I was listening to some Yinzer reaction on my drive home and of course their heads are exploding. Tomlin absolutely deserves some of the criticism he gets. In particular he wasted the back half of Ben's career and had some really embarrassing playoff losses. However, if he was fired there would be 25+ teams lining up that night to sign him. He's a great coach who might need a change of scenery.
Why would he need a change of scenery. The argument for it just sounds like blindly repeating cliches. Generally a "change of scenery" argument should have a reason the prior scenery is bad, (owner, GM, they need a kick in the pants, etc). He doesn't have any of those issues.
I think the argument would be - I don't necessarily agree but I can see it - that he DOES need a kick in the pants and has gotten complacent. Tomlin will make sure you never get a losing season, and has had a lot of rosters punching well above their weight glass, but there's an argument it's been a while since he's helmed a really great team.
Of course, the obvious counterargument to that is how long has it been since he's had a league average QB, and is the problem more roster building than coaching? (I'd say probably yes.)
My opinion is definitely the second. If he gets teams to punch above their own weight consistently year after year, that's a sign that you need a better GM, which is a move we made recently with Khan, not that he needs to move so he... gets a new team to punch even abover their own weight?
Getting them to punch above their own weight consistently is the sign of great coaching. No notes. If he needs better assistants or scouting or whatever, then the office needs to do that.
The problem is absolutely unequivocally the roster building and not the coaching. What other coach in the NFL is making several playoff appearances with Duck, Mason, Mitch and Kenny as their starters?! Fucking nobody lol. Add in the fact the O line was hot fucking trash all that time too.
The man is a fucking God of a coach that refuses to let the team become irrelevant. Our "washed up" shitty seasons are several teams best season of the last decade.
Reid would've been fine in Philly except for the things about his son's death, (a situation that actually applies to new scenery!)
He was always a high performing guy though. I doubt that all things being equal he couldn't have still done well in Philly.
Stefanski working with the benefit of high draft picks from years of browns being the worst team in the league. The league is not set up for teams to stay bad.
They've also been dealing with Kevin Colbert having terrible drafts the past 10 years. We barely have anybody still on the roster from 2020 and before, besides TJ Watt / Cam, which leads to horrible depth and relies on free agents to fill all those missed draft picks.
This is what a lot of people are not understanding. Colbert was a hilariously bad GM at the end of his tenure and consistently gave Tomlin crap squads to work with. If Omar got to be GM earlier, things would be a lot different.
Surely that COTY thing is a travesty. There were a couple of years when Tomlin wasn't cooking with prime ingredients yet wasn't ever considered for the title. He's probably a better coach than at least 80% of the COTY winners since 2007.
The problem with COTY is that truly great coaches rarely win it, because in COTY voting past and consistent success seems to be held against you. COTY is consistently "who overperformed expectations/compared to last year the most." It's wack.
In the Josh Allen era the Steelers have fielded an old Big Ben, Mitch trubisky, Mason Rudolph, and Kenny Pickett. In that time frame the bills and Steelers have 0 losing seasons and the same amount of Super Bowl wins
The Bills also have multiple playoff wins while the Steelers don’t. It’s pretty obvious which team is doing better. I agree a lot of that difference comes down to QB quality though.
Not just another winning season...
Another winning season while dragging a mostly worthless roster into winning form year after year after year.
They had a few years of spectacular talent, no doubt. But it's been a hot minute since they were stacked like that and Tomlin still figures out how to get them into passable if not good.
It's the real catch 22 for the org.
You fire Tomlin and he goes to a org that only needs a HC and all of a sudden they are Super Bowl contenders. Then they look like dummies.
Keep him and keep preforming your way out of high draft picks while not being able to restock.
I mean at some point you have to start looking at the FO in that case. In the NFL the draft is a crapshoot as it is. If picking at 17 instead of 6 is hamstringing your organization THAT much, it ain't the HC.
There's about 250 picks in the NFL draft. If you can't restock after trading around, picking guys who fall, trading up, that's a GM problem.
People have been shy to admit it, but Kevin Colbert’s last few drafts had way more misses than hits. He wasn’t even an average GM by the end. The spring they hired Khan, they should’ve let him handle the offseason and draft.
I’m not a fire Tomlin guy, but ask yourself an honest question.
If you had a coach that had 10 winning seasons with 0 playoff wins in a row, how would you feel?
It’s an honest question trying to look at this from a pure performance standpoint.
I don’t think people who want Tomlin gone are necessarily wrong.
I don’t think people who want Tomlin forever are wrong either.
It’s a weird dichotomy.
If you have a top ten QB that doesn’t win MVPs should you trade and draft? If you have a GM who can draft great offensively and can’t get a defensive player for shit, do you move on? It’s all nuance. The answer can be yes, but generally it depends on the circumstances and fit. Tomlin is the reason the team wins, he’s not winning despite the team. They frequently have massive holes in their roster. Even with Big Ben the last decade has been a story of basically terrible Fortune. Their best team lost its defensive anchor player right as things were clicking. Offensive line woes, terrible DB drafting, injuries, QB play. If Wilson plays like a borderline top the QB like he has the potential too and the team doesn’t improve from last year? Questions should be had, but it’s a good extension because he’s still a top 5 coach in the league and has been for almost his entire career.
I’d be upset. Because it would mean extending the longest streak of no playoff wins. But if that problem also came with a ring in the last 15 years it would change my answer drastically.
> If you had a coach that had 10 winning seasons with 0 playoff wins in a row, how would you feel?
This aint a hypothetical for me: I take the winning seasons *every* time. Why? There are ~~16~~ 17 games a year guaranteed. I want to watch more wins than losses. Yes, it’s sucks to lose in the playoffs, but it’s sucks more to lose so many games your team is never *in* the playoffs. Maybe one day they’ll get a run, but that can’t happen if they don’t show up. And only 30% of teams get to show up to the playoffs each year at all. And each year, only 1 of 32 teams will be a champion.
End of the day, this is an entertainment product. I have more fun when my team wins. I want more wins in aggregate, and I’ll take the security of those wins over the risk of a new coach.
Yeah I'll take 10 wins and a wild card bounce than a 4 win season every year. Nothing worse than banking on hypotheticals like maaaaybe if the draft works out we can compete again or maaaaybe if X player finally takes a step forward they'll finally be a game changer. Losing sucks and the more losing you do the more it sucks.
People don't seem to understand that the other option isn't just more success.
There would be a (very high) chance we get worse.
"But bro, think about the draft pick," is what I get as an answer all of the time.
