The Mike Tomlin (and general coaching) Complaint Thread

then quick to

Sometimes you got to say What the fvck!

 

Sometimes you gotta say, WTF.

 

Because every year people write articles about how we're going to fire Tomlin. And it doesn't happen.

Yet people fall for it every single year.

This is not how Rooney or his father, or his father runs this football team.

Who was president last time we fired a head coach?

Tomlin is only leaving (1) if he chooses to or (2) if his contract isn't renewed (after the 2027 season).

 

Maybe the majority of the success that Cowher and Tomlin have both had is because of Lebeau? He's the only common denominator for all the post 70s SBs.

Honestly, I think most of the success of Cowher and Tomlin is on Ben (also Troy re: success).

 

Cowher has make several afc title game without LeBeau as DC(1994,1997 and 2001) and it was with Neil or Kordell(twice) as QB

 

Nixon or Johnson. I am too lazy to look it up.

 

The first statement was half-joking.

The second statement is what I think the truth is. The vast majority of our success and failure under Tomlin (and the end of Cowher's term) was about Ben. I don't think I'll ever see a player that can consistently pull rabbits out of hats like Ben could. He was elite at making huge plays. And they tended to come in incredibly important moments. But (like Favre), he was also one of the "best" at digging the holes the team had to try to climb out of.

Lots to reasonably complain about re: Tomlin. Particularly since the AFCC loss against the Pats.

But trying to erase the success that he's had diminishes the argument against him in the present IMO. Makes it seem as though it's just an attack on him personally. Rather than a legit complaint about things that are true about the team now (e.g. stagnant defense that can't defend the run or the pass and also can't tackle).

I think one of the biggest problems for Tomlin is that the game has changed and he mostly hasn't. In a way, I'm starting to think about Tomlin in a similar way that I thought about Najee.

Najee would have been close to an ideal back in the 90s...especially under a coach like Cowher. But the game changed and explosive plays became way more important than 3-yards and a cloud of dust. And I think Tomlin is only one step removed from that Marty-ball style of football. And it's just not that successful in today's NFL. Particularly when you don't have a good QB.

 

I think I looked it up somewhat recently and it was the same year Nixon was elected, but before the election.

IMO Rooney isn't going to pay Tomlin big money for multiple seasons to not coach for us. He doesn't have the money to make those kinds of decisions.

 

Click click click

 

Joel it’s called clickbait

Once yo7 have been around here for more than a few weeks you will catch on

 

I'm hoping a first losing season and hopefully that will spark his ass to step down so that the rebuild can begin. All Dumlins doing is holding the team hostage and these meaningless winning seasons are doing nothing to better the franchise and it only enables Looney Rooney to keep this idiot around.

 

Not trying to argue, but why do you think Tomlin is the one standing in the way of a rebuild?

I think the business model of the team is to be "consistently competitive" for a playoff spot. I don't think Rooney (or the Rooneys) can stomach down years because the Steelers are how they make money.

And while we have legit complaints about Tomlin, I think we've played fewer than a handful of games that didn't matter since he's been here.

Which is exactly what I think Rooney wants.

Which is why I think Rooney likes Tomlin more than fans do.

And why I think hoping for the team to dramatically change it's philosophy after Tomlin leaves (whenever that happens) would be setting someone up for disappointment.

 

After tomlin rooney will be exposed . I wait for an epic crash and these recent year s will sound different at the media eyes . A tomlin debacle could force rooney to sell ! I know i'm too ottimistic ! Just can't stand the status quo

 

When a season beat writer like Gerry Dulac who knows Art Rooney II says it, it is relevant , not clickbait.


https://www.si.com/nfl/steelers/onsi/news/pittsburgh-steelers-owner-growing-frustrated-mike-tomlin


There is a lot more where that came from on the web. Just search.

Art Rooney II is his own man.

 

If I knew you IRL, I'd be happy to make a bet with you Joel.

I'm pretty confident that there is very close to a 0% chance we'll fire Tomlin between now and the beginning of next season.

It wouldn't just be a massive change in the way that Rooney runs the football operation. It would be a massive change in the way he approaches the finances of the team. And I personally think that the finances are what drive pretty much everything about this this. Particularly re: being consistently competitive.

I strongly believe that Rooney isn't going to pay him $16MM/year (I think 3rd highest paid coach in the league?) to sit on his couch (or maybe to become a commentator?) for the rest of this season, all of next season, and all of the season after that (approximately $40MM total).

I don't think he really has the kind of money where decisions like that wouldn't be painful.

Which is why it's exceedingly rare for us to even do this for coordinators. Reportedly, Canada was making less than 1/10 of what Tomlin is making now ($1.5MM) and look how much it took for the Steelers to fire him half a season before his contract ended.

 

There are tickets available for today's game for under $100 online (in April they were 2X this price). This may be the one thing that will spur ownership to some kind of action.

 

I think this is an excellent case of "be careful what you wish for".

The most concrete example of people wishing Rooney would sell that I can think of is when people were hoping he'd sell to Tepper.

Mostly because Tepper was supposedly critical of Tomlin.

Then Tepper bought his own team, where he could run the show.

Since becoming the majority owner of the Panthers (May 2018), Tepper's team has the following records:

• 7-9
• 5-11
• 5-11
• 5-12
• 7-10
• 2-15
• 5-12

They haven't played in (or won) a playoff game since Tepper took over. And they've never been as good as they were in Tepper's first year (maybe the owner's equivalent of a "Cowher's players" argument here?)

They are currently 4-4.

I think Rooney runs the team specifically to avoid this kind of stretch. Maybe they eventually are bad enough and lucky enough to draft a good QB and they turn it around. But my guess is that no one really cares about football much in Carolina these days.

Which likely means revenue is down.

For a billionaire hedge fund manager (Tepper) it's probably not a big deal if his toy isn't optimizing revenue. But I think it would be a big deal for Rooney who is rich because of the team (vs. having the team because he's rich like Tepper).

 

Welp, Belichick did get his first UNC win yesterday.... so there is that.

 

I think this is the kind of thing that could matter to him next time Tomlin's contract comes up (or maybe even within a year or so of his contract ending if Rooney is furious and the team is terrible).

On their site, the lowest tickets I see are ~$120...maybe resale is less or there's a better place to buy them?

But I don't know what the "normal" price for upper bowl seats are a few hours before kickoff. I'd imagine that games are normally sold out. But I also think that teams have odd definitions of "sold out".

Either way, I'd be very confident that Rooney isn't going to drop $40MM to fire him now to see if it would improve. He's here until he wants to leave IMO. Or until the end of his extension (or the next one, or the one after that, etc).

 

I agree that Rooney won't fire Tomlin. But with each underperforming season the chances of extending him are declining. The time to abandon ship isn't after it's 100 ft down.

 

You're forgetting Ben was in all of those after '95.