Pittsburgh Steelers Need Troy Polamalu To Produce

The Pittsburgh Steelers haven't had this much doubt about their football team going into a season during the Ben Roethlisberger-era. Same goes for the Mike Tomlin-era as well. The Steelers are coming off a 8-8 season and are predicted by the majority of analysts and pundits to do about the same or worse. One of the biggest problems with the team since the 2004 season has been the health of the Steelers' two best players, Roethlisberger, and Troy Polamalu.

Not only are Polamalu and Ben their best players, they're also their top two highest paid players. Last year, Roethlisberger missed three games due to an injury, and the Steelers went 1-2 without him. Polamalu missed nine games last year. NINE! Not only did he only play in seven games, but in those seven games he didn't do shit. Just one interception last year and the seven games he did play in. Polamalu gets paid way too much money to not produce and to not be on the field.

Polamalu has just three interceptions in his last 23 games played. That's just not going to cut it for a who inked a $36.5 million with $10.55 million guaranteed before the 2010 season. Since 2009, Polamalu has missed 22 games. That's almost a season and a half. Add that with the lack of production, besides the 2010 season (NFL Defensive Player of the year), the Steelers are grossly overpaying for Polamalu.

For years, the Steelers' defense was built around number 43. He was a player that impacted the game just by being on the field. Quarterbacks would walk up to the line of scrimmage and look for the swaying hair of Polamalu, just to know what area of the field to avoid.

Troy impacted the run game and the pass game. In all honesty, Polamalu is one of the three best safeties I have ever seen play the game of football. (Ed Reed, Ronnie Lott the other two). However, the last few years, including Super Bowl XLV, Polamalu has been injured often and has played very poorly.

Now I love Troy, he's been a class act and one of my favorites. I'm sure most Steelers' fans feel the same way about him. In fact, if you go to a home game, nobody out there gets a bigger pop from the crowd than Troy. That's great and all but the Steelers need him on the field and making plays....If this season isn't like 2010, and it's more like 2009 and 2012, I think the Steelers would be best to part ways with he and that contract.