Troy Polamalu or Larry Johnson?

by T.Fletch on Nov 11, 2009 9:57 AM CST Comment 19 comments

With all of the talk about LJ on one hand and our need for a safety like Eric Berry on the other, I thought it would be interesting to remind everyone how we acquired LJ. It was in 2003 and we traded our 16th pick in the first, where the Steelers took Polamalu, for the 27th in the 1st, where we took LJ and two other later picks that ended up as Julian Battle, a CB/S, and Brooke Bollinger, a QB. As Polamalu had an immediate impact in the league, he would have found some way to improve us in the Willie Roaf years even in Gregg Robinsons poor schemes. In a better scheme, he could have helped us to the Super Bowl. It goes to show how winning teams like the Steelers, partly through luck and mainly through skill, end up where they are and how we have only won 3 of our last 31 games. Every team needs 4-5 superstars to really have a chance to win the Super Bowl and the I hope we acquire guys that are superstars on the field and in the locker room like Polamalu.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Arrowhead Pride's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Arrowhead Pride writers or editors.

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One other thing

Carl traded down because he didn’t see a defensive player he thought would help our terrible defense.

by Bra on Nov 11, 2009 10:12 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

I love Troy....

But I think that LJ did a great job for us at one point…..so it’s easy to argue now about who the better pick would have been. And who’s to say that Troy would be able to put up the same sort of numbers & do the amazing job he does in Pit, somewhere else. It’s all about the right fit. I’d love to have had Troy in KC, but he may have only been average here. Who knows….woulda shoulda coulda…..can’t change what it is.

by HeatherChiefsLvr on Nov 11, 2009 10:16 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Good

I love Troy

You won’t in a week and a half. :)

BTW, I am, as you may have noticed, a member of BTSC, the Steelers blog here at SBNation. I am one of 3 guys from that site that do a fanpost “Ask a Steelers fan” on our opponents blog during the week before we play that team. How would this go over here at AP?

I’ll ask this question in a couple other thread posts to be sure of a response.

"My doctor said I'd quit getting nosebleeds if I just kept my finger out of there!"
-Ralph Wiggum

by SteelFever on Nov 11, 2009 6:56 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

other bloggers from match up teams come in all the time......

we have had guys from Denver, Jags, San Diego….they do this a lot & you will get a lot of response & if it’s done the week we play we rec it up so it stays at the top of the “most viewed” posts.

And I’ll always love Troy, he’s an amazing player. Even if he does stomp on us :)

by HeatherChiefsLvr on Nov 12, 2009 9:21 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

yeah....

hindsight is 20/20

I don’t like speculating on what ifs

sure, it’d be nice to have Troy P and Leon Washington instead of LJ and Herm…

but, until we can get to 88mph in the Delorian… it’s a moot point

* "I doubt anyone will miss Connor Barth except UCrawford"
* the LB corps may become the biggest strength of the Chiefs in 2009
* The OL is NOT as bad as you think it is... give it time, and you'll see improvement this season

by stagdsp on Nov 11, 2009 10:16 AM CST reply actions 1 recs

Agreed on hindsight

I don’t think many people would have called LJ a bad pick in 2005 and 2006.

Arrowhead Pride

by Joel Thorman on Nov 11, 2009 10:19 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

+1

...no more explicit signature...

by GanjaChief on Nov 11, 2009 2:56 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

this is such a moot point

you can do this for every team in every round of every draft, pointless

by jayball09 on Nov 11, 2009 10:25 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

people assume that just because the steelers picked in our slot

we would have drafted TP. we weren’t ever looking at him and wouldn’t have drafted him, even if we’d stayed. you can look at virtually every draft and find someone we could have had, if we’d just been smart. i wonder why no one has written a post about how we could have drafted tom brady?

The only players I hurt with my words are the ones who have an inflated opinion of their ability. I can't worry about that.
Bill Parcells

Knowledge is confidence. And confidence lets you play fast.
Bill Parcells

by kcguy on Nov 11, 2009 10:32 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Actually, Vermeil WANTED Polamalu.

And Greg Robinson wasn’t the problem. Talent acquisition and retention was the problem.

No question. Otis Taylor should be in the Hall of Fame.

by hmills110 on Nov 11, 2009 4:12 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Only thing I can think of is

would Herm made him cut his hair? Remember the hair rule he proposed?

Winning begins with Attitude - Haley and Pioli will be winners in KC!

I'll forever be a Chiefs fan! Only God himself could take that away from me, but when I get to my great reward, I'll rejoin two bigger fans, my Mom and Dad.

by Lanier63 on Nov 11, 2009 10:32 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Not your typical 20/20 moot point

The point is not that we could have drafted Brady in the 5th, it is that the Steelers traded up with US to get TP and we picked Larry.

by T.Fletch on Nov 11, 2009 10:34 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

yeah...we were actively looking to trade down

and it isn’t like we picked a bad player. you can assume we would have picked TP then but it wouldn’t have happened. we had our eye on some defensive end, i think, but felt he wasn’t worth the 16th pick

The only players I hurt with my words are the ones who have an inflated opinion of their ability. I can't worry about that.
Bill Parcells

Knowledge is confidence. And confidence lets you play fast.
Bill Parcells

by kcguy on Nov 11, 2009 10:40 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Wasnt our safety's Jermome Woods and Greg Wesley back then?

I believe Woods played very well up until he hurt his leg. Wesley was good in the beginning.

Winning begins with Attitude - Haley and Pioli will be winners in KC!

I'll forever be a Chiefs fan! Only God himself could take that away from me, but when I get to my great reward, I'll rejoin two bigger fans, my Mom and Dad.

by Lanier63 on Nov 11, 2009 10:44 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Wesley was always decent, IMO.

I think if you had surrounded him with better players, he could have been a far more effective defender. His only other downfall was that he always seemed to have a bad attitude about EVERYTHING.

My long, drawn-out predictions that no one cares about, nor will bother to remember:

1. Todd Haley will still be the Chiefs Head Coach up to the 2011 season.
2. Clancy Pendergast won't make it to the 2010 season and was never intended to. Last-minute hire for a position that needed to be filled.
3. Todd Haley will not be the OC at the start of the 2010 season.

by jbj8609 on Nov 11, 2009 1:21 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

At the beginning, he was protected from having to do too much.

And that never changed.

No question. Otis Taylor should be in the Hall of Fame.

by hmills110 on Nov 11, 2009 4:13 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

What?

We never drafted Brooks Bollinger silly poster.

Johnnie Morton: The Man. The Myth. The Legend.

by craig in calgary on Nov 11, 2009 11:24 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

My bad

You are correct. We did not draft bollinger. Read it off a Yahoo write up on TP. We did draft Battle with the pick. that was back when Carl liked drafting safetys to play cornerback.

by T.Fletch on Nov 11, 2009 11:46 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs