Time for the Tomlin discussion

https://www.behindthesteelcurtain.c...h-steelers-nfl-bill-cowher-ben-roethlisberger

Since he took over as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2007, Mike Tomlin has been a polarizing figure to the fan base. When Pittsburgh won in those early years, it was with “Bill Cowher’s team,” according to his naysayers. To his strongest defenders, though, he can do no wrong, is not to blame for any of the Steelers’ issues, and should be the head coach until he decides he doesn’t want to be- no questions asked. As per usual, the fairest assessment of Tomlin lies somewhere in the middle. So let’s have the Mike Tomlin conversation- the good, the bad, the ugly- all of it. Because there are healthy helpings of all three.

Yes, whether you want to admit it or not, there has been a lot of good in Mike Tomlin’s now-17 season stint with the Steelers. Pittsburgh has been to three AFC Championship games, two Super Bowls, and won Super Bowl XLIII in which Tomlin became the youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl at the time. He has the third-most wins of any active head coach, is 16th all-time in
wins, and is ninth all-time in games over .500. On top of that, he has consistently raised the floor of the Steelers. In 2019 when Ben Roethlisberger was lost for the season with an elbow injury, Tomlin and the Steelers’ defense had the team sitting at 8-5 until a final three-week stretch that featured the likes of Baltimore and Buffalo was too much to get them into the playoffs. The Steelers also overcame a 2-6 record in 2022 with a rookie quarterback and finished the season by winning seven of their final nine games to get to 9-8.

All of those are remarkable feats, and Tomlin deserves his flowers for being one of the best coaches of the last two decades. The Steelers have remained one of the most respected organizations in sports throughout his tenure, and as long as Ben Roethlisberger was under center and Tomlin was wearing the headset, it felt like there was always a chance that they could get to the Super Bowl.

However, ever since 2016, the Steelers have been a mediocre franchise cosplaying as a contender, and relying on historical lure to keep fans engaged and hopeful.

This is a list of how the Steelers have finished their last six seasons:

• 2017: 13-3, lost in Divisional round
• 2018: 9-6-1, missed playoffs
• 2019: 8-8, missed playoffs
• 2020: 12-4, lost in Wildcard round
• 2021: 9-7-1, lost in Wildcard round
• 2022: 9-8, missed playoffs

Six years, three playoff berths, and no playoff wins. Now, obviously there is some context needed for a select few of these. The aforementioned Ben Roethlisberger injury in 2019 really handicapped the team and it’s a miracle they won eight games- fair enough. And in 2021, the Steelers started 1-3 with a quarterback in Big Ben who was a shell of himself, and yet they rallied to make a playoff spot. They went on the road and faced a Chiefs team that was two tiers above them in every aspect of the game and got boat raced in a game in which everyone expected that result- fine.

The rest of these, though? There are no excuses. There is no excuse as to why Blake Bortles and the Jaguars waltzed into Pittsburgh and dropped 45 on the Steelers to send them home. There is no excuse for a Browns team who was riddled with Covid, and without their head coach, to still be able to come into Pittsburgh and drop 48 points. And there is certainly no excuse as to why a 7-2-1 team with Hall of Fame talents at quarterback, running back, and receiver fell out of the playoff picture completely.

There are more heartbreaking losses that predate 2017, though. The loss to Tim Tebow and the Broncos in 2012- that will hurt forever. The playoff loss to Denver in 2015, a bad loss to the Ravens in the 2014 Wildcard game- there isn’t a shortage of losses in the playoffs that Pittsburgh should have won. And look, are they going to win every playoff game? No, that’s an unrealistic expectation to have, and the occasional blunder happens to every team. The thing is that it isn’t occasional for the Steelers, it’s routine. Mike Tomlin is 8-9 in the playoffs, and five of those losses should have been games Pittsburgh won. His .471 winning percentage in the playoffs is the fourth worst amongst head coaches in the top 20 for wins all-time and places him behind the likes of Lovie Smith, John Fox, and Ken Wisenhunt in that category.

