Reasons To Believe Steelers Top Super Bowl Contender
Outstanding Defense, Running Game, Stewart Make Pittsburgh A Team To Beat
By Jerry DiPaola

The fans don't throw beer on Kordell Stewart any longer. Maybe the price of suds at Heinz Field has gone up, but more likely, the people of western Pennsylvania finally are just getting smarter.

As the Steelers prepare to open training camp at St. Vincent College for the 35th consecutive summer later this month, nothing is as clear as this undeniable fact:

Many experts across the country favor the Steelers to beat out the Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals, win the new AFC North, advance to another AFC Championship game – their fifth in nine years – and play in Super Bowl XXXVII in San Diego

And the reasons are many: The defense, the franchise's stability, the running game, coach Bill Cowher and -- make no mistake about it -- the return of Stewart, one of the best quarterbacks in the National Football League.

Don't believe that he's one of the best? Well, that's not a shock. Many Steelers fan still hold Stewart and his two fourth-quarter interceptions personally responsible for the loss to the New England Patriots in the conference title game in January, even though the special teams and offensive line were bigger culprits.

But Stewart's place among the best of a handful of quarterbacks in the league is solid entering the 2002 season after he led the Steelers to 14 victories in 18 games in 2001, won a place in the Pro Bowl for the first time, was voted team MVP and helped the team earn its second berth in the AFC Championship game in his five years as a starter.

Belichick A Believer

If you still don't believe that assessment, maybe if you hear it from someone with intimate knowledge of the NFL, a respected judge of talent, it might carry more weight and meaning.

Such as Patriots coach Bill Belichick, the defending Super Bowl champion who must find a way to counter Stewart's productivity in the Monday night opener in Foxboro, Mass., Sept. 9.

Belichick compared Stewart to Philadelphia Eagles Pro Bowl quarterback Donovan McNabb, who is considered one of the most dangerous weapons stepping behind a center's butt in the game today.

"He's right there with the best of them," Belichick said. "He's right there with the best we face during the course of the year. He's got a unique style, maybe McNabb is similar, but he can do so many things to beat you. He's very hard to prepare for." Belichick said Stewart has progressed remarkably over the past few years. "Before, he could run and now he can throw the ball and he can run," he said.

But Belichick said there is more to Stewart than his rare physical gifts in his arm and legs. "He's really a solid guy, a solid team player. I spent some time with him in the off-season and I got to talk to him a little bit. He's a great guy, very focused, a real winner. I respect the fact that when he wasn't playing a whole lot, when he was benched, he came back and became a better player.

"He's so tough because of the bootlegs and the way he can get a ball to a receiver. When you beat Kordell, at the end of the day, you feel good about it."

Belichick is not alone in his opinion of Stewart. Buffalo Bills general manager Tom Donahoe, who drafted Stewart in the second round when he was the Steelers' director of football operations in 1995, is even more definitive in his ranking of Stewart among the league's best quarterbacks.

Donahoe could be perceived as being biased toward Stewart because he brought him into the league and always believed in him as a quarterback – even when many others didn't. But he also is one of the most honest men and talent evaluators in the NFL. If Donahoe said Stewart is among the elite quarterbacks in the game today, you can bet that he would believe that no matter what history says.

"Based on what he did last year, statistically and in terms of growing as a leader, you'd have to put him in the top 10 at this point," he said. "And he has room to grow. He has room to get better, which he will."

Better than someone's opinion is what the Steelers have done in the off-season to help Stewart succeed. His support crew might be as good as or better than it was in 1997.

The Steelers' overall wide receiving corps may be better no later than the end of the season when rookie Antwaan Randle El and veteran Terance Mathis get acclimated to the system and to the quarterback. Slot receiver Bobby Shaw is gone, to free agency and the Jacksonville Jaguars, but Randle El has more natural ability and Mathis has more experience. Add those two to starters Hines Ward and Plaxico Burress, the first pair of Steelers receivers to gain 1,000 yards in the same season, and Stewart will have plenty of reliable and productive targets from which to choose.