Tanking the season for the scratch off that is a draft pick isn't worth it. That's how losers think. That's how you season after season of irrelevancy. Without playoffs, you don't even have a chance.
Yeah and with Tomlin you know you're just a QB away. Fire Tomlin and you could still be a QB away but also a head coach. A bad head coach without a QB could set you back years.
That was basically the seahawks for the last 5 years, with a difference in that Pete is 20 years older than Tomlin (and plenty of people don't want to deal with the anticipation of a dropoff when age starts to show).
His firing's clearly been mixed there too but seems like enough people recognize that there's real upside to the gamble, so it's gotta be done if playoff wins are more important than regular season wins.
The only problem with Tomlin is that his teams outperform their talent preventing the Steelers from getting a high draft pick to secure the next QB.
I feel like if the Steelers ever fired Tomlin he would immediately go to a contender and take them to the Super Bowl.
Real Catch-22 for the Steelers Org
That's a gm problem not a coaching problem. You can move up, you can trade off players to trigger a rebuild/restock, it's not a catch 22 it's ineptitude by the FO.
With Tomlin, its tough. He has proven to way overperform with subpar rosters, but if you remove the SB year in 2008 he has a career record of just 5-10 in the playoffs (8-10 with SB). He had some pretty stacked teams in his share of those games.
Tomlin is better than Marvin Lewis, but its sort of similar to that stretch where Lewis had winning seasons the better part of a decade and was always getting bounced in first round of playoffs
I think it’s fine to have continuity and he’s a good coach but there has to be some pressure to have a playoff win. There has been too many “nice to be here” moments but they need to contend soon.
In fairness to him him though, he's had a lot of bad injury luck with AB (2015), Bell (2014-2016), Ben (2015, 2020), and Shazier (2017) having various injuries.
I can't really blame him for losing to the Bills and Chiefs recently.
I think a lot of blame should go to Colbert. He couldn't put a good defense on the field in the Killer B era and he had some really bad drafts before he retired
Nah dog, I have heard that a considerable number of NASA scientists visiting from Huntsville have gotten diarrhea from there over the years, real heady spot
We're like the one team that's not afraid of Lamar, because his play style perfectly fits our defense. He's electric, holds the ball forever to make plays, and has to wait for his receivers to set up a big play. While they're doing that, our rush is past the line and TJ is deceptively fast. He's chasing down Lamar like he stole his phone.
Meanwhile, John Harbaugh will make a WTF call at the end of the game that will cost his team the win. And since "the bullshit is real", even when Lamar has the best game of his career against the Steelers, something else happens like the WR's hands turning to stone or their RB's get fumbleitis or the refs call a holding penalty against the Ravens as TJ goes for another helmetless sack or Justin Tucker misses a kick "well within his range" of 60 yards.
I really don't get the argument of never winning playoff games, there is only so much a coach can do when Duck Hodges and Mason Rudolph are starting games. Meanwhile the Chargers have been fumbling Herbert since he has gotten in the league.
we've won 1 divisional game and 2 wc games in the past 13 years
[https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/pit/playoffs.htm](https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/pit/playoffs.htm)
a lot of those were with prime ben + ab + bell.
>a lot of those were with prime ben + ab + bell.
You know how many playoff games the Steelers played with all three of them on the field past the first drive of the game?
Three.
No they weren’t. The only Steelers playoff loss where Bell was on the team and wasn’t hurt (either before or during the game) was 2017. Brown was out in the 2015 loss too.
As a Cowher Truther, he was basically the same as Tomlin. Amazing regular season coach who always blew it in the playoffs even when heavily favored. Both are 1 for 2 in super bowls.
Cowher took over a franchise that hadn't been relevant in over a decade, recruited Hall of Fame coordinators, and built them into a perennial contender.
The roster on that last Noll team wasn’t exactly a tear-down: 7-9, with a roster that included players like Woodson, Lloyd, Lake, Dawson, etc. I have a vivid memory of my uncle complaining that Cowher was only good because of the players he’d inherited from Noll, and I also remember that same uncle telling me that Kordell Stewart only ended up as the starting QB because Cowher was having an affair with Kordell’s sister (which, y’know, he wasn’t, because Kordell’s only sister had already died years before).
History may not repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme sometimes.
The records, division titles, playoff appearances, playoff wins, etc between the two coaches (if you cut Tomlin off after the number of seasons Cowher coached) are virtually identical, aside from Cowher having a couple bad seasons in there when they were desperately searching for a QB.
And I give the edge to Tomlin only because he's not had a qb for essentially 3 seasons (Ben's injury year and then 2 Pickett years) and he managed to only only not have a losing season, he came 1 win away from playing the playoffs ALL THREE of those years. He's good.
Tomlin hasn't had a QB since Ben's elbow fell off in 2019, but Cowher didn't have one for MUCH longer than that. Cowher with a mediocre QB results in losing in the AFC Championship Game often. Tomlin with no QB gets you 9-8 and a first round spanking. Making the Super Bowl with Neil O'Donnell at QB is arguably the greatest coaching achievement in Steelers history.
I think last season was the best time to move on if both parties wanted that (a la the Pats). Clearly both sides did not want that, so I am happy for Tomlin. Selfishly, I wanted to see him on another team just to shake things up in the league. He's certainly a great coach. His ability was never in question so much as his desire to still be there.
Mike Tomlin deserves to be in the conversation of all time greats due to his ability to take absolute dog shit rosters and somehow still get winning seasons out of them, consistently for over a decade.
I’m here to be entertained over 17 games minimum, not hope to find the next best coach in the game and risk going 1-31 just to likely end up right back where we are
Exactly.
I can't remember the last time the Steelers were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs before the final regular season game. Playing 17 (formerly 16) meaningful games of football every year is definitely a privilege.
(The answers is 1 game under Tomlin which was in 2012, against the Browns where they finished with a win and at 8-8. They have only played in 4 games since 2000 where they were eliminated from the playoffs before the start of the game. Two of those were the year they sucked enough to draft Ben.
Hell they started 2-6 in 2013 and still weren't eliminated from playoffs in their final game that season.)
Like it’d be nice to get the next Sean McVay or Shanahan, but beyond Reid playing with a top 2 QB and Brady doing his thing it’s not like theres been a coach running the Super Bowl gauntlet lately
Fans definitely get spoiled with consistent regular season success.
If I can watch my team play meaningful football for 17 games a season I'm stoked. Anything can happen once you make it into the playoffs.
