The Mike Tomlin (and general coaching) Complaint Thread

I don't disagree with this.

Although I'm not sure that Rooney sees the last few seasons as under performing. Maybe that's confusing Rooney's opinion with my own though. I think we've been generally at or above reasonable expectations for our talent relative to the rest of the AFC since Ben got hurt.

I know it sucks that we don't have a better team. And the "groundhog day" type seasons of squeaking into the playoffs with a not-great team and then getting handled easily by a much better team in the WC round aren't all that exciting. But I'm not sure which of those playoff games we had any reasonable expectation of winning.

Maybe the CLE one. Although I don't think many of us had a good feeling about that game given how poorly the team looked after teams figured out that Ben wasn't accurate intermediate or deep, we played what is probably the worst half of football I've ever seen in my life that game.

Though I'm not sure how much of that is on Tomlin not reminding Pouncey that he's supposed to snap it to the QB, not feet over him...or reminding Ben which color jerseys are our guys vs the Browns.

I wouldn't have been against not extending Tomlin last time (or not doing it next time). But I just don't think we'll have much change of getting past the WC round in this AFC without a very good (to great) QB.

Basically the only QBs that have beaten Mahommes, Allen, Lamar, Burrow, and Stroud in the playoffs are the other QBs on that list. We need a guy of that caliber to win a playoff game in the AFC because winning a WC game against someone in that group means you're genuinely competing for a SB.

I'd be happy if we luck into a win though. But we did get a DTD against KC (which means something like 90% win rate), but still got destroyed.

 

ETA: Just realized that you probably just meant SBs. If you're just talking about SBs, Ben didn't play when we lost to Dallas. That was Lebeau's first stint with us before he went to CIN to be a HC. That's why I said post-70s.

But I strongly agree that Ben was the main driver of team success (and failure IMO) throughout his career.

The rest of this post probably doesn't make sense for what you were saying...

Trust me, I have tried to forget several of Cowhers' playoff games.

In the same way that I've tried to forget the playoff losses to Denver and Jacksonville and Cleveland under Tomlin.

You're right that I shouldn't have said "all" since Cowher only had him for a few years. But those few years are pretty much the difference between Cowher and a somewhat better version Marty. Really good in the regular season. Better playoff record than Marty (who was bad in the playoffs), but still only 7-8 in the playoffs pre-Ben. With some crushing defeats despite being the higher seeded team (similar to the Tomlin losses we all hate...although we never had the 1 seed under Tomlin).

I think Cowher was a really good coach. But there's no way he's in the Hall without Ben. Actually, shouldn't be there either way IMO...just like Tomlin.

 

NOD was really good for us. But he certainly had a ****ty SB.

Note: if this was Tomlin we were talking about, some would discount that SB appearance because NOD was drafted under Noll (like Woodson, Dawson, Lloyd, Lake, etc.).

ETA: I think it's also interesting that when we lose games because of QB turnovers, that's sometimes the fault of the QB and other times the fault of the HC. Apparently depending on who the HC is.

 

I agree with this;

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 have a sense. Look, I share their frustration. I was very disappointed with the way we ended the season. I understand why people are mad. All I can say is actions speak louder than words and we’ve got to be better.” - Art Rooney after 2024 season

 

AND....MT has a no trade clause in that contract.

 

I agree that we should be using Rooney's actions, not his words. I personally tend to think that words in press conferences have little value. There are some quotes from Rooney's last two year in review pressers that I think support this.

I think what he's trying to do here is to placate angry fans with his words. His actions (before the 2024 season) were to ink Tomlin to a 3-year extension that made him the 3rd highest paid HC in the league. Note that Tomlin still had the 2024 season on his contract, so those three years in the extension are this year, 2026, and 2027. Was the team so different in 2024 vs. 2023 (and 2022, and 2021)? In some ways it was worse because we found out that our attempt at drafting a QB was essentially a complete failure.

