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original: Paula Lively
derivative: Diddykong1130, Troy Polamalu 2013, CC BY 2.0
Note: Updated for Troy Polamalu’s 2020 Hall of Fame selection.
Since the original Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Ravens in 1996, the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC North has become one of the fiercest divisional rivalries in the NFL. While individual players have come and gone, the themes of this intense rivalry have remained essentially the same since inception – power running games and hard-hitting defenses. Perhaps no two players better embodied this rivalry than All-Pro safeties Troy Polamalu of the Steelers and Ed Reed of the Ravens. Both were linchpins of their respective defenses for a decade and achieved the heights of personal and team success (Pro Bowl, All-Pro, Defensive Player of the Year, Super Bowl) – given how closely their careers overlapped and how often they played against each other, this leads to inevitable comparisons and the overarching question:
Who was better – Troy Polamalu or Ed Reed?
The Beginning
Polamalu and Reed were both multi-sport athletes and highly-recruited football talents coming out of high school; each was able to translate that immense potential into a decorated college football career, and then parlay that outstanding play into becoming a first-round NFL draft pick.
After being a three-sport high school star in Oregon (football, basketball, and baseball), Polamalu chose to play college football at USC, where he was a 2x team captain and 2x All-Pac-10 selection as a junior and senior. As a junior, he would break out and be named USC’s team MVP, an AP Second Team All-American, and a First Team All-American by both Football Writers and College and Pro Football News Weekly. Despite some nagging injuries, Polamalu was selected First Team All-American by all major publications as a senior, thus being the first Trojan to be a 2x All-American since offensive lineman Tony Boselli. Though he injured his knee in pregame warmups in the Orange Bowl vs. Iowa and missed both the Senior Bowl and the NFL Combine, Polamalu was nevertheless selected 16th overall in the 2003 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he was the backup safety and played special teams and in dime packages as a rookie.
Similarly, as a high schooler growing up in Louisiana, Reed excelled in football, basketball, baseball, and track and field, before committing to the University of Miami during its football heyday. After redshirting in 1997, he would go on to become a First Team All-American in both 2000 and 2001; during the Hurricanes’ 2001 BCS National Championship season, Reed led the nation with 9 interceptions, was Big East Co-Defensive Player of the Year, Football News’ National Defensive Player of the Year, a finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award for best defensive back, and a semifinalist for the Bronko Nagurski Award for best defensive player. He was then drafted 24th overall in the 2002 NFL Draft by the Baltimore Ravens and immediately became their starting free safety, putting up a solid rookie year with 85 tackles, 5 interceptions, and 1.0 sack en route to being named to the All-Rookie team.
Career Comparison
For the next decade, Polamalu and Reed would be stalwarts in the defensive backfield for the rival Steelers and Ravens – during that time, they would cement their respective legacies as not only two of the best safeties, but moreover as two of the best defensive players overall in the NFL, with each one being recognized at one point or another as the Defensive Player of the Year.
With the advent of a new defensive coordinator, Polamalu would become the Steelers’ starting strong safety in 2004 and remain a fixture in the lineup for a decade. In his first season as a starter, he accumulated 96 tackles with 5 interceptions and 1.0 sack to garner his first Pro Bowl nod and a Second Team All-Pro selection. Moreover, this would mark the first of five straight Pro Bowl seasons (and 8x overall) for Polamalu, which included First Team All-Pro performances in both 2005 (91 tackles, 2 interceptions, and 3.0 sacks) and 2008 (73 tackles with a career-best 7 interceptions).
In 2009, Polamalu appeared on the cover of Madden 2010 with Larry Fitzgerald, and proceeded to succumb to the dreaded Madden Curse – that year, knee injuries limited him to a career-low five games played. However, he came back with a vengeance in 2010 with another Pro Bowl and First Team All-Pro season, in the process matching his career-high with 7 interceptions. The following season would arguably be his finest – in 2011, Polamalu notched 91 tackles with 2 interceptions and 1.0 sack en route to being a Pro Bowler, First Team All-Pro, and AP Defensive Player of the Year (narrowly edging out fellow Trojan alum Clay Matthews Jr. of the Green Bay Packers). As he reached 30 years old, this would mark the beginning of the end; following another injury-plagued year in 2012 (seven games played), Polamalu bounced back again with a final Pro Bowl season in 2013 (69 tackles, 2 interceptions, and 2.0 sacks), but was clearly on the downside of his career. After playing 12 games in 2014 and amidst rampant speculation that he would be released by the Steelers and join the Tennessee Titans, Polamalu retired from the NFL at age 33.
Like Polamalu, Reed was selected for his first Pro Bowl (9x overall) in his second NFL season, though it was in his third season that he really broke out. In 2004, he had 76 tackles with a career-best 9 interceptions, including a then-record 106-yard interception return for touchdown, and was honored with another Pro Bowl appearance, his first First Team All-Pro selection, and AP Defensive Player of the Year honors (following in the footsteps of Ravens teammate and linebacker Ray Lewis, who had taken home the honors the year prior). The injury bug would hit Reed too, however, and he would be limited to only six games in 2005 with an ankle injury.
Starting in 2006, Reed would appear in seven straight Pro Bowls and also be a 4x First Team All-Pro during that span, including three straight from 2006 to 2008 with two additional Second Team selections. During the 2008 season, though he only had 41 tackles, he once again intercepted 9 passes and broke his own record with a 107-yard interception return for touchdown; two years later, Reed would lead the NFL in interception for a third time (8). Following a final Pro Bowl season in 2012, he became a free agent and signed with the Houston Texans, though was released midway through the year, and joined the New York Jets for the remainder of the largely forgettable year. After not playing in 2014, Reed signed a one-day contract with the Ravens and retired in 2015 at age 36; currently, as of the end of the 2018 season, Reed is seventh on the all-time list with 64 career interceptions and in addition to holding the record for longest interception return for touchdown, also has the most career interception return yards (1,590).
