Does Troy Polamalu's retirement signify new Steelers' era?

[polamalubeast]

Troy Polamalu was a central character in the Pittsburgh Steelers' second Super Bowl run, winning Lombardi Trophies in the 2005 and 2008 seasons, to go along with four from the immortal 1970's squads.


With Polamalu's retirement on Thursday, it's reasonable to ponder whether that second era is now closed. The Steelers no longer boast the long-haired safety, Ike Taylor, LaMarr Woodley, James Farrior, Casey Hampton, Brett Keisel, Hines Ward, Santonio Holmes, Ryan Clark or even legendary defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau.

In and interview with NFL Network's Mark Kriegel on NFL AM Friday, Steelers' president Art Rooney II admitted that it might be time to turn the page on history.

"There's certainly been some turnover so maybe it's time to say (the second Super Bowl era is over)," Rooney said. "This year will be the tenth anniversary of the team that won the Super Bowl in 2005 so we will be celebrating that occasion this season. There is time to turn the page and this may be part of that time for us."

Ben Roethlisberger and Heath Miller are now the lone holdovers from 2005, with Matt Spaeth, James Harrison and Lawrence Timmons joining them to hoist the second Super Bowl trophy of the decade.



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[Hawkman]

I would take Woodley out of that list and add Aaron Smith.

[ALLD]

The new era started last year with the emergence of Bell to complement AB.

[vrabinec]

No, we're still in the Roethlisberger era.

[86WARD]

Defensively, there's no doubt.

[Edman]

Nope. The Renegade Era ended in 2012. We're in the Roethlisberger Era now.

2003-2011 was the Renegade Era.

The Renegade era ended when Ben supplanted Troy as the de-facto player the Steelers could not under any circumstance afford to lose. Losing Ben, not Troy killed the 2012 season.

Before 2012, the Steelers could lose Ben and still manage. If they lost Troy, they were screwed. No if's and's or but's about it.

The 2013 and 2014 seasons was the writing on the wall when Ben nearly took the Steelers to the playoffs in 2013, took the Steelers to 11-5, the AFC North title and back to the playoffs in 2014 while missing Troy for several games.

Gone are the days of the Lebeau Defenses. Ben, Le'Veon Bell, and Antonio Brown are the vanguards on the Steelers now.

[steelreserve]

To me that era ended after the Tebow game; by the start of the next season most of what I would call the core Super Bowl winning group was gone or had obviously diminished to the point where they were shells of their former selves ... Hampton, A. Smith, Ward, Farrior, Hoke, Foote, Starks; Taylor and Clark were also starting to go.

2011 is when I would call it a new cast of characters with a few hangers-on like Troy and James Harrison.

Quarterbacks can have 15 or 20-year careers, so Ben's really been here through two completely different teams in two different "eras," so to speak.

[BigNastyDefense]

I've felt like the past couple of seasons were a transition to a new era of Steelers football.

As a lot of the vets, especially on the defensive side of the ball, began to retire/get cut I saw it was coming. Honestly, the only reason Harrison is still on this team is depth and experience at OLB. Worilds is gone, Jones hasn't played a whole season yet, and Moats hasn't shown to be more than a rotational player at either OLB or ILB. Not to mention the Steelers had been waiting for Dick LeBeau to retire for the past couple of years.

I think "forcing out" LeBeau was the true signal that a new era had commenced. I loved Coach Dad, the guy is a defensive legend and should really go into the HoF as a coach too. But how much longer could they have expected Keith Butler to wait for LeBeau to finally call it quits? We were lucky to keep him as long as we did with him often being offered DC jobs with other teams.

Polamalu was the face of the "Renegade" era. With him now gone, that era can officially close. And honestly, it was time.