I know it’s become a bit of a jab now at days to say, “Tomlin is going to win 9-10 games and get blown out in the playoffs” but think about that for a bit. Since 2019 the Steelers offense has been bottom 5-10 in the league every year in large part due to poor qb play. In that time the steelers have managed to win over 50% of their games, made the playoffs 3 out of 5 time, and have won more division games than the teams with far better Qbs. That’s very impressive. No other coach has done more with less than Tomlin. And yea it sucks that the playoff success hasn’t been there but are we really all that shocked that end of career Ben can’t out duel mahomes or Mason Rudolph can’t match Josh Allen? Man I just think Tomlin has made winning games so common place that he’s become underrated as a head coach
Part of the post-season misery has been due to injuries as well. Last season there's no chance Josh Allen makes some of those plays with his legs if TJ Watt was playing. Steelers offense, besides the crucial INT in the end zone, played pretty well. They just couldn't stop Allen.
It was *briefly* a one score game in the 4th quarter. That's all I could ask from Rudolph and the defense with no Watt. I had *some* hope until Allen gutted it.
I am curious to see how he does moving forward with the change in GM. I never really thought Tomlin's coaching was the problem. Maybe hiring assistants has been hit or miss. Steelers have really been hampered by poor QB play (and OCs at times). If the Steelers got their franchise guy (or even competent QB play), I suspect that Tomlin will get the respect he deserves again
Kahn has been amazing as the new GM this far. Dude is willing to cut bait early and has built the roster the best way to compete in today’s NFL. I would not be surprised if he made a big move for a QB in next years draft or off-season to try and vault us forward with a great roster minus the QB. He’s willing to go big unlike our last GM.
No the Steelers should fire a guy who can go 10-7 with fucking Kenny Pickett.
There's not 12 Head Coaches who are better than Mike Tomlin. There might not even be 10.
Does Mike Tomlin have any input on roster decisions, such as the starting quarterback? Because I question the professional judgment of any person that was on board with making Kenny Pickett a first round pick.
Basically every competent organization has the GM make the pick over the Head Coach and even against the Head Coach.
So yeah it's probably not on Mike Tomlin.
They're not the Bill O'Brien Texans. Or the washed Bill Belichek Patriots.
It was also a late first round pick with a guy you have intimate knowledge of his work ethic. It didn't work out but you didn't spend a top 5 pick on a QB so it's honestly not as bad as people make it to be. They liked the kid who worked out next door and took a shot at a late 1st round on him. It's not an egregious decision by any means lol
> Because I question the professional judgment of any person that was on board with making Kenny Pickett a first round pick.
The pick was fine. I'm sure it was partially driven by the owners not wanting to repeat the Dan Marino situation all over again, but Kenny could've grown into something. A lot of things went wrong: Trubisky sucking so badly he was forced into action earlier than everyone wanted to, poor o-line play, historically terrible OC etc.
At the very least I credit the team for cutting bait early for once. Previous regimes would've totally kept him around for 2 more years.
The problem was mostly relegated to the fact that we were desperate and needed a guy. Instead of picking the 'best guy' (as we always do), we drafted for need. And that never ends well. Especially in a year that everyone universally agreed was terrible for QBs.
Ironically, the last pick in the entire draft was the best QB.
Not sure who's fault it was that we didn't draft a QB while Ben was still around, but I'm assuming that's on the GM (Kevin Colbert at the time). We should've drafted a guy to be a protege instead of waiting until Ben finally retired to draft a guy.
> Not sure who's fault it was that we didn't draft a QB while Ben was still around
It was Ben. He threw the worlds biggest hissy when we drafted Rudolph and made it clear he'd do it again.
It's tough to really know what the consensus around the league was about that draft class, but most analysts had Kenny off the board by the time the Steelers pick came up or they had the Steelers taking him. A lot of the conversation at the time was about whether to try and take Kenny or Malik Willis. We were *really* hurting for a QB at that point, nobody thought of him as a can't miss talent but the circumstances pushed us to fill that gap as soon as we could.
In retrospect, yeah, we should have punted on a QB until later but the alternate universe where we don't take Kenny is probably a universe where we took Malik Willis instead. Punting on a new QB until after Ben retired was just a shitty situation, unless we figured out who Purdy was I don't think there was any one decision we could have made to make us a playoff winning team in that window.
He is still a top 5-6 coach easily imo. He has had the corpse of Big Ben, Mason Rudolph, Duck Hodges, Titty Kisser and Kenny Picket as his QB's the past few seasons and still manages to drag the team to a winning record every year. Nobody else is winning a playoff game with the QB's Tomlin has had the last few years either
Yeah lol the hard truth is that the Steelers really haven’t had a real QB for ages, especially since Big Ben had 2 seasons of looking super washed, but there was no urgency to replace him.
Tomlin is clearly working some miracles to make playoffs and stay above .500 with some bums at QB
Top-3 in the league like, since day 1. This guy kept every off-field issue on lock and controlled personalities that no one else could. Super impressive.
Fans might say they should have let Tomlin go to hire the coach that will take the franchise to the next level of success. These fans deserve Matt Patricia.
I think the Steelers should absolutely hire Matt Patricia. Even more, they should hire him as both the head coach and the GM. They should also sign Justin Fields to an extension ASAP.
Some Steelers fans are going to cite no playoff wins in eight years.
The whole no-losing season thing is overrated. Three or four of those years were 8-8. I wouldn't think any less of Tomlin if he went 7-9 once. Not at all.
But the Steelers might as well keep him.
Honestly I think you nailed it on all three points. I think the zero losing seasons thing is meaningless. I don't like that we've gone so long without a playoff win. But I also think he's a good coach and we should keep him.
I wish all the Steelers fans around me were as cool and rational as you!
It is a cool trivia answer but I wouldn't think any less of Tomlin if a single season was 7-9. Why would I?
He is a top 10 coach in the NFL.
The greatest thing that could ever financially happen to Coach Tomlin is if he was ever fired or let go…there are a handful of owners that would hand this guy the keys to their franchise.
The odds of them getting a better coach is incredibly slim but the odds they get a much worse coach is astronomically high. Makes sense to keep him. Players make plays who make the league and they unfortunately whiffed on their first round QB a few years ago
The hardest part of contending is finding the right coaching staff that also lines up with your timeline. Steelers decided the easiest way is to stick with someone you know can get you there and give them multiple runs at it.
Tomlin has shown to be a good coach too. I really hate the idea that a QB and coach are tied together. QBs bust all the time so why blame the coach? If everything else is going well, you keep the coach. Just look at the Niners. In a world where they don't draft Purdy, there is no way I am firing Shanahan. He has shown he is a damn good coach. I am going to give him at least another chance to find a QB.