I’m not going to ramble on about the fact that Tomlin hasn’t had a losing season because we hear enough about it. But for the non-Steelers fans reading this, the aforementioned losses and shortcomings are why Steelers fans have stopped caring about that feat. It can no longer be about just getting to the playoffs, or finishing the season with nine wins and patting themselves on the back for extending a meaningless record. No, for Tomlin and the Steelers, they need to start winning playoff games again. Because any other coach around the league would be let go for going through two presidential terms without so much as a single playoff win.

The lack of a coaching tree is something that Tomlin gets knocked for, as well, and it’s very fair. I see those on the other side who blame the Rooneys for the lack of quality coordinators, but I don’t buy it. When Bill Cowher was the head coach, his coordinators included Jim Haslett, Dom Capers, Chan Gailey, Dick LeBeau, Mike Mularkey, and Ken Wisenhunt- all six went on to become head coaches.

For Tomlin, the only one of his coordinators that went on to become a head coach was Bruce Arians, but Arians was already a very well-established name around the league. The same can be said for Todd Haley, who was previously the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. Randy Fichtner left a lot to be desired, but he looks like Bill Walsh compared to Matt Canada. And on the defensive side of the ball, Teryl Austin was given the job rather than hiring Brian Flores as defensive coordinator. Tomlin’s inability to bring in good coordinators has hurt the team. We can rightfully complain about Canada’s incompetence, but Tomlin is the one who brough him back after last season, and he’s the one that still hasn’t fired him. At some point, this all comes back on him.

Is all of this to say that Mike Tomlin’s seat should be scolding hot and that he should be fired after the Steelers’ next loss? No, of course not. But I would say, at the very least, his seat should be warm. Lack of pressure brings lack of motivation. Why should Tomlin go out and get top-tier coordinators if he knows he won’t be fired regardless? Too much security is a bad thing, and the fact that a coach who hasn’t won a playoff game since the 2016 season has arguably the most security of any coach in the league is indefensible. Right now, Tomlin is a college professor with tenure. There is no need for him to come up with new curriculum when he knows he isn’t going anywhere. And for that reason, the fans have suffered.

We can acknowledge that Mike Tomlin is one of the all-time great coaches who will one day be in the Hall of Fame. But it’s also time for everyone, not just fed up Steelers fans, to acknowledge his flaws- flaws that have become more visible in recent years as the game seemingly passes both him, and the franchise by.

 

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.
Ecclesiastes 3:1(a)

There was a time for Noll to move on.

There was a time for Cowher to move on.

Now is the time for Tomlin to move on.

 

I just don't meet those with this view. In years past I may have heard the occasional "well, who's out there that's better?" But it was said in general malaise over the available head coaching pool as a whole, not in reverence of Tomlin.

IMO, much of the "Tomlin apologists" stigma has risen from Tomlin dissenters who are mad at, a) vanilla nfl commentators that tout the non-losing season streak; and b) everybody else who doesn't espouse their dislike for him as often and loudly as they do.

That all said, it's past time for change. Transitioning out of Ben's era just made it more obvious.

 

Let’s look at Silverboob

 

Wasn't that a 70s James Bond villain?

 

For Cowher, it was much more his decision to leave and his decision was already made before the 2006 season since he had not signed a new contract that the steelers had offer to him....After finally winning the super bowl, I believe that all Steelers fans would have love to see Cowher back for a few more years

For Noll, it was the time after making the playoffs only once in his last 7 seasons and that could be the case for Tomlin with us if we have another mediocre season and our offensive struggle continues for the rest of the season. ...Even 20 PPG for the rest of the season won't be enough this time....

 

No thanks

 

Argentic Silverback, Prevented by James Bond from beating the Hunt Brothers from cornering the silver market. The movie title was “Every Finger has a Silver Lining”. Since it was silver instead of gold, the female lead was P. Enough not P. Galore.


