we got the one guy I really wanted Chris Wormley ... he is a guy who is a good fit for our system.

Not AFC north, but I always liked Patrick Kerrigan as an OLB in our 3-4.

Really I'm just always jealous of the tough hard-nose interior linemen: Ben Powers, Ben Grubbs, Marshall Yanda on offense ... Geno Atkins (Cincy), Ngata, Brandon Williams on defense.

I really Tyler Boyd, I wish that dude was on our team.

 

Way too many good choices out there but one player I'd bet everyone here would agree that we definitely would NOT have wanted as a Steeler would be none other than Johnny "Football" Manzell - the 2nd coming of my friend Santee's favorite - Ryan Leaf.

 

They would have had to change the defense for Lewis. Especially later on in his career. Might have done ok if the Steelers still had Big Snack in the middle, but Lewis wasn't as dominant without those strong 4-3 up front guys.

 

None, they all sucked. I didn’t even want some Steelers who were on the roster.

 

I agree he definitely was not as dominant later in his career. I remember watching a Monday night game where one of his teammates were mic'd up and Lewis was asking why others were not getting to the QB as he claimed he was double teamed the whole time. The announcers (and believe one announcer was Chris Collinsworth) then showed a few clips where it was one offensive lineman having his way with Ray Lewis. I think even his last SB ring was more of a participant than a force. I could have seen the Steelers possibly parting ways with him as they had with a few other LBs.

 

As for Ray "The Blade" Lewis, I have to be honest here, as much as I hate to say it. Because I couldn't stand him almost his entire career. But in my memory, anyway, he's the only player I remember seeing take on Jerome mano a mano and not get trucked backwards from the exchange. Now, he didn't knock Jerome back, either. They both fell to the side of the collision point. I gotta respect the heck out of that, no two ways about it. Especially when you put the play side by side with that other big name mano a mano collision Jerome had with Brian Urlacher, in which Jerome drove him backwards into the end zone turf.

Anyone who did what Lewis did with Jerome on that play of theirs is the real deal, like him or not.