Rooney's other actions include bringing back Canada even though it was very clear that he was among the worst OCs in the league. Likely because Rooney didn't want to pay Canada $1.5MM for not doing anything.

Here are some other recent quotes from Rooney.

"We appreciate what Mason did, and we're interested in bringing Mason back."
~ Also Art Rooney

We did not give him the option to come back.

"We still feel comfortable with Kenny, but with that being said, you can’t discount what Mason did and you can’t discount the fact that having competition will be good for everybody."
~Also Art Rooney

We traded Kenny away without him playing another snap in practice or a game. We also didn't even give Mason an offer.

I think both of these decisions (not making an offer to Mason and trading Kenny) were reasonable. But it shows the value in words in PCs.

Another quote from the same year as your quote:

"I think they're both capable quarterbacks (Wilson and Fields), and my preference would be to sign one of them. So that will be the priority, and I think that gives us the best opportunity to move forward. Obviously, we'll be looking in the draft as well. We've got a whole quarterback room to fill, so there are jobs open there. I wouldn't be surprised if we looked in the draft as well, either this year or next. And so (quarterback) is going to be a priority."
~ Art Rooney

We didn't match Fields' offer from the Jets even though it was reported (for whatever that's worth) that we liked him more than Rodgers. Apparently the money was similar in our deal, but we didn't want to do the guarantees the Jets did.

We didn't make any offer to Wilson.

The actions tell us that resigning one of these two QBs was certainly not "the priority".

Again, both reasonable decisions IMO. But the value of words in press conferences in low. As demonstrated by the actions.

 

I didn't know that.

Too bad. Flipping him for a better chance to land a QB (much more value than a HC) would be good.

 

Totally agree. [Mod snip] Dude wasn’t hired because of his proven resume, he was hired to fulfill their stupid “rule”. Every time they are having their as*es hand to them (which, let’s face it, is often) he just looks like a clueless chump on the sidelines. You can see there’s nothing impressive going on upstairs. Ben masked his deficiencies for years. Now that it’s “his team” he’s being exposed for the 2nd rate that he is.

We’re getting our as*es handed to us today by the Colts. There’s no doubt about it. I say we lose by 17. Our defense is sh*t much like our coach. And Rooney is getting frustrated? It’s about damn time. [Mod snip]

Mod note: For the sake of civility we steer clear of political topics in discussions here. In the future, please be mindful not to employ words or phrases that serve as dogwhistles within that spectrum. Thanks. -T

 

I said Tomlin gets blame for hiring the coordinator but you dont fire the head coach of the team in 1st place because the defense is playing poorly. If you are going to fire a coach for under performing unit the your first coach should be the coach of said unit. It would be ridiculous to fire Tomlin and not Austin.

 

yes we can always do worse but we have nothing to lose! Let's start to get rid of that shame on the heart on the sideline !!!!

 

Nice first post tell us how you really feel

 

Nobody rushing too the forums too credit the coaches??? Nice win, great adjustment to the defense switching to more zone.

 

Well? I assume you'll retract your statements, right? Right??

 

GTFO here with your BS, dickweed. Your MB handle is stupid AF as well.

 

We are blaming the D for poor performance. I agree but I also blame Author Smith for his poor play calling. Hell your 4 and out the D doesn’t have a chance to recover. Toady was definitely different. We kept moving forward, staying on the field longer which translated in scoring points and a rested D. I sure Rodgers can throw the ball more than 6 yards or less but then again he has little help in front of him.

 

Clearly a better job by the staff today. Getting 6 turnovers helps.

 

Welcome Bob

First post and already you embarrassed yourself

As for the other BS shove it

 

Bob on dis
Original
Hi
My name is
Mike Hunt
Has anyone seen
Mike Hunt

 

I think they deserve some credit as well. They played a limited hand and made it work. Moving forward Ramsey at FS and Echols at CB should be the direction they go.

I'll have to rewatch it to see how much they played 425 vs 34

 

His real name is Hugh Janus.

 

Good one
That is what my ex gfs name was
My Indian name is
One who is hung short