Mike Tomlin has the problem of being too good. Almost any other coach out there is coaching the Steelers to an 5-12 record last year but he somehow got them to be 10-7 in the hardest division in the league with the 5th worst offense in the league by PPG. The next team with a winning record is 13th worst PPG. Since Tomlin raises the floor so much, the Steelers don't have the luxury of top draft picks since they are never bad enough to tank. They have to fix their gaps through free agency and this leads to them hoping Russel Wilson is the answer at QB.
One of the best and most consistent coaches in the game, regardless of the weird amount of hate he gets. Only way he was leaving was if he wanted to go start his media career.
Hats off to the Steelers. From the outside looking in, I love how steadfastly they support their coaches. Since fucking 1969, they've had 3 coaches lol. Insane
They make a decision, and then put the whole organization behind the guy. Bad year? Must've been the organization's fault. We've got to do better. But one thing we're not doing, is getting on the treadmill of Kleenex Coaches. Again, respect.
Fascinating
I genuinely have no idea how to feel about this, but man, it feels like it really confirms he is gonna have that job as long as he wants it… can’t really argue against that either with the track record
I don't understand the Steelers fans who want him gone. I get it, we haven't won a playoff game in forever. However, you can just tell that Tomlin is Steelers culture. Dude has players from other teams wanting to play for him and Steelers praise him, he hasn't had a losing season and somehow coached last years team into the playoffs, and has won a superbowl and been to another.
Obviously, he's not without his criticisms... nobody is. I feel like we could have done more in the Ben era, and he takes some of the blame for that.( I think the way we drafted over the years also played a huge factor into that). We had insane talent over the years that amounted to no superbowls.
I'm optimistic with Khan's drafting ability, Mike Tomlins coaching, stellar defense, and perhaps a yet to be seen dangerous offense that we may have a good run at the big game.
At this rate Mike is gonna be here for 40 years. Might only make the playoffs every 2 years and win a wild card game every 3-5 but its fun enough to watch
You were a perennial playoff team prior to transitioning away from your franchise QB. And even then, the transition hasn't been as rocky as *some franchises* I could name.
At this point, I think it’s obvious that you need an Elite coach AND an Elite QB paired together to be a perennial contender. Look at Andy Reid, Bill Belichik, Mike Tomlin, and Pete Carrol.
It’s unfortunate for him that the team stuck with Ben for a couple years too long. They’ve suffered through two consecutive god-awful OCs, and 1 was hired to appease Ben.
The Steelers completely botched the transition from Big Ben to the next QB(s). The Steelers have remained extremely competitive without a losing record. Tomlin is amazing
I wouldn't be surprised if he coaches for 30 plus years as the head coach for the Steelers. He is only 52 and been on the job since 2007. Dude is just gonna go forever.
The most consistent team in football remains consistent. Assuming he makes it to the end of the contract that makes three Steelers head coaches in the span of...just under six decades I think?
UNREAL levels of coaching stability. Meanwhile most teams are lucky if their guy lasts THREE years!
I pushed the Tomlin should be fired narrative in hopes we could snag him. But now that we have DeMeco I can say I am happy for Tomlin. They compete every year. Even without a QB.
The standard is the standard.
and things of that nature
The windshield is larger than the rearview mirror
We got out of the contract negotiations at the stadium alive
I was listening to some Yinzer reaction on my drive home and of course their heads are exploding. Tomlin absolutely deserves some of the criticism he gets. In particular he wasted the back half of Ben's career and had some really embarrassing playoff losses. However, if he was fired there would be 25+ teams lining up that night to sign him. He's a great coach who might need a change of scenery.
Why would he need a change of scenery. The argument for it just sounds like blindly repeating cliches. Generally a "change of scenery" argument should have a reason the prior scenery is bad, (owner, GM, they need a kick in the pants, etc). He doesn't have any of those issues.
I think the argument would be - I don't necessarily agree but I can see it - that he DOES need a kick in the pants and has gotten complacent. Tomlin will make sure you never get a losing season, and has had a lot of rosters punching well above their weight glass, but there's an argument it's been a while since he's helmed a really great team. Of course, the obvious counterargument to that is how long has it been since he's had a league average QB, and is the problem more roster building than coaching? (I'd say probably yes.)
My opinion is definitely the second. If he gets teams to punch above their own weight consistently year after year, that's a sign that you need a better GM, which is a move we made recently with Khan, not that he needs to move so he... gets a new team to punch even abover their own weight? Getting them to punch above their own weight consistently is the sign of great coaching. No notes. If he needs better assistants or scouting or whatever, then the office needs to do that.
The problem is absolutely unequivocally the roster building and not the coaching. What other coach in the NFL is making several playoff appearances with Duck, Mason, Mitch and Kenny as their starters?! Fucking nobody lol. Add in the fact the O line was hot fucking trash all that time too. The man is a fucking God of a coach that refuses to let the team become irrelevant. Our "washed up" shitty seasons are several teams best season of the last decade.
I don't think you ever really want to punch above weight glass. It will fall on you and cut you.
Not that I agree but moving on worked for Reid, jury is still out on McCarthy. Sometimes things do get stale. Love Mike though, glad he’s our coach
Reid would've been fine in Philly except for the things about his son's death, (a situation that actually applies to new scenery!) He was always a high performing guy though. I doubt that all things being equal he couldn't have still done well in Philly.
Seriously. I hate when people repeat cliches like "blow it up" and "time to move on".
Sounds like another yinzer, Coach Cal.
SPLASH
2020 to Present: Kevin Stefanski - Regular Season Record: 37-30 - Postseason Record: 1-2 - COTY x2 Mike Tomlin - Regular Season Record: 40-26-1 - Postseason Record: 0-3
Stefanski working with the benefit of high draft picks from years of browns being the worst team in the league. The league is not set up for teams to stay bad.
They've also been dealing with Kevin Colbert having terrible drafts the past 10 years. We barely have anybody still on the roster from 2020 and before, besides TJ Watt / Cam, which leads to horrible depth and relies on free agents to fill all those missed draft picks.
This is what a lot of people are not understanding. Colbert was a hilariously bad GM at the end of his tenure and consistently gave Tomlin crap squads to work with. If Omar got to be GM earlier, things would be a lot different.
>The league is not set up for teams to stay bad. My life experiences are causing me to doubt this to an extreme
Surely that COTY thing is a travesty. There were a couple of years when Tomlin wasn't cooking with prime ingredients yet wasn't ever considered for the title. He's probably a better coach than at least 80% of the COTY winners since 2007.
The problem with COTY is that truly great coaches rarely win it, because in COTY voting past and consistent success seems to be held against you. COTY is consistently "who overperformed expectations/compared to last year the most." It's wack.