Friend of my Dads got caught up in the later ‘70s silver speculation. Bought something like 200 oz of physical Silver at $50/oz (a fair sum in 1979) watched it drop to $8/oz. He showed me the box where he kept all the ingots.

 

Name a coach that has not had several good seasons then had a run of bad ones? Andy Reed was fired because he could not get it done, moved to KC and won. Belichek lost at Cleveland, won at NE and now he’s losing at NE. McVey was on top of the world for a couple years now he’s talking retirement. Pete Carroll won one then lost one and now they are just kinda out there. Noll had great success then flatlined, same with Landry.

What I think most people think that don’t look beyond the game of the week is that teams rise and fall according to the personnel they have. The decline you listed 2016 and beyond was in a result of Ben aging and becoming less effective. With that being said, most teams start losing and rebuilding through the draft. The Steelers have not flatlined which keeps them picking in the 20-28 range in the draft which gives you much less of a chance of getting a legacy player. You can (Watt) but, it’s hard. Cower didn’t achieve his championship until we lost our way to a top 12 pick and got Ben. He was around too long and we won too much to get the players that other teams get. Imagine if we had the Browns picks over the last 10 years, or the Jets.

Your real complaint is that we did not tank for a few years and rebuild like KC or Buffalo. NE struck gold with Brady, when he left, so did they. Tomlin has coached his way out of injury and with a rookie QB and managed success, and it’s actually to his detriment. This team has never chased free agents or mortgaged their future to make a one year run, if you want that, go to NFL.com and order a Rams jersey or Broncos. We typically draft and build our own teams. It’s hard to do that when you are not getting top picks.

you would probably be alot happier as a Jags fan or Cardinals, they lose to get picks and change coaches every 3 years.

 

Trolling a troll. Nice. Oh wait, I am trolling a troll trolling a troll. Nevermind.

 

Conga Line
or
Troll centipede

 

I try and ignore that crap but there's a lot of that here

 

I just saw this...If it's true we need to criticize Rooney big time for the Canada fiasco since he was the one probably who hired Canada and probably keep him after last year.Rooney deserves all the heat on this if that's the case

 

Is there now or has there been some measure of discontent with the coaches in general or Tomlin specifically?

 

I like to look at it as Trolls and Whack a Troll

 

I've been hinting at this. I keep saying if Tomlin had all this power Arians would never have been forced to retire. Ben has said this....Arians, and His wife have said this.

 

On its face, I'd have to question this. But when I think back, ARII pushed to hire Haley. And even Canada had to look better after Fichtner.

If there is such a person, this organization needs to bring in a specialist that can evaluate and identify coordinators that can help this team. Apparently, they are terrible at it. Promoting loyalists or bringing in cheap journeymen with average resume's isn't getting it done. It's fair to see that we don't know how much the offensive struggles are to be divided up between Canada, Pickett's issues and the below average performance to date of the offensive line. On defense, it's relatively easy to see that their fortunes are directly proportional to splash plays. Yes, the secondary is a problem. But they struggle to contain the run and unless Watt or someone else comes up with a big play, they are very average. Flores likely would have done more with this group than Austin I think it's fair to say. Their inability or worse yet, unwillingness to bring in well qualified coordinators and coaches while other teams seem to find them regularly is aggravating.

 

Don't forget that there was a lot of speculation that Cowher ultimately left because of his dislike of AR2 , and His running the show.

 

I don't agree with this premise. Most people thought Tomlin was a very good head coach at first. It seems like universal support for him started to fall apart after about 10 years.

I do think we are a few years overdue for a change at HC.

 

Why was he “Polarizing”? He was an established defensive coach with a championship. He’s a family man and seems to be a very good person. Why was he polarizing?

 

I generally trust what Dulac has to say. But I wonder about this, too. To my knowledge, the only hire on Tomlin's staff that ARII suggested was Todd Haley.

 

That said, let us not absolve AR II of blame here. Remember about the Najee Harris pick?! That pick came down to AR II. I imagine Tomlin wanted him too but that is something to consider.

 

Does the coach do the investing?