Over careers that both spanned a dozen years, and started and ended only a year apart, Reed was the relatively more healthy player and appeared in 16 more games (174 to 158). With one being a strong safety and the other being a free safety, this difference in positions/responsibilities is reflected in their career numbers – Polamalu racked up more tackles, sacks, and forced fumbles, whereas Reed holds the distinctive edge in interceptions (by a 2-to-1 ratio) and defensive touchdowns. Nevertheless, both players were well-recognized for their play, with each being 1x AP Defensive Player of the Year, and Reed slightly edging out Polamalu in both Pro Bowls (9 vs. 8) and All-Pro selections (5 to 4). Reed was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2019, followed by Polamalu in 2020.
Regular Season Statistics
| Troy Polamalu | Player | Ed Reed |
| 12 (2003-2014) | Seasons | 12 (2002-2013) |
| 158 | Games Played | 174 |
| 32 | Interceptions | 64 |
| 12.0 | Sacks | 6.0 |
| 14 | Forced Fumbles | 11 |
| 5 | Defensive Touchdowns | 9 |
| 778 | Tackles | 643 |
| 8x | Pro Bowls | 9x |
| 4x | All-Pro | 5x |
| 2x | Super Bowls | 1x |
| 1x Defensive POY | Other Awards | 1x Defensive POY, All-Rookie |
| 2020 | Hall of Fame Induction | 2019 |
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
In addition to a full slate of individual awards and honors, Polamalu and Reed both reached the pinnacle of football in leading their respective teams to Super Bowl titles, often having to go through one another’s teams to emerge from the AFC North with a playoff berth.
During his dozen year career, Polamalu was a two-time Super Bowl winner and a key player in both victories. In Super Bowl XL, he compiled 5 tackles in helping the Steelers beat the Seattle Seahawks 21-10 – this marked Pittsburgh’s fifth Super Bowl victory and first since the Terry Bradshaw era, and was also the first time a #6 seed had ever won the Super Bowl. Three years later, as AFC North champions, Pittsburgh first defeated LaDainian Tomlinson and the San Diego Chargers in the Divisional round, and then beat Reed’s Ravens in the Conference Championship; Polamalu came up huge vs. Baltimore with 4 tackles, 2 pass deflections, and a 40-yard interception return for touchdown in a 23-14 win. This set up a Super Bowl XLIII matchup with the Arizona Cardinals, in which Pittsburgh would once again prevail 27-23 for their sixth title.
Meanwhile, after a number of close calls, including the aforementioned Championship game vs. the Steelers, Reed broke through and led the Ravens to Super Bowl XLVII vs. the San Francisco 49ers – in that game, he had 5 tackles, a pass deflection, and an interception in leading Baltimore to a 34-31 victory for their second Super Bowl title. Overall, Reed is tied for the career postseason record with 9 interceptions.
Playoff Statistics
| Troy Polamalu | Player | Ed Reed |
| 15 | Games Played | 15 |
| 3 | Interceptions | 9 |
| 0.5 | Sacks | – |
| – | Forced Fumbles | – |
| 64 | Tackles | 49 |
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
Every athlete goes through a natural career lifecycle, from starting off as a rookie to reaching peak years of performance and finally, declining into the inevitable retirement due to a combination of age and/or injury; following a decade of brilliance, both Polamalu and Reed were noticeably slowed by injuries and age. For Hall of Fame caliber players across sports, I like to look at a concept I call a “decade of dominance.” The thinking behind this is that for most Hall of Fame type careers, there are roughly 10 great seasons that define an athlete (this idea is embodied in a sense by the NFL’s All-Decade teams, of which Polamalu and Reed are both on for the 2000s team), though due to injury or other factors, they might not be 10 consecutive years.
Decade of Dominance
| Troy Polamalu | Player | Ed Reed |
| 2004-2011, 2013-2014 | Decade of Dominance | 2002-2004, 2006-2012 |
| 135 | Games Played | 150 |
| 31 | Interceptions | 60 |
| 9.0 | Sacks | 6.0 |
| 13 | Forced Fumbles | 11 |
| 5 | Defensive Touchdowns | 9 |
| 706 | Tackles | 568 |
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
When you look at their decades of dominance, which basically strip out the seasons marred by injury or their last couple of seasons, the same themes come through in their numbers – Polamalu was better closer to the line of scrimmage, whereas Reed was the playmaking ballhawk further up the field.
My Thoughts
Though they both played the position of “safety” and were considered the two best safeties while they played (similar to Bruce Smith and Reggie White at defensive end), in reality, Troy Polamalu and Ed Reed were very different players. As a strong safety, Polamalu was a fierce tackler who could get to the quarterback, while Reed was a rangy free safety who roamed the field looking for opportunities to make game-changing interceptions. In theory, the duo would have been the perfect safety pairing (Polamalu at strong safety and Reed at free safety), but the question here is not how they might have complemented each other. To me, as great a player as Polamalu was, Reed was the bigger difference maker who could change the entire game on a dime – quarterbacks always had to scan the field for him when looking to pass, and on any given play, he could pick the ball off and take it all the way back to the house.
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
Ed Reed
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
- Let’s end the Ravens’ Ed Reed – Steelers’ Troy Polamalu safety debate – Baltimore Ravens Blog – ESPN
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