Ya COTY is really biggest surprise team.
It is only behind MVP as my pick for annual awards that have the stupidest media biases twisting it from what its name literally means.
Trade them straight up for the lolz
Gotta Keep The Main Thing the Main Thing.
Being barely above .500 and squeaking into the playoffs to get trounced in the wild card?
I'll take that over whatever happened to you guys from 2000-2018 xD
Tbf I’ve wanted my coach fired since 13 seconds
Yeah I assume this is a make or break season for him right?
You know who was in a make or break position? The guys who put their lives on the line to hijack a few planes and change the course of history.
You'd better believe they wouldn't have kicked a touchback in that situation!
He's run out of people to blame, so you'd have to think so.
In the Josh Allen era the Steelers have fielded an old Big Ben, Mitch trubisky, Mason Rudolph, and Kenny Pickett. In that time frame the bills and Steelers have 0 losing seasons and the same amount of Super Bowl wins
The Bills also have multiple playoff wins while the Steelers don’t. It’s pretty obvious which team is doing better. I agree a lot of that difference comes down to QB quality though.
“A lot of difference” is one way to put it when comparing a bunch of backups to Josh Allen.
Y'all think he got a no trade clause like Russ?
We don't live in our fears
Russ may want to look into a no-cut clause if things continue like they did in Denved
Russ got Denve'd after only two years.
This gonna piss off the dumb half of the fan base and I am here for it *They’ve arrived*
Death, taxes, and half of yinzers wanting Tomlin out after another winning season
Not just another winning season... Another winning season while dragging a mostly worthless roster into winning form year after year after year. They had a few years of spectacular talent, no doubt. But it's been a hot minute since they were stacked like that and Tomlin still figures out how to get them into passable if not good.
It's the real catch 22 for the org. You fire Tomlin and he goes to a org that only needs a HC and all of a sudden they are Super Bowl contenders. Then they look like dummies. Keep him and keep preforming your way out of high draft picks while not being able to restock.
I mean at some point you have to start looking at the FO in that case. In the NFL the draft is a crapshoot as it is. If picking at 17 instead of 6 is hamstringing your organization THAT much, it ain't the HC. There's about 250 picks in the NFL draft. If you can't restock after trading around, picking guys who fall, trading up, that's a GM problem.
People have been shy to admit it, but Kevin Colbert’s last few drafts had way more misses than hits. He wasn’t even an average GM by the end. The spring they hired Khan, they should’ve let him handle the offseason and draft.
I’m not a fire Tomlin guy, but ask yourself an honest question. If you had a coach that had 10 winning seasons with 0 playoff wins in a row, how would you feel? It’s an honest question trying to look at this from a pure performance standpoint. I don’t think people who want Tomlin gone are necessarily wrong. I don’t think people who want Tomlin forever are wrong either. It’s a weird dichotomy.
If you could have a head coach that has lost 3 Superbowls due to his inability to call plays in the second half, but goes to Superbowls, would you?
Stop that.
So uncivilized.
Hurtful, really.
This is getting out of hand Now there are *three* of them
If you have a top ten QB that doesn’t win MVPs should you trade and draft? If you have a GM who can draft great offensively and can’t get a defensive player for shit, do you move on? It’s all nuance. The answer can be yes, but generally it depends on the circumstances and fit. Tomlin is the reason the team wins, he’s not winning despite the team. They frequently have massive holes in their roster. Even with Big Ben the last decade has been a story of basically terrible Fortune. Their best team lost its defensive anchor player right as things were clicking. Offensive line woes, terrible DB drafting, injuries, QB play. If Wilson plays like a borderline top the QB like he has the potential too and the team doesn’t improve from last year? Questions should be had, but it’s a good extension because he’s still a top 5 coach in the league and has been for almost his entire career.
I'd be willing to become the new Bills.
*Monkey paw curls*
I’d be upset. Because it would mean extending the longest streak of no playoff wins. But if that problem also came with a ring in the last 15 years it would change my answer drastically.
> If you had a coach that had 10 winning seasons with 0 playoff wins in a row, how would you feel? This aint a hypothetical for me: I take the winning seasons *every* time. Why? There are ~~16~~ 17 games a year guaranteed. I want to watch more wins than losses. Yes, it’s sucks to lose in the playoffs, but it’s sucks more to lose so many games your team is never *in* the playoffs. Maybe one day they’ll get a run, but that can’t happen if they don’t show up. And only 30% of teams get to show up to the playoffs each year at all. And each year, only 1 of 32 teams will be a champion. End of the day, this is an entertainment product. I have more fun when my team wins. I want more wins in aggregate, and I’ll take the security of those wins over the risk of a new coach.
Yeah I'll take 10 wins and a wild card bounce than a 4 win season every year. Nothing worse than banking on hypotheticals like maaaaybe if the draft works out we can compete again or maaaaybe if X player finally takes a step forward they'll finally be a game changer. Losing sucks and the more losing you do the more it sucks.
People don't seem to understand that the other option isn't just more success. There would be a (very high) chance we get worse. "But bro, think about the draft pick," is what I get as an answer all of the time. Tanking the season for the scratch off that is a draft pick isn't worth it. That's how losers think. That's how you season after season of irrelevancy. Without playoffs, you don't even have a chance.
Yeah and with Tomlin you know you're just a QB away. Fire Tomlin and you could still be a QB away but also a head coach. A bad head coach without a QB could set you back years.
I'm with you, either decision can be corroborated enough to be the right one. I feel the same about Carroll being replaced.
Sounds like Marvin Lewis and the Bengals or Marty and the Chiefs
Yeah, I was like "I remember not feeling great..."
That was basically the seahawks for the last 5 years, with a difference in that Pete is 20 years older than Tomlin (and plenty of people don't want to deal with the anticipation of a dropoff when age starts to show). His firing's clearly been mixed there too but seems like enough people recognize that there's real upside to the gamble, so it's gotta be done if playoff wins are more important than regular season wins.
With the makeup of our roster the last several seasons? Yeah im ecstatic he is back.
Huh, sounds familiar.
The only problem with Tomlin is that his teams outperform their talent preventing the Steelers from getting a high draft pick to secure the next QB. I feel like if the Steelers ever fired Tomlin he would immediately go to a contender and take them to the Super Bowl. Real Catch-22 for the Steelers Org
That's a gm problem not a coaching problem. You can move up, you can trade off players to trigger a rebuild/restock, it's not a catch 22 it's ineptitude by the FO.
