Like Bud Dupree, other Steelers pass rushing legends had a slow start to their career
You’re never going to make fans happy. Right now, they’re still salty about an 8-8 season where Mike Tomlin had to work his magic to even get to that many wins.
Mixed in this sea of contention is a current contract situation with a Steeler who had a breakout season in 2019, but is scheduled to become a free agent in 2020: Bud Dupree.
In an attempt to change their way of thinking (assuming my earlier opinions on Dupree’s progress were ignored) I decided to take a deep dive of stats to satisfy the naysayers. Their main bone of contention with the Steelers spending a lot of money to re-sign Bud Dupree is that he only had “one good year”. However, if we used sacks alone as the benchmark for pass rushers, quite a few Pittsburgh legends would’ve been jettisoned from the team early before reaching their full potential… and becoming said legends.
Fans who have a short memory may be pleasantly surprised if they were shown how long it took several past Steelers pass rushers to become the great linebackers we all remember them as.
First, here’s Bud Dupree’s career numbers to have a frame of reference:
Next, let’s have a look at Greg Lloyd, who is considered a bonafide sack master by the Steelers faithful:
With 72 games to Dupree’s 70, Lloyd had 32.5 sacks to Dupree’s 31.5.
Adding more food for thought, Lloyd was named to the Pro Bowl in those latter three seasons used in the example, with an All-Pro bid, his first of three-straight, in the final season in the sample (1993).
However, the comparisons don’t end there. Joey Porter was lightning in a bottle following his rookie season, but even had his own struggles in the middle of his career: proving that even the great don’t always have consisten double-digit sack seasons.
Then there’s James Harrison, the team’s all-time sacks leader, who wouldn’t register a double-digit sack season until he became the league’s Defensive MVP in 2008: his sixth pro season.
The man Harrison took the franchise’s all-time sacks record from, Jason Gildon, also didn’t have a hot start as a pro. It also took Gildon five seasons to reach double-digit sacks.
The reason these three players are most relevant in this conversation is that they represent the top three in sacks in Steelers team history. (Note: sacks were only tracked as an official stat since 1982: the Steelers organization has actually added legendary Steel Curtain players such as “Mean” Joe Greene and L.C. Greenwood to its list. For the sake of this conversation I’ll stick with the official numbers since ’82.)
That means a lot of significant things for Steelers fans and particularly with the observation of Bud Dupree’s success and/or shortcomings. Harrison, Gildon, and Porter only had double-digit sack seasons three times, each, in their careers.
Similarly, another current Steelers defensive star had his own detractors early on in his career. Could you imagine not having Cameron Heyward on the roster today, if we had listened to the fans or the media?
Hopefully, you now understand how sacks can’t be the sole determining factor in retaining, or releasing, a pass rusher. Very few players shot out of a cannon early in the career to become Hall of Famers. Bruce Smith and Reggie White are exceptions to the rule. (Then again, this is what made them great.) Yet, there are others who are considered all-time sack artists who also had slow starts to their careers, such as Chris Doleman or Jason Taylor.
Even former Steelers linebacker and Pro Football Hall of Famer Kevin Greene took several seasons to catch on before becoming known as the “Sack Master”:
Greene is third all-time in sacks. Ever.
But if that example didn’t open your eyes, here’s one final player who hung around long enough to gain 141.5 career sacks:
His name? Michael Strahan.
So you tell me Steelers Nation. Would the team be foolish to allow Bud Dupree to leave?
Based on the evidence, I believe they have to do everything in their power to keep him on the team. While it’s totally possible that this article blows up in my face, and Dupree turns into a LaMarr Woodley sized pumpkin, after signing a rich contract, I also have more reasons to believe his career trajectory is on a similar path of the others shown throughout the article and that Bud will continue to blossom into one of the next memorable Steelers pass rushers.
