Jack Ham knows linebackers the way Bill Gates knows computer chips. Better really, because Gates was never a computer chip.
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Jason Gildon on the Steelers' linebackers vs. the Ravens' linebackers: "Are we better? Yes." (Matt Freed, Post-Gazette) |
Ham played the position to such perfection that he was swept into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and he played alongside some of the best in the game's history, Jack Lambert and Andy Russell.
Today, Ham will feel like Bert Parks on the Miss America runway as the best linebackers in the league walk onto Heinz Field. Ham will broadcast the game on CBS Westwood One's radio network as Ray Lewis, Peter Boulware and Jamie Sharper emerge from the Baltimore Ravens' locker room to bare their teeth against the Steelers' offense.
But they won't be the only good linebackers in Heinz Field today. The Steelers boast Jason Gildon, Joey Porter, Kendrell Bell and Earl Holmes and at least one of them believes they have surpassed Baltimore as the most fearsome group of linebackers in the NFL.
"Our four against their three, are we better?" Gildon said, repeating a question. "Yes. I just think if you look at it across the board, there are some things we do that they don't do."
Those things are rushing the passer and covering receivers.
Gildon took the topic a step further. Ray Lewis, a four-time Pro Bowl middle linebacker, Super Bowl MVP and league MVP vs. inside linebackers Holmes and Bell.
"I'd put our two up against their one any day," Gildon said.
It's an argument only history may solve, particularly because the two teams play different styles of defense -- the Ravens a 4-3 with four linemen and three linebackers and the Steelers a 3-4 with an extra linebacker and one fewer lineman. The current Steelers' four linebacker have been grabbing attention around the league with their play and because they follow in a great tradition of linebackers.
One of those greats, Ham, has been won over.
"Offensive linemen looking up at the line of scrimmage, their heads have to be spinning like Linda Blair -- which linebacker is coming, where are they coming from? Or are they all coming?
"They have good chemistry, all of those guys."
Ham and Lambert made the Hall of Fame and Andy Russell has the credentials without the bust. Nobody could compare with them. This group, though, might compare favorably with the Blitzburgh linebackers of 1994 and 1995 -- Kirkland and Chad Brown in the middle with Greg Lloyd and Kevin Greene on the outside.
"I had the opportunity to play here when those guys were here," said Gildon, who backed up Greene on the left side before he assumed the starting role in 1996. "I think we would stack up well. I think we can put up some of the numbers they put up with the group we have here. If we get a chance to play together for a while, I think we can be a dominant group."
The difference-maker has been Bell, the rookie who has burst into the NFL like the pop of a champagne cork. At the urging of scout Dan Rooney Jr., the Steelers traded a fourth-round draft choice to New England to move up 11 spots in the second round in order to select Bell, a 6-1, 245-pounder from Georgia.
"He has such an explosion," Ham said. "You don't learn that. You talk about people being drafted in the second round, that kid nowhere near should be a second-round draft pick. He is as talented a linebacker as I've seen. He has good leverage, understands how to play. If he doesn't get hurt he has a heck of a future ahead of him."
"I played with Hugh Green and Ricky Jackson in college," said defensive coordinator Tim Lewis, a University of Pittsburgh graduate. "I remember Hugh Green having that kind of explosiveness. [Bell] has the ability in a very short period of time, with very little room, to be able to hit with leverage up and through someone better than anybody I've been this close to other than Hugh Green.
"At a moment's notice he can just strike and it shocks people."
Bell has four sacks from a position that does not normally produce many and he leads the team with 7 1/2 tackles for losses.
Ham was an outside linebacker in a 4-3 defense, the Steel Curtain. In that defense, the outside linebackers do not rush the quarterback nearly as often as do Porter and Gildon in the 3-4. So comparing linebackers in the two different defenses is like comparing a Jaguar to a Chevy Blazer. Each does the job differently.
In their first season together, Porter and Gildon combined for 20 sacks last season, tying the team record set by Lloyd and Greene in 1994 for a twosome. Porter had four sacks two weeks ago against Tampa Bay and leads the team with five. Gildon has three.
"They're stand-up defensive ends," Ham said. "You don't know which is coming and, at times, both are coming. I think it's also an advantage to being the only team that plays a 3-4. Think about the Tampa Bay game. Their starting left tackle [Kenyatta Walker] was a rookie. He went through training camp playing against a 4-3, he plays his first four games and they're all 4-3 defenses. All of a sudden you have this group coming at you. Porter came free and wasn't even touched a couple times in that game.
"A bad defense in a 3-4 doesn't matter. But if it's good and quick, the advantage is for them. Offensive linemen can't pick up the blocking schemes."
The Steelers let Kirkland go March 8, long before they drafted Bell. Kirkland, at 280 and 32-years-old, remained a good, solid presence in the middle but he no longer could cover running backs on pass routes the way he used to. He has since helped bolster the defense in Seattle. But the Steelers wanted to get faster. They got lucky because no one grabbed Bell in the first round and they got faster, not only at linebacker but elsewhere.
"I'm a big Levon Kirkland fan," Ham said, "but on a bell curve he was on the downside of that curve. I think it was a smart move letting Kirkland go. This team will make more plays with that quickness out there."
Ham, who played behind the greatest front four in NFL history, knows what a good defensive lineman can do for a linebacker, holding off the blocks and getting a push. He said an improved line has helped this group of linebackers. The Steelers let end Kevin Henry go, moved Kimo von Oelhoffen from nose tackle to end and rookie Casey Hampton and Kendrick Clancy share the job at nose tackle.
Last Nov. 19, Jacksonville's Fred Taylor rushed for 234 yards against the Steelers. Ham doesn't think that can happen this season.
"Fred Taylor maybe helped this defense by what he did last year," Ham said. "As quick as these guys are, especially with Hampton and Clancy playing so well up front, they're very disciplined and you haven't seen cutback runs against them. A lot of these guys have bought into what they do on defense. I know they're feeling pretty good about themselves."
Until they accomplish something, they can't challenge the linebackers from Baltimore, who crushed offenses on the way to a Super Bowl victory last year. The surprising Steelers are 5-1, but there are 10 games left.
"I think anybody can boost up that challenge," Ray Lewis said, "but I truly believe when you step on the field on any given Sunday that's when it's determined who are the best linebackers in the league right now. I'm not taking anything away from their linebackers -- they're aggressive and they're running around. Myself, Peter and Jamie are [the best group] right now by far."
Porter certainly has been impressed.
"I watched all three of those guys just take over the playoffs," Porter said. "Sharper was out there making interceptions. Ray Lewis is dominating the run, Boulware ... they all were good."
Porter attended the AFC championship game in Oakland and marveled at how Baltimore's linebackers took control.
"It's a beautiful thing to watch linebackers go out there and put on the performance the way they did."
Today, fans might get two of those for the price of one.
Linebackers might steal the spotlight 
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