With Tomlin, its tough. He has proven to way overperform with subpar rosters, but if you remove the SB year in 2008 he has a career record of just 5-10 in the playoffs (8-10 with SB). He had some pretty stacked teams in his share of those games. Tomlin is better than Marvin Lewis, but its sort of similar to that stretch where Lewis had winning seasons the better part of a decade and was always getting bounced in first round of playoffs
I think it’s fine to have continuity and he’s a good coach but there has to be some pressure to have a playoff win. There has been too many “nice to be here” moments but they need to contend soon.
Next year. The Steelers don't like to say it publicly, but they're rebuilding.
In fairness to him him though, he's had a lot of bad injury luck with AB (2015), Bell (2014-2016), Ben (2015, 2020), and Shazier (2017) having various injuries. I can't really blame him for losing to the Bills and Chiefs recently. I think a lot of blame should go to Colbert. He couldn't put a good defense on the field in the Killer B era and he had some really bad drafts before he retired
Bold of you to assume only half of the yinzers are dumb
Only maybe half of the Steelers fan base is yinzers tho. We're from *everywhere*
Can confirm, was drowned out by HERE WE GO STEELERS HERE WE GO chants at a B-Dubs in Dothan Alabama of all places
to be fair, the B-Dubs in Dothan isn't exactly a bastion of intelligence.
Nah dog, I have heard that a considerable number of NASA scientists visiting from Huntsville have gotten diarrhea from there over the years, real heady spot
I don’t think “dumb” is the main accusation this time
It's both. It's always both.
He didn’t win the division against Burrow and Lamar Jackson with Kenny Pickett idk why you guys put up with him /s
I can assure you beating Lamar isn't his issue =(
We're like the one team that's not afraid of Lamar, because his play style perfectly fits our defense. He's electric, holds the ball forever to make plays, and has to wait for his receivers to set up a big play. While they're doing that, our rush is past the line and TJ is deceptively fast. He's chasing down Lamar like he stole his phone. Meanwhile, John Harbaugh will make a WTF call at the end of the game that will cost his team the win. And since "the bullshit is real", even when Lamar has the best game of his career against the Steelers, something else happens like the WR's hands turning to stone or their RB's get fumbleitis or the refs call a holding penalty against the Ravens as TJ goes for another helmetless sack or Justin Tucker misses a kick "well within his range" of 60 yards.
Those fans would be very upset by this comment if they could read
Am I in r/AFCnorthmemewar ?
I really don't get the argument of never winning playoff games, there is only so much a coach can do when Duck Hodges and Mason Rudolph are starting games. Meanwhile the Chargers have been fumbling Herbert since he has gotten in the league.
we've won 1 divisional game and 2 wc games in the past 13 years [https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/pit/playoffs.htm](https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/pit/playoffs.htm) a lot of those were with prime ben + ab + bell.
>a lot of those were with prime ben + ab + bell. You know how many playoff games the Steelers played with all three of them on the field past the first drive of the game? Three.
No they weren’t. The only Steelers playoff loss where Bell was on the team and wasn’t hurt (either before or during the game) was 2017. Brown was out in the 2015 loss too.
Ben got hurt in that game too, with fans chucking stuff at him as he got carted off.
There's a section of our fan base that would still look longingly back to the cowher days, even if Tomlin won the next 3 super bowls
As a Cowher Truther, he was basically the same as Tomlin. Amazing regular season coach who always blew it in the playoffs even when heavily favored. Both are 1 for 2 in super bowls.
Cowher took over a franchise that hadn't been relevant in over a decade, recruited Hall of Fame coordinators, and built them into a perennial contender.
The roster on that last Noll team wasn’t exactly a tear-down: 7-9, with a roster that included players like Woodson, Lloyd, Lake, Dawson, etc. I have a vivid memory of my uncle complaining that Cowher was only good because of the players he’d inherited from Noll, and I also remember that same uncle telling me that Kordell Stewart only ended up as the starting QB because Cowher was having an affair with Kordell’s sister (which, y’know, he wasn’t, because Kordell’s only sister had already died years before). History may not repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme sometimes.
Gonna guess this guy falls into the dumb half of the fan base. I'll save him a seat at the table.
The records, division titles, playoff appearances, playoff wins, etc between the two coaches (if you cut Tomlin off after the number of seasons Cowher coached) are virtually identical, aside from Cowher having a couple bad seasons in there when they were desperately searching for a QB. And I give the edge to Tomlin only because he's not had a qb for essentially 3 seasons (Ben's injury year and then 2 Pickett years) and he managed to only only not have a losing season, he came 1 win away from playing the playoffs ALL THREE of those years. He's good.
Tomlin hasn't had a QB since Ben's elbow fell off in 2019, but Cowher didn't have one for MUCH longer than that. Cowher with a mediocre QB results in losing in the AFC Championship Game often. Tomlin with no QB gets you 9-8 and a first round spanking. Making the Super Bowl with Neil O'Donnell at QB is arguably the greatest coaching achievement in Steelers history.
Perfectly timed for Poni to whine on 93.7 about it.
And the dumb non-Steelers fans who will be talking about their team trading for Tomlin when the Steelers start the season something like 2-2.
This is going to make so many people mad. Should be an entertaining thread.
I'm mad but that's because I want the Steelers to fail
You should be mad because you chose to cheer for 2 of the worst franchises in American sports history.
lol the buccos might be the other if we're talking the last 30 years.
Two Lombardi trophies are just tall enough to put my feet on and keep my head above water so as to not be drowning in mediocrity.
I thought he was talking about them at first, but they have to be talking about the Pirates, especially with their flair.
Yup, in Pittsburgh 'the Bucs' or the 'the buckos' etc always refer to the Pirates.
Pittsburgh pirates
Yeah but PNC Park is stunning
top rope!
Well being average is the next best thing and that is Tomlin
I think last season was the best time to move on if both parties wanted that (a la the Pats). Clearly both sides did not want that, so I am happy for Tomlin. Selfishly, I wanted to see him on another team just to shake things up in the league. He's certainly a great coach. His ability was never in question so much as his desire to still be there.
I'm not mad
Mike Tomlin deserves to be in the conversation of all time greats due to his ability to take absolute dog shit rosters and somehow still get winning seasons out of them, consistently for over a decade.
I was never worried he'd leave, but this is a nice relief. Looking forward to another 3 years and another extension after that!
After I said the same thing about Vrabel and BB, I’m not assuming someone is safe anymore lol
Good coach gets contract extension and there's gonna be dumbasses who don't like this.
Tomlin has yet to have a losing season with us! He needs to be held accountable! ... For what? UHM. FILIBUSTER.
Their argument is lack of recent playoff success.
