Steelers' Ike Taylor announces retirement after 12 seasons

After 12 seasons in the NFL, all spent with the Pittsburgh Steelers, veteran cornerback Ike Taylor officially announced his retirement Tuesday.

"Other than having my son, playing for the Steelers has been the best experience in my entire lifetime," Taylor said in the team's official press release. "It is rare, in this day of free agency that is super rare to play for one team. For me to have this opportunity says a lot about how they felt about me, what I gave back to the organization." 

A fourth-round draft selection of the Steelers in 2003, Taylor went on to become one of the NFL's most consistent defensive backs after first earning a full-time starting role with the club in 2005.

Taylor recorded 14 interceptions and 636 tackles in 174 regular-season games, 140 of them starts.

Cornerback is one of several areas the Steelers will look to address in the upcoming draft, and landing a player capable of putting together a career that even approaches the consistency and longevity of Taylor's would be more than the team could ask for.

Longtime Steelers safety Troy Polamalu also announced his retirement last week, leaving the team with very few holdovers from its 2008 Super Bowl-winning roster.

At one time, Taylor was one of the fastest players in the NFL recording an unofficial 4.19 coming out of college. He was not invited to the combine but his speed coach Tom Shaw claims he was the fastest player he'd ever worked with.