The offensive line returns almost intact, with Oliver Ross the first choice to replace Rich Tylski at right guard. And the Steelers consider Ross an upgrade over Tylski, who was released in the off-season.

The running game has a few question marks to deal with, after Pro Bowl back Jerome Bettis revealed he reinjured his groin against the Patriots and Amos Zereoue battled a stomach ailment that sapped much of his strength and about 15 pounds in the spring. But both Bettis and Zereoue are expected to make full recoveries, and the Steelers are so sure of Zereoue's return that they gave him a four-year, $8.8 million contract in June, with a $2.15 million signing bonus. Zereoue, in fact, filled in admirably for Bettis late in the season, and is one of the few Steelers players – with the exception of Stewart – who is a real threat to go all the way whenever he touches the ball.

Pressure Grows

With the running game's problems – Bettis reached his 30th birthday in the off-season and Zereoue never has been a regular starter – the pressure on the passing game and Stewart will be greater than ever.

Cowher, who onced demoted his prize athlete to backup wide receiver, believes Stewart can handle it.

"Kordell is comfortable, he's confident, he's the leader of this football team and he likes that," Cowher said. "I like his state of mind and, more importantly, the state of mind of this team."

Stewart said he wants the responsibility of leadership. "It starts with the quarterback. It has to, now that we've been to hell and back."

In his best seasons (1997, 2000 and 2001), Stewart threw for a total of 46 touchdowns and rushed for 23 more. That's 69 scores from his arms and legs. Of course, when he's bad, he's horrible, evidenced by his 28 interceptions while making 28 starts in 1998 and 1999.

Hell might be putting it mildly. "He struggled through some difficult times where the city humiliated him and some people in the (Steelers) organization humiliated him," Donahoe said. "There may be some conventional things that he doesn't fit, but who cares? He's a unique talent. He's good at what he does. He's very innovative."

Stewart's accuracy as a passer has been questioned from the minute he came out of Colorado. But he reached the 60 percent completion mark last year while throwing for a career-high 3,109 yards. Only nine other quarterbacks in the league were able to achieve that parlay last season.

"He's very good, very much underrated as a passer," Donahoe said. "His arm strength is extremely good. For years, people said he couldn't do this, he couldn't do that. The only thing he probably wasn't was consistent, but for a couple of years he may not have been in the right offense. But he is now and he has a great coordinator."

Count Donahoe among those who credit Mularkey's offense and coaching style with helping turn Stewart into a Pro Bowl quarterback.

"Mike Mularkey has helped everybody he ever coached," Donahoe said. "He is that type of person, that type of coach. He has head coach written all over him."

Expectation Super Bowl

The writing is all over the Steelers, too. You couldn't throw a rock in the Steelers' locker room during minicamp last month without hitting a player who was talking about going to the Super Bowl.

If the Steelers don't make it, they will be criticized for losing focus. After all, the big game is still nearly six months away, but Cowher is doing nothing to dampen his players' enthusiasm.

The Steelers haven't won a Super Bowl in 22 years. Guarding the players' feelings didn't do much good in that time. Why not talk openly about it now after the front office has spent more than $60 million in signing bonuses in the past 16 months?

"I don't think there is anything wrong with being excited," he said. "Our guys are excited. The expectation level is high. I think that's why you see the participation is high (at the voluntary spring practices). "Last year, we created a standard around here that took us far, obviously not as far as we want to go. But when you look around again and you see a lot of the same bodies and not a lot of change, some of the change for the better with the influx of some of the young players in the draft, there is excitement and there should be.

"I don't think there is anything unhealthy about that at all."

But Cowher is quick to alert his team that their reservations for San Diego have not been stamped. There are no guarantees.

"I look at our football team as we have good competitive situations throughout the team. How that plays out, who knows? The biggest thing is the players understand two things: There are no guarantees in this business. No matter what you did a year ago, everybody is starting over again. As you can see, with championships being won by new teams every year, there are no guarantees. "And there are no shortcuts. We can't just assume that because we have all these players coming back that we don't have to work as hard in camp and not do the little things that put us where we were a year ago."

Jerry DiPaola covers the Steelers for the Pittsburgh Tribune Review.