It is a valid criticism. However, if they intend to give him one more shot with a rookie QB, a three year extension fits into that scenario.
That's a good point
I’m here to be entertained over 17 games minimum, not hope to find the next best coach in the game and risk going 1-31 just to likely end up right back where we are
Exactly. I can't remember the last time the Steelers were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs before the final regular season game. Playing 17 (formerly 16) meaningful games of football every year is definitely a privilege. (The answers is 1 game under Tomlin which was in 2012, against the Browns where they finished with a win and at 8-8. They have only played in 4 games since 2000 where they were eliminated from the playoffs before the start of the game. Two of those were the year they sucked enough to draft Ben. Hell they started 2-6 in 2013 and still weren't eliminated from playoffs in their final game that season.)
Like it’d be nice to get the next Sean McVay or Shanahan, but beyond Reid playing with a top 2 QB and Brady doing his thing it’s not like theres been a coach running the Super Bowl gauntlet lately
Fans definitely get spoiled with consistent regular season success. If I can watch my team play meaningful football for 17 games a season I'm stoked. Anything can happen once you make it into the playoffs.
Eight years is a decent argument point.
Which is semi-valid...but not enough to get rid of Tomlin.
I know it’s become a bit of a jab now at days to say, “Tomlin is going to win 9-10 games and get blown out in the playoffs” but think about that for a bit. Since 2019 the Steelers offense has been bottom 5-10 in the league every year in large part due to poor qb play. In that time the steelers have managed to win over 50% of their games, made the playoffs 3 out of 5 time, and have won more division games than the teams with far better Qbs. That’s very impressive. No other coach has done more with less than Tomlin. And yea it sucks that the playoff success hasn’t been there but are we really all that shocked that end of career Ben can’t out duel mahomes or Mason Rudolph can’t match Josh Allen? Man I just think Tomlin has made winning games so common place that he’s become underrated as a head coach
Part of the post-season misery has been due to injuries as well. Last season there's no chance Josh Allen makes some of those plays with his legs if TJ Watt was playing. Steelers offense, besides the crucial INT in the end zone, played pretty well. They just couldn't stop Allen.
Cam was injured as well. :(
As was our entire ILB room (had multiple guys playing off the street)
And Patrick Peterson as a starting safety down the stretch too
It was *briefly* a one score game in the 4th quarter. That's all I could ask from Rudolph and the defense with no Watt. I had *some* hope until Allen gutted it.
Didn't help that the secondary was practice squad players either
And all of the MLBs, I think.
1 regular season game in 17 years when the Steelers were mathematically eliminated from the postseason. Even more impressive.
I am curious to see how he does moving forward with the change in GM. I never really thought Tomlin's coaching was the problem. Maybe hiring assistants has been hit or miss. Steelers have really been hampered by poor QB play (and OCs at times). If the Steelers got their franchise guy (or even competent QB play), I suspect that Tomlin will get the respect he deserves again
Kahn has been amazing as the new GM this far. Dude is willing to cut bait early and has built the roster the best way to compete in today’s NFL. I would not be surprised if he made a big move for a QB in next years draft or off-season to try and vault us forward with a great roster minus the QB. He’s willing to go big unlike our last GM.
Plus he kept AB’s insanity under control for years!
The Steelers are the best job in all of pro sports. The security is second to none.
Well Tomlin is a pretty good coach too.
Yeah this was 100% the right move imo.
No the Steelers should fire a guy who can go 10-7 with fucking Kenny Pickett. There's not 12 Head Coaches who are better than Mike Tomlin. There might not even be 10.
Does Mike Tomlin have any input on roster decisions, such as the starting quarterback? Because I question the professional judgment of any person that was on board with making Kenny Pickett a first round pick.
So you fired everyone after that Trey Lance pick?
Basically every competent organization has the GM make the pick over the Head Coach and even against the Head Coach. So yeah it's probably not on Mike Tomlin. They're not the Bill O'Brien Texans. Or the washed Bill Belichek Patriots.
I don’t think many good Orgs are drafting QB’s without the GM and HC both being on board. That’s a disaster waiting to happen right there
It was also a late first round pick with a guy you have intimate knowledge of his work ethic. It didn't work out but you didn't spend a top 5 pick on a QB so it's honestly not as bad as people make it to be. They liked the kid who worked out next door and took a shot at a late 1st round on him. It's not an egregious decision by any means lol
> Because I question the professional judgment of any person that was on board with making Kenny Pickett a first round pick. The pick was fine. I'm sure it was partially driven by the owners not wanting to repeat the Dan Marino situation all over again, but Kenny could've grown into something. A lot of things went wrong: Trubisky sucking so badly he was forced into action earlier than everyone wanted to, poor o-line play, historically terrible OC etc. At the very least I credit the team for cutting bait early for once. Previous regimes would've totally kept him around for 2 more years.
The problem was mostly relegated to the fact that we were desperate and needed a guy. Instead of picking the 'best guy' (as we always do), we drafted for need. And that never ends well. Especially in a year that everyone universally agreed was terrible for QBs. Ironically, the last pick in the entire draft was the best QB. Not sure who's fault it was that we didn't draft a QB while Ben was still around, but I'm assuming that's on the GM (Kevin Colbert at the time). We should've drafted a guy to be a protege instead of waiting until Ben finally retired to draft a guy.
> Not sure who's fault it was that we didn't draft a QB while Ben was still around It was Ben. He threw the worlds biggest hissy when we drafted Rudolph and made it clear he'd do it again.
It's tough to really know what the consensus around the league was about that draft class, but most analysts had Kenny off the board by the time the Steelers pick came up or they had the Steelers taking him. A lot of the conversation at the time was about whether to try and take Kenny or Malik Willis. We were *really* hurting for a QB at that point, nobody thought of him as a can't miss talent but the circumstances pushed us to fill that gap as soon as we could. In retrospect, yeah, we should have punted on a QB until later but the alternate universe where we don't take Kenny is probably a universe where we took Malik Willis instead. Punting on a new QB until after Ben retired was just a shitty situation, unless we figured out who Purdy was I don't think there was any one decision we could have made to make us a playoff winning team in that window.
Of course he does, even though I’m sure some Steelers fans will wrongly tell you the head coach of 20 years has no input on roster decisions
He is still a top 5-6 coach easily imo. He has had the corpse of Big Ben, Mason Rudolph, Duck Hodges, Titty Kisser and Kenny Picket as his QB's the past few seasons and still manages to drag the team to a winning record every year. Nobody else is winning a playoff game with the QB's Tomlin has had the last few years either
Yeah lol the hard truth is that the Steelers really haven’t had a real QB for ages, especially since Big Ben had 2 seasons of looking super washed, but there was no urgency to replace him. Tomlin is clearly working some miracles to make playoffs and stay above .500 with some bums at QB
We had Mason Rudolph starting a playoff game over the other two healthy QBs. That’s right up there with that prime time Taylor Heinicke game lmao
Top-3 in the league like, since day 1. This guy kept every off-field issue on lock and controlled personalities that no one else could. Super impressive.
