Looking Back On Bill Cowher's Tenure

I've seen alot of these captions, but this one is Priceless...lmbo.

 

we've had better.

 

Coach Noll...borderline genius....
compared to Bill Walsh
Coach Cowher....passion and fire...
compared to Marty Schottenheimer
Coach Tomlin ....players coach
compared to Tony Dungy

 

They did get him a QB coach. It made no difference. Two coordinators were canned under his career if you recall. He wasn't a franchise QB.

 

Hate to say this but Chuck noll is a little overrated in my book, if he retired after the 1980 season he would be regarded as one of the greatest coaches of all time if not the greatest., however he coached another 12 seasons with very mediocre results.

Love him but those last 12 seasons were tough, that and not being able to win without that incredible hall of fame talent of those 70s Steelers stain his legacy in my opinion.

 

The Steelers could had drafted Brees in the Cowher era. The next best QB they could had drafted was probably Pennington. The Steelers probably wouldn't had drafted Ben if they had Brees.

 

I always thought they said Cowher wanted Phil Rivers over Ben and once he was gone he wanted Shawn Andrews.

 

And that's where I say the Steelers ultra conservative keep a coach for as long as possible no matter what hurts them.

 

I think that story has gotten exaggerated over the years.
First thing I don't think Cowher was doing the drafting. I'm guessing he gave his input and wish list to Colbert and Colbert ultimately makes the decision?
The way I remember the story was they were set on taking the Offensive lineman and Rooney said lets talk about this. He didn't want to regret passing on a top QB as we had done with Marino.
Then I believe they came to a decision together.

 

The steelers drafts have always been a consensus by the front office since Noll left. Cowher never had the only say on who was drafted. Nor does Tomlin. So anyone criticizing Tomlin or Cowher for draft picks is wrong. The GM and scouting dept do most of the home work and decision making... the coaching staff has input on what they need and who they want but by no means are they calling the shots on draft day. Mr Rooney didn't even make the decision to draft Ben him self. He made his case on why he thinks Ben should be the pick and they came to an agreement. From the sounds of it Cowher initially wanted the top OT available but was convinced to take Ben. They make the decision together. This is why IMO we do such a good job drafting compared to most teams. It's also why people that blame our HC for draft picks are wrong.

BTW - Kordell Stewart was never a good QB. Let's be real. His ability to turn the ball over was why we could not get to the big dance with him. He was also horrible at putting together long drives when you needed them. That guy had a good line, great RB, and good WR's and still could barely break 3K yards passing. He threw more INT's then TD's and that was with the coaching staff giving him a conservative / college style offense to run. Sure he was exciting with his feet. I'll give him that. But as a QB he was not good. It was a shame because I think we had the best "team" in Pittsburgh during those years since the 70's. Our 2001 team was amazing. We should have won a SB that year but cheating by NE and Kordell kept us from winning multiple Sb's. Kordell should have made the change to WR. He was a good WR.

 

Thank God "Alice the Goon" was already taken!!

 

Cowher was a very good coach just not a Mike Tomlin. Tomlin is head and shoulders better.

 

No... Just no. Cowher could manage a clock for one thing and had a better eye for talent. And also wasn't afraid to can a member of his staff if that position wasn't getting it done. Todd Haley wink wink.

 

colbert had little to do with ben. he even said so. he had just gotten here. cowher had a lot of pull at that time. he had just gotten rid of tom donahoe. there was a power struggle between those two and donahoe was out and colbert in. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjDno3k24DYAhVBTt8KHaJJB5sQFgg0MAI&url=http://old.post-gazette.com/Steelers/20010926steele0926p3.asp&usg=AOvVaw1zLG90PHNhCUur7_otAc2a

then this is the big ben saga.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=52&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwispMDk3IDYAhWvlOAKHTVNA844MhAWCCwwAQ&url=http://www.yardbarker.com/nfl/articles/dan_rooney_convinced_bill_cowher_to_draft_ben_roethlisberger/s1_12740_23716858&usg=AOvVaw0JfVXerqUah2iTgEnjZZrY

if i'm a betting man i'm leaning more towards dan telling them they will draft ben instead of a suggestion.

i hope they do as well this time around.

 

Who do you think brought in and developed that "incredible hall of fame talent"? The fact is that the Steelers were perennial losers for DECADES before Chuck Noll was hired. For that reason alone he's one of the greatest head coaches in the history of the league. Many talented players have rotted in many mediocre organizations because that organization couldn't get the coach right. I think Noll's final few years were frustrating for him and he just couldn't regain the passion he had the first 10 years at the helm, but to call him "overrated" is absolutely asinine IMHO.

 

I get the first two comparisons, but I don't consider Tomlin's coaching style comparable to Dungy's at all. Dungy and Noll were a lot alike and that stands to reason given their relationship. I realize Tomlin's first NFL coaching gig was as a member of Dungy's staff, but he's much more emotional and more of a, dare I say it, cheerleader and not nearly as cerebral as Dungy IMHO.

 

I see that cerebral comment tossed around from time to time and never ceases to amaze me. You’re talking about something you don’t know. You can’t prove or quantify. It holds absolutely no value yet still gets used. It Makes absolutely no sense to me at all.

 

Can't help it if you're not cerebral enough to understand the context.

But allow me to elaborate just a bit. I'm not suggesting that Tomlin is dumb, I'm simply suggesting that he's more of a passionate, emotional coach much like a Bill Cowher. When I think of "cerebral" coaches, I think of Chuck Noll, Tony Dungy, Bill Belichick and Bill Walsh. Now, I think it's possible for a coach be both emotional and cerebral, Bill Parcells comes to mind, but most are weighted in one direction or the other. Tomlin is much more emotional, likes to chest thump, etc. and that's fine, I actually think there's some value to that. I like to see a coach get fired up from time to time. But let's face it, Tomlin will never be mistaken for Belichick when thinking about the more "cerebral" and "intellectual" coaches in the game. He just has a different approach and mindset.

 

You can try to explain it all you want, but it doesn’t change the fact you don’t know. You’re staring at a television and claiming someone isn’t “cerebral”. It’s laughable.

 

It's my opinion, strummer. What's laughable is that you want to get on here and spout off in your passive aggressive way and attempt to ridicule and minimize others' opinions if they differ from yours because YOU are obviously the most omniscient member of TSF. Message bards are for sharing opinions. I'll share mine and you can share yours. We can agree to disagree. Now, if you want to have an intelligent discussion about it without the snarky comments then tell me why you believe Tomlin is a cerebral coach?

 

Did I make any claims that tomlin is a cerebral coach? No. Why? Because the topic is nonsense. You might as well say tomlin isn’t cerebral because the sun is coming up tomorrow. To which I would respond tomlin is cerebral because the sky is blue. There’s no basis for the discussion. No factual evidence to support it. Understand? We can discuss statistics, win/loss records, drafting etc.

 

Oh, sorry about that. I didn't realize that YOU deemed this topic off limits. My bad.

And I personally believe that there is plenty of evidence to support my assertion that Tomlin isn't cerebral. It may be mostly circumstantial evidence but fortunately a message board isn't held to the same standard as a court of law.

And so you understand, this is...
JMHOFWIW!

 

I’m sorry you just don’t get it.

 

Says you.

 

Part of the problem with the Steelers in the 80's and early 90's is that there was no real cap. Owners such as Debartelo and Jack Kent Cook would spare no expense to bring home a winner. We saw that especially with the two strike seasons. The Rooneys would not or could not compete with them financially for free agents.