This will be Mike Tomlin's last season if the Steelers don't make the playoffs? NFL nation

Me too. I'm on the fence between Colbert missing on draft picks and Tomlin simply not getting the most out of his players. Tomlin himself said he's not a big scheme guy, whereas a coach like Belichek is. Now that's not necessarily what makes Belichek a great coach, but he uses schemes to put his players in the best possible situation to succeed. I'm not sure there's team in the whole league that's lost more talent than NE, yet they made the AFC Championship game. I can't help but wonder if Tomlin just isn't using guys right.

 

Baseless to who? You? Just because you deem it to be baseless doesn't make it so, Blast. The pre-season is a precursor for the regular season so therefore it is incumbent upon a team to be disciplined and hard working as they prepare for the season. It might be different if the Steelers looked good in losing in the preseason but they really didn't. They looked pretty crappy in fact and after the way the previous season finished up that was a legitimate concern that many of us had. And guess what. They started the season the way they finished the prior season and the preseason turned out to be a pretty accurate determinant in how they looked the first half. They finished strong but the BAD loss to the Dolphins ended up sealing their fate in the end.

You can accust me of clinging to irrelevant stats but you cling to your rose colored glasses. The fact is that, for whatever reason, the team did not appear to be ready to play when they began the season last year. We can blame that on injuries, poor coaching, lack of effort, lack of talent, not being prepared, being outcoached and out-schemed, failing to make the right adjustments, poor clock management or all of the above. But EVERY team has to deal with those things, not just the Steelers.

 

How about this? The pro Tomlin crowd will admit the horrible preseason was a mark against Tomlin showing that he failed to prepare his team, if the anti Tomlin crowd acknowledges the value of the late season surge that had an 0-4 team one bad call from the PO's (something only done ONCE since the merger) as an extreme positive as it is a testament to his ability to hold a sinking ship together when all seemed lost. Deal?

 

Believe it or not, at this point I am neither pro nor anti Tomlin. He's our coach and I think we all have certain expectations of our HC. I have acknowledged on several occasions that Tomlin did a nice job keeping the team together and pulling out a .500 season. But we can't forget that it took a Herculean effort to pull out a .500 season. These are the facts: We've had back to back .500 seasons, one in which we started weak and finished strong and the other in which we started strong and finished weak. The season before that we were 12-4 but what do most of us remember about that season? Getting Tebowed in the playoffs which was about as bad as having a .500 season. So we've really had 3 consecutive forgettable seasons and Tomlin's seat has to be getting a little warm by now, don't you think? Hopefully, he can rally the troops this season like he did the latter half (Dolphins game notwithstanding) last season and deliver another playoff team and Super Bowl contender. That's what we expect as Steeler fans, right? It's what the Rooneys expect. We've got a franchise quarterback that's on the downhill side of his career so the window of opportunity for Tomlin to turn this thing around is closing more and more everyday. I'm not a Tomlin lover and I'm not a Tomlin hater. I just want Tomlin to do what he's been hired to do. Coach this team to success!

 

Don't look for any takers though

 

There's one major problem with your little anecdote. Coaches today have less than 50% of the practice time that Lombardi did. Training camps are shorter, no two a days yada yada yada.

/edit

Quit blaming Tomlin and Colbert for Starks. Starks backed out of the meeting, our front office didn't ignore him to go visit the Pirates.

 

BOOM!

 

He also had at least three more weeks of camp to run the beer guts off those guys doing drills and two-a-days(three-a-days?) that would be considered inhumane and barbaric under the current CBA.

Yes, I wish everyone looked as fit and angry as the 300 when they reported to camp.

But would you agree that camp is now reduced to getting the best 53 guys that run the plays kinda like they are drawn up? Get the vets and the rooks and FA's on the same page?

It seems that it now a player's personal responsibility to remain in shape, attend OTAs, get into the film and playbook, before camp really gets rolling?

 

Yes it is, and I'm sure it's a lot harder than most would think. Sure there are the workout warriors like Harrison, TP, etc, but there are also a lot of Woodley's out there too who just lack the discipline to keep in shape when left on their own.

 

I'm not too sure it's shambles just yet the two WR's we lost.. Cotchery a 10 yr vet. used in the clutch mostly (not a bad thing).. Sanders playing his russian roulette... with this i'm not sure how much talent we really lost. We need to get the three Omigos on the field and do some polishing. I did like the idea of Ben Subpoenaing the three to S.Calf. (ok encouraged ) Moye, Wheaton and J. Brown I heard it was productive. I see your concern here, the last two offseasons havn't been all that great for the team with Mike swimming with the Phins Sanders to the pack mules now Crotch. As i said in another thread lets tap into the talent we have already invested in. Lets not forget the man AB

 

Hard to believe that someone would believe that preseason has a huge impact on the outcome of a team's season. Seriously, many of the players that receive playing time will not make NFL rosters.

Established starters/core players are a lock to make the team. Established players play just enough to knock of the rust and to LIMIT THE CHANCE OF INJURY. IMO, coaches use preseason games to evaluate newly acquired draft picks and fringe players to determine if they are good enough to make the team.

The key to preseason games is that the players on the team remain relatively healthy. If wins come along with healthy players fine. If loses come a long with healthy players that's fine too.

 

For your information, strummerfun, I got my information from Ed Bouchette who, by most accounts, is a pretty reliable source. If you'd read the entire thread you would have known that. Bouchette strongly implied that Tomlin and Colbert were taking their eyes off the ball in free agency and specifically mentioned Starks and Cotch. You gotta problem with that fire off an email to Ed!

 

Did you see the link I posted earlier which seemed to indicate that the preseason performance does matter. What are your thoughts on that?

 

I just responded to your statement about this in the other thread, but I'll do so again for your benefit. Ed asked a couple of questions. They were leading, but questions none the less. You ignored the question part and ran with the answer you wanted.

 

And I just responded to your response in the other thread and won't bother to rehash it here.

 

Okay, Blast, we're once again at an impasse. No big surprise, right? I happen to think the preseason does matter and it can help set the tone for the season. You happen to think that the preseason matters not a bit and we should just skip it altogether. I thought the link I posted was pretty interesting and seemed to show that there was some correlation between success in the preseason and success in the regular season but you don't buy into the data. That's fine. It shouldn't surprise anyone that we'll just agree to disagree because it sure doesn't surprise us, now does it?

 

I think you're missing the bigger picture here. The losses during preseason don't matter as much as how you're losing. If you're playing fundamentally sound football during the preseason and losing it isn't particularly big deal because your starters don't play a whole combined. However if you're not playing fundamentally sound football and losing then you've probably got issues. Look at the Steelers preseason games. They couldn't run block to save their lives and it translated over to the regular season.

 

You're both wrong

 

I absolutely AGREE with this! You read that right, I actually agreed with you!

In fact, I commented earlier that it wasn't that the Steelers lost every preseason game it was the way they lost. They looked flat and unprepared quite honestly and didn't seem to shake the funk until the second half of the season. Part of it was injury, the ZBS, etc. but all teams go through similar things in the preseason and regular season. I just thought they looked dazed and confused until November.

 

I can read fine print, you know!