Its a bird, its a plane...its Superteam.

[lamberts-lost-tooth]

Yea...I know...the title of the thread is dumb.

I gotta say...I love the team we have right now. A team that has brought us two Lombardies, and may bring us another.

But as a child of the 70's I still look back in awe at the talent level of the Steel Curtain era. Comparing the two teams is an excercise that has been done over and over again.

BUT....I was wondering....if I had the personnel from BOTH teams, what would my starting roster look like?

Here are the two rosters...
2008 roster...
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?...nfl&id=3572036
and the 1978 roster.
http://www.footballdb.com/teams/pitt...rs/roster/1978

So many possibilities....Under the premise that we are running a 3-4, what would your defense look like? Would you switch to a 4-3 with the talent at hand? Would you have Hines over Stallworth or Swann at WR? Does Ben start over Terry?

Fill in your players as if all of them were in their "prime"

OFFENSE

QB
FB
RB
WR #1
WR #2
TE
RT
RG
C
LG
LT

DEFENSE

LOLB
LILB
RILB
ROLB
NT
LDE
RDE
LCB
RCB
SS
FS

[RushHard34]

unfortunately i am too young to really know how good the team was in 78, so I wont be able to participate...

[steelreserve]

Originally Posted by lamberts-lost-tooth

OFFENSE

QB - Big Ben
FB - Bleier
RB - Bettis (if he's allowed; Harris if he's not)
WR #1 - Swann
WR #2 - Ward
TE - Miller
RT - (entire offensive line would be from '70s)
RG
C
LG
LT

DEFENSE

LOLB - Ham
MLB - Lambert
ROLB - Harrison
DT - Hampton
DT - Greene
LDE - Greenwood
RDE - A. Smith
LCB - Taylor
RCB - Blount
SS - Polamalu
FS - Clark

I definitely think switching to the 4-3 would be the way to go if you could do this. Mainly because I don't think our current ILBs can be considered all-time greats, but we have a TON of linemen and pass rushers who are. That would let you use six of them instead of five, and have no weak links at all. (No offense to Farrior, but he would be the weakest link in a front seven like this.)

The hardest part of this was probably the defensive backfield, because other than Blount, I don't recall a hell of a lot about the old-timers. Polamalu was a no-brainer, but Taylor and Clark I'm not as sure. I don't think it's possible to play much better than Clark did last year though, so I'm pretty confident with that.

[steelersfanman92]

I agree for the most part with steelreserve but I would Mike Wagner at FS and switch Ben with Terry. Besides those two changes I really like that list.

[lamberts-lost-tooth]

Here is mine...Keep in mind that this is players in their prime...their BEST years!!

OFFENSE

QB: Rothlisberger
FB: Bleier
RB: Harris
WR #1: Stallworth
WR #2: Ward
TE: Miller
RT: Pinney
RG: Mullins
C: Webster
LG: Davis
LT: Kolb

DEFENSE

LOLB: Ham
MLB: Lambert
ROLB: Harrison
DT: Greene
DT: Holmes (Very hard...but gets the edge on Hampton due to 4-3 scheme)
LDE: Greenwood
RDE: White
LCB: Taylor
RCB: Blount
FS: Shell (moved to FS so that Troy can play SS)
SS: Polamalu

[steelreserve]

Originally Posted by lamberts-lost-tooth

WR #1: Stallworth

That's another one that was tough. Stallworth was my first instinct too, but then I thought that if you have one steady, workmanlike guy like Ward, it helps if you have a big-play guy to go with him. I admittedly was too young to remember Stallworth in his prime, so I can't say whether he had that kind of explosiveness. But I know Swann had a reputation for it, which is why I went with him.

[mmalone]

OFFENSE

QB: Rothlisberger
FB: Bettis
RB: Harris
WR #1: Swann
WR #2: Ward
TE: Grossman
RT: Pinney
RG: Mullins
C: Webster
LG: Davis
LT: Kolb

DEFENSE

LOLB: Ham
MLB: Lambert
ROLB: Farrior
DT: Greene
DT: Hampton
LDE: Greenwood
RDE: Harrison
LCB: Taylor
RCB: Blount
FS: Shell / Clark
SS: Polamalu

[Indo]

I was thinking exactly the same thing about switching Shell over to SS so that he and Troy could terrorize the defensive backfield. Nothing against Clark, but don't forget that Shell busted the ribs on arguably the toughest RB in the game at the time...

[Indo]

...And I might put Steve Courson in at guard---remember how he used to bury people on the sweeps and traps...

[lamberts-lost-tooth]

Originally Posted by steelreserve

That's another one that was tough. Stallworth was my first instinct too, but then I thought that if you have one steady, workmanlike guy like Ward, it helps if you have a big-play guy to go with him. I admittedly was too young to remember Stallworth in his prime, so I can't say whether he had that kind of explosiveness. But I know Swann had a reputation for it, which is why I went with him.

Very tough call...

As a kid I was enamoured by Swann, but with age and in retrospect I think that Stallworth was the better reciever and Swann was more athletic.