Dexter Jackson Is the Reason Steelers Drafted Troy Polamalu

Cornerback Larry Brown was the first defensive player I remember who parlayed an MVP Super Bowl performance into a big payday. Brown intercepted quarterback Neil O'Donnell two times to help the the Cowboys defeat the Steelers during Super Bowl XXX. That offseason he signed with the Raiders for a nice little sum based primarily on that one performance.

He played just 12 games in two years with the Raiders, and he was out of football a year after that. I was reminded of Brown when reading about former Bucs safety Dexter Jackson. Jackson won MVP honors when Tampa Bay throttled Oakland in Super Bowl XXXVIII. And like Brown, he used the experience to pad his bank account.

Jackson became a free agent during the 2003 offseason, shortly after the Bucs' Super Bowl victory. The Steelers, one of the worst pass defenses in the league the season before, were in the market for a safety (Lee "Paper Champions" Flowers had mercifully been released), and thought that they had landed Jackson. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Ed Bouchette recounted the story a month later:

The Steelers thought they had an agreement with Jackson March 11 with his agent, Peter Schaffer, on a five-year, $12 million contract with a $2.75 million signing bonus. There was no verbal agreement, but Schaffer led the Steelers to believe those numbers would get the deal done.

But the Arizona Cardinals increased their offer by $2 million the next day to $14 million and Jackson took that deal when the Steelers refused to match it. Coach Bill Cowher was furious with Schaffer because he felt he was misled.

As a consequence, the Steelers traded up in the first round of the '03 April draft to take Troy Polamalu. They sent the Chiefs a first-, third-, and sixth-rounder for that right, but in retrospect, it was exactly the right move. Kansas City ended up with Larry Johnson, and Polamalu is the best safety in the NFL. There have been worse draft-day trades.

I mention all this because Jackson, who played for the Bucs and Bengals after his stint in the desert, is out of the league but looking for work. Who knows what path his career would have taken had he ended up in Pittsburgh, but I feel confident in writing that the Steelers wouldn't have won two Super Bowls in four years without Polamalu.

This isn't proof that building through the draft is better than signing high-priced free agents (though, in general, that seems to be a recurring theme among the best NFL organizations), or that the Steelers would have suddenly morphed into the Browns had Jackson signed. (Again, I point you to Lee Flowers; Pittsburgh made the playoffs in 2002 with him AND Tommy Maddox.) Just that sometimes, it's more about luck than scouting, coaching, or player-personnel decisions.