A dozen years ago, Mike Tomlin was a 36-year-old, second-year head coach for the . That season, Tomlin presided over a dominant Steelers defense that spearheaded Pittsburgh to a victory in Super Bowl XLIII. Tomlin, now in his 14th season in Pittsburgh, has his Steelers off their first 4-0 start since 1979, a year Jeremiah Martin Jersey that also ended with the black and gold hosting the Vince Lombardi Trophy.One of Tomlin's defenders on that 2008 defense, former NFL cornerback and current CBS Sports analyst , spoke with his former coach during the most recent episode of the "All Things Covered" podcast, hosted by and McFadden. Peterson, an eight-time Pro Bowl cornerback who is in the midst of his 10th season with the , asked Tomlin -- who served as secondary coach on the ' Super Bowl-winning 2002 team -- to name the top three defenders he's worked with during his time in the NFL."Troy Polamalu and Derrick Brooks, and then it gets tough," Tomlin said. "I might have to go Warren Sapp, No. 99. You're talking Troy and Brooks, you're talking first-ballot Hall of Famers, when you're talking Warren Sapp, you're talking about a second-ballot Hall of Famer. It's tough to argue against some of those guys. Just the routine, freaking things that I saw from those guys working with them really made them a cut above. That's the reason why they wear the gold jackets in the manner of which they wear the gold jackets in terms of early enshrinement."Not many people will argue with Tomlin's picks. An eight-time Pro Bowler and four-time All-Pro, Polamalu, a strong safety, was also named the league's Defensive Player of the Year in 2010. Brooks, an 11-time Pro Bowler and five-time All-Pro at linebacker, was tabbed as the league's best defensive player in 2002 before returning an interception for a score in Tampa Bay's Super Bowl win over Oakland. Julius Erving Jersey Sapp, a defensive tackle, was the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year in 1999. Polamalu, Brooks and Sapp are each members of the NFL's All-Decade Team for the 2000s.When it comes to naming the best defense he's been a part of, Tomlin said that question is difficult to answer because of the different ways dominant defenses can take over games. While the defense he was part of in Tampa Bay may not have been physically imposing, Tomlin said the '02 Buccaneers defense was exceptional at creating splash plays, which was certainly on display in Super Bowl XXXVII, when the Buccaneers returned three of their five interceptions for touchdowns while defeating the , 48-21. Conversely, Tomlin said Pittsburgh's '08 defense was a physical, intimidating group."We had dominant outside linebackers like and that absolutely beat you up," Tomlin said. "And so, the means that they go about dominating games was so different, it's tough to distinguish, but I've learned to have an appreciation for both. One thing I do know, you know when you're with a dominant defensive group that's got the goods, and I think that's what's exciting about the group that we're working with right Derrick Coleman Jersey now. It's really early in the journey, but they're showing signs of the type of group that's the type of group that's got the goods." While his current defense has shown flashes of being a dominant group, Tomlin may also have a new dominant receiver in rookie , a second-round pick who tallied four touchdowns in Pittsburgh's Week 5 win over the . Claypool appears to be on his way to joining an unprecedented string of succe sful receivers the Steelers have drafted during general manager Kevin Colbert's time in Pittsburgh. Making the Steelers' succe s when it comes to drafting receivers even more impre sive is that the fact that Pittsburgh has not spent a first-round pick on a receiver since moving up to select Super Bowl XLIII MVP in 2006. They spent a third-round pick on in 2009, a third-round pick on in 2010, a sixth-round pick on in 2010, a fourth-round pick on in 2014, a second-round pick on receivers (2017), (2018) and Claypool and a third-round pick on (2019)."First and foremost, we're interested in football players first," Tomlin said about scouting receivers. "Guys that show a certain toughne s that goes above and beyond the position, or a certain competition spirit that goes beyond their position."In Claypool's case, Tomlin said the Steelers "fell in love" with him Rodions Kurucs Jersey after seeing him work on special teams during this year's Senior Bowl. "This guy was special teams MVP I think at Notre Dame during his second year there," Tomlin said of the 6-foot-4, 238-pound Claypool. "He showed football awarene s and things that were outside the wide receiver position, and for us we believed that that that's a good indication that you've got a football player and they're going to do the things that the wide receiver position requires."Tomlin said that Hines Ward, the franchise's all-time career leader in catches, yards, and touchdowns, is the blueprint he looks at when evaluating receivers. While Ward did pile up impre sive statistics during his 14 years in Pittsburgh, he is more renowned for being arguably the most complete receiver of his era."That dude was a wide receiver, but he was so much more," Tomlin said of Ward, who won two Super Bowls with the Steelers that included an MVP performance in Super Bowl XL. "That's kind of a standard bearer for us. We're looking for football players who happen to play wide receiver. And Hines is just a good blueprint for that. A guy that I just appreciated on that level and really have modeled evaluation and selection of others based on that principle alone." While Ward is the standard by which all new Steelers receivers are measured, Tomlin lives by a saying that he has often uttered to his players during his time in Pittsburgh. It's a saying that Tomlin uses to remind his players that, regardle s of the challenges that are in front of them, the franchise's lofty goal of hosting a Lombardi Trophy remains the same."I love 'The standard is the standard,'" Tomlin said. "That's probably my favorite because we're not in an excuse making busine s. And if we're not careful, we'll spend a bunch of time making excuses talking about who's available to us and who's not, the lack of fluidity in schedules maybe because of pandemic circumstances, etc."The bottom line is we've all got challenges, meaning all 32 of us. You just proceed with that understanding Jason Kidd Jersey and you don't waste a whole lot to time talking about your misery, you just find ways to overcome it because that guy on the other side has got the same i sues. We like to pretend like they don't, but they do. We don't want to make excuses, there's a standard of expectation in Pittsburgh, and that standard is winning, and if you wear the black and gold, and you run out of that tunnel, you a sume those responsibilities."
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