Joe Haden spent seven long years with the Cleveland Browns, one of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ biggest rivals. Through his 90 total games, he played against the Steelers plenty of times. And he certainly took notice of the Steelers’ impressive offense, and Mike Tomlin’s ability as a head coach. Despite receiving better offers from other teams after he become a free agent, Haden explained why he went to Pittsburgh.
“I got offered by the Dolphins, the Dolphins offered me more, and the New Orleans Saints. But the only thing I was thinking bro, I wanted to go play for Coach Tomlin. I wanted to go play with Big Ben [Roethlisberger]. I wanted to go where they were scoring points. I know over there, them boys gonna be scoring,” Haden said Friday on the 4th and South podcast with Leonard Fournette and Jarvis Landry.
Mike Tomlin’s ability to connect with his players is well known, and Haden choosing to play for him over better offers elsewhere is evidence of that. However, it is interesting to hear his thoughts on why he wanted to play for a team that was more successful offensively. It feels like forever ago, but the Steelers’ offense was rolling in the late 2010s when Haden came to Pittsburgh.
Joe Haden spent five years in the Black and Gold, putting together a very solid tenure. The 2019 season was arguably his best one, Haden picking off five passes and recording 17 passes defended and 65 tackles. It was probably the second-best season of his career, narrowly behind him being a second-team All-Pro in 2013 with Cleveland.
Unfortunately, the Steelers weren’t able to get over the hump in the postseason. While Haden wanted to play for a team whose offense was rolling, he regretfully mentions how the defense didn’t perform in some moments.
“Defense, we weren’t performing,” Haden said. “We gave up runs, and people missing gaps and assignments. And you look at it, and it’s everybody’s bad.”
There were some tough moments. In Haden’s first year with the Steelers, they lost by an ugly 45-42 score to Jacksonville in the Divisional Round of the playoffs. While Haden didn’t play in the Steelers’ playoff loss to Cleveland in 2020, that was another ugly game with the Steelers fallingm 48-37. And in Haden’s final playoff game in 2021, the Steelers lost 42-21 to Kansas City.
On the field, Joe Haden got the job done during his Pittsburgh tenure. Which apparently came at a discount, with him declining better offers to sign with Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, the Steelers still find themselves in a similar position, unable to get over the postseason hump. We’ll see if that changes in 2026.
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