PITTSBURGH — Bill Cowher knows people love lists.

He knows they will cause much debate, especially a list that has to do with his former team.

And most especially, a list that asks him to narrow down to the five best Steelers defensive players of all time — which is a lot like asking a dog to name its favorite bone.

"I said just put up the Hall of Fame players on defense for the Steelers," Cowher said. "There's 10 of them. And you're asking me to pick five?"

Which is why Cowher's list — made at the request of CBS Sports, for whom he works as a Sunday studio analyst — was bound to cause more discussion than the presidential election.

In particular, it has increased the decibel level among Steelers fans who fondly remember the Steel Curtain defense of the 1970s that eventually landed five players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Curiously, three of them did not make Cowher's list, including the one player who embodied everything the defense represented and, quite possibly, might be the most popular Steelers player of all time: Jack Lambert.

"I had to give a shout out as honorable mention to Jack Lambert because I didn't want him to be mad at me," Cowher said the other day on the phone.

Here was Cowher's list of the top five Steelers defenders in history.

— Joe Greene

— Rod Woodson

— Mel Blount

— T.J. Watt

— Troy Polamalu

All but Watt are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, though the current outside linebacker, who already has 99 1/2 career sacks, is headed in that direction. Also, all are former NFL defensive players of the year, though so was Lambert in 1976.

"I also felt like I needed to touch base with each generation," Cowher said. "I know you can put (Jack) Ham on there, you can put Lambert on there. What they did was special. I thought I could put Lambert over Mel Blount, but I didn't because I think there were guys like Lambert in his day. There weren't guys like Mel Blount."

If there were guys like Lambert in his day, the only one who comes to mind was Dick Butkus. In fact, that's the only reason Lambert wasn't named to the NFL's All-Decade Team of the 1970s. He was second behind Butkus.

Never mind Lambert was the literally the face of the Steelers in the '70s. He was selected to nine consecutive Pro Bowls, was named first-team All-Pro six years in a row and was the league's defensive player of the year in 1976. If there was a Mount Rushmore of Steelers, he'd be on it.

And leaving off Ham, maybe the most perfect, technically sound outside linebacker to play the game? The other Hall of Fame player left off Cowher's list was safety Donnie Shell.

"How many guys you want to take off the team and put them on there?" Cowher said. "I could've gone back to Ernie Stautner."

Stautner, of course, is also in the Pro Football Hall of Fame after 14 seasons as a defensive lineman for the Steelers (1950-1963). But Cowher only listed the players he grew up watching — he was a senior at Carlynton High School when the Steelers won their second Super Bowl — or coached.

And that's one of the reasons he listed Woodson, who spent half of his 10 seasons with the Steelers playing for Cowher. Woodson, a member of the NFL's 100th anniversary team, was his No. 2 choice behind Greene.

"I've always said he's the best football player I coached in my 15 years in Pittsburgh," Cowher said.

Cowher didn't draft Woodson — Chuck Noll did in 1987 — but he did take Polamalu with the first pick in 2003. It is possible no Steelers defender in history made as many highlight-film plays as Polamalu, none bigger than his interception return for a touchdown to seal the 2008 AFC championship game victory against the Baltimore Ravens.

He never coached Watt, the 2021 NFL Defensive Player of the Year. But he has watched and analyzed him as a game-day analyst for CBS Sports and predicts the four-time All-Pro will be in the Hall of Fame when his career is over.

"T.J. Watt can take over a game more than any other outside linebacker that's lined up as a Pittsburgh Steeler," he said.

The only player whose position on the list is unquestioned is Greene, who seems to be the unanimous No. 1 for everyone who has ever started to name the Steelers' greatest players, not just defenders.

He was the foundation on which the teams of the 1970s were built. His performance in a 1975 game in Houston — in which he single-handedly lifted an injury-ravaged team to a 9-6 victory with five sacks, a blocked field goal, forced fumble and fumble recovery — was a classic example of how he could will the Steelers to victory all by himself.

For the record, my list of the top five all-time Steelers defenders also starts with Greene. But, after that, my order changes: Lambert, Woodson, Blount and Polamalu.

"Every one of those guys has been defensive player of the year," Cowher said, defending his choices. "Joe has been twice. They're all going to make an all-decade team, and T.J. will."

Cowher was right about one thing: People love lists.

And they will debate this one for a while.

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