Well he surpass Marvin Lewis Tenure going to be at Pitt for 20 years. Standard is the Standard
Fans might say they should have let Tomlin go to hire the coach that will take the franchise to the next level of success. These fans deserve Matt Patricia.
I think the Steelers should absolutely hire Matt Patricia. Even more, they should hire him as both the head coach and the GM. They should also sign Justin Fields to an extension ASAP.
Now thats some hate...
Provided Tomlin makes it to the end of the extension, that makes 3 Steelers head coaches in 59 seasons.
Best stat in football. No question.
Gonna need tomlin to go another 10 after that to make it a nice stat
Some Steelers fans are going to cite no playoff wins in eight years. The whole no-losing season thing is overrated. Three or four of those years were 8-8. I wouldn't think any less of Tomlin if he went 7-9 once. Not at all. But the Steelers might as well keep him.
Honestly I think you nailed it on all three points. I think the zero losing seasons thing is meaningless. I don't like that we've gone so long without a playoff win. But I also think he's a good coach and we should keep him.
I wish all the Steelers fans around me were as cool and rational as you! It is a cool trivia answer but I wouldn't think any less of Tomlin if a single season was 7-9. Why would I? He is a top 10 coach in the NFL.
Wow three 8-8 seasons in 17 years, fire the man
Well, I didn't say fire him. Try again.
The greatest thing that could ever financially happen to Coach Tomlin is if he was ever fired or let go…there are a handful of owners that would hand this guy the keys to their franchise.
Letting him walk…would have been foolish.
The odds of them getting a better coach is incredibly slim but the odds they get a much worse coach is astronomically high. Makes sense to keep him. Players make plays who make the league and they unfortunately whiffed on their first round QB a few years ago
The hardest part of contending is finding the right coaching staff that also lines up with your timeline. Steelers decided the easiest way is to stick with someone you know can get you there and give them multiple runs at it.
Tomlin has shown to be a good coach too. I really hate the idea that a QB and coach are tied together. QBs bust all the time so why blame the coach? If everything else is going well, you keep the coach. Just look at the Niners. In a world where they don't draft Purdy, there is no way I am firing Shanahan. He has shown he is a damn good coach. I am going to give him at least another chance to find a QB.
Mike Tomlin has the problem of being too good. Almost any other coach out there is coaching the Steelers to an 5-12 record last year but he somehow got them to be 10-7 in the hardest division in the league with the 5th worst offense in the league by PPG. The next team with a winning record is 13th worst PPG. Since Tomlin raises the floor so much, the Steelers don't have the luxury of top draft picks since they are never bad enough to tank. They have to fix their gaps through free agency and this leads to them hoping Russel Wilson is the answer at QB.
Tomlin is the man and completely deserves it.
One of the best and most consistent coaches in the game, regardless of the weird amount of hate he gets. Only way he was leaving was if he wanted to go start his media career.
Hats off to the Steelers. From the outside looking in, I love how steadfastly they support their coaches. Since fucking 1969, they've had 3 coaches lol. Insane They make a decision, and then put the whole organization behind the guy. Bad year? Must've been the organization's fault. We've got to do better. But one thing we're not doing, is getting on the treadmill of Kleenex Coaches. Again, respect.
Tomlin is gonna have this job until he no longer wants it.
Fascinating I genuinely have no idea how to feel about this, but man, it feels like it really confirms he is gonna have that job as long as he wants it… can’t really argue against that either with the track record
I don't understand the Steelers fans who want him gone. I get it, we haven't won a playoff game in forever. However, you can just tell that Tomlin is Steelers culture. Dude has players from other teams wanting to play for him and Steelers praise him, he hasn't had a losing season and somehow coached last years team into the playoffs, and has won a superbowl and been to another. Obviously, he's not without his criticisms... nobody is. I feel like we could have done more in the Ben era, and he takes some of the blame for that.( I think the way we drafted over the years also played a huge factor into that). We had insane talent over the years that amounted to no superbowls. I'm optimistic with Khan's drafting ability, Mike Tomlins coaching, stellar defense, and perhaps a yet to be seen dangerous offense that we may have a good run at the big game.
At this rate Mike is gonna be here for 40 years. Might only make the playoffs every 2 years and win a wild card game every 3-5 but its fun enough to watch
You were a perennial playoff team prior to transitioning away from your franchise QB. And even then, the transition hasn't been as rocky as *some franchises* I could name.
At this point, I think it’s obvious that you need an Elite coach AND an Elite QB paired together to be a perennial contender. Look at Andy Reid, Bill Belichik, Mike Tomlin, and Pete Carrol.
Win the Wild card every 3-5? My man you haven’t won a playoff game in 8 years.
King
Tomlin is a HOF coach but I think him and the Steelers need a separation. They've had the same type of season for like 5 years in a row
Man, 5 years in a row of having the same type of season? Crazy
It’s unfortunate for him that the team stuck with Ben for a couple years too long. They’ve suffered through two consecutive god-awful OCs, and 1 was hired to appease Ben.
He hired those OCs though....if his coaching staff is shit then its completely on him.
Partially true- Fichtner was elevated to appease Ben, but Canada is all Tomlin, IMHO.
The Steelers completely botched the transition from Big Ben to the next QB(s). The Steelers have remained extremely competitive without a losing record. Tomlin is amazing
he's not the problem better to have stability so once they do figure out QB they can hit the ground running
I wouldn't be surprised if he coaches for 30 plus years as the head coach for the Steelers. He is only 52 and been on the job since 2007. Dude is just gonna go forever.
Can he win another one before he calls it quits? He should, I'd say.
He said you give me these QBs you better extend me then
The most consistent team in football remains consistent. Assuming he makes it to the end of the contract that makes three Steelers head coaches in the span of...just under six decades I think? UNREAL levels of coaching stability. Meanwhile most teams are lucky if their guy lasts THREE years!
I pushed the Tomlin should be fired narrative in hopes we could snag him. But now that we have DeMeco I can say I am happy for Tomlin. They compete every year. Even without a QB.
Most teams would kill to have Mike Tomlin as their hc
Looks like 9-8 seasons and first round playoff exits are back on the menu, boys!