How does Mike Tomlin compare to other NFL head coaches? There's no doubt the standard has fallen.

We're still a season away from really competing.. unless we strike gold all over this draft.

 

I don't agree.
We are a KFP making a step up , and We are automatically competitive.

 

Sure would be cool to get a sauce Gardner type of impact corner in the draft

 

I don't think this draft has a Sauce Gardner type of CB in it.

 

I think both Ben and Tomlin will be HOFers but I think both underachieved to capitalize with the opportunities they had in Ben perhaps being more of a leader in the locker room and playing better in the post-season and Tomlin not controlling the locker room and not taking advantage of having a great offense and the defense letting them down. It's not easy to win a Super Bowl. One could say the same thing about Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Brett Favre and the Packers not taking advantage of Aaron Rodgers in his prime. Like looking back and thinking how could Mario and Jagr just win two Stanley Cups?

 

I think everyone esencially agrees with that. While some think one guy or the other holds a larger percentage of the blame than the other.

But the elephant may or may not be disrupting some realities, opinions or observations.

 

You can not judge a Head Coach without also judging the Front Office and who he has at QB. What have Bill Belicheck and Andy Reid done without Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes? I am not discounting Ried or Belicheck either. Tomlin is a very good coach. Sure he has his faults just like any human being does. Tomlin teams are always better than average to really good. Same with Belicheck and Reid when they didn’t have the Franchise QB’s in place. In fact I would say the best coach in the NFL right now is Shanahan from SF. He is having high level success without a franchise QB.

 

Reid made it to four NFC Championship games with Donovan McNabb. That's quite an accomplishment. So you hold Brian Billick in very high esteem because he won a Super Bowl with Trent Dilfer?

 

This

 

Ok but Reid didn’t win a Super Bowl until Mahomes. Plus McNabb was considered to be a pretty good QB at that time. Tomlin went to two Super Bowls and won one with Ben. Tomlin also had some

Donovan McNabb was a pretty good QB during his tenure under Reid. He only imploded toward the end of his career. Belicheck never won a Super Bowl Pre or Post Brady. You really can’t have one without the other unless you have an overwhelmingly dominant Defensive Unit like the Ravens had under Billick. I don’t think that is even possible anymore in todays NFL with all of the rules favoring the Offense.

Tomlin is a very good coach. Has he under performed at times, yes I would say perhaps but you can say the same thing about Bellicheck and Reid. The Steelers had a lot of poor luck over the last 5 - 7 years that were completely out of Tomlins control. Cornerstone Blue Chip Players were lost to early retirement or for other reasons - Antonio Brown (left because of pride), Leveon Bell (left because of greed), David Decastro - (Early Retirement - Injury), Ryan Shazier (Early Retirement - Injury), Stephen Tuitt (Early Retirement). That is a lot to overcome. Those were all blue chip players that were lost in the prime of their career that we were counting on. From a team building perspective it is very difficult to overcome all of that.

Did we underperform in some of those years when we had all of that talent? I will say yes and no. Many of those years with the Killer B’s we had an aging defense that we were transitioning out of and rebuilding. So we had a high scoring productive offense but as soon as one of our three stars was injured which seemed to happen every post season we failed to advance. If anything I would suggest the issue was more of around the way the team was built more than anything. We lacked depth in a lot of areas during those years and we really had a soft defense for many of those years. The Killer B’s really hid a lot of warts during that time.

That Jacksonville Playofff game ws so frustrating. Our Offense was awesome but we could not stop them from c=scoring. I know we had turnovers but our defense was pretty bad at that time.

When you are a one dimensional team it usually catches up to you. Not only were we one dimensional in that we had a below average defense but we also had a below average run game so we were one dimensional at a micro level on offense as well. Yes we had Bell but a big part of his production was in the passing game. If your gonna pick one attribute to one dimensional in I would suggest being one dimensional in having a strong run game. I feel like that creates a much stronger foundation for the team in the long run. This also points to my example up above regarding the Jacksonsville Playoff game. We were a team completely built around a high passing offense. The one way you beat a high passing offense is to create turnovers and maintain the ball when your offense. That is exactly what Jaksonville did to us. I would suggest that playoff loss was more on Ben than it was Tomlin. We built the team to ride with him and when you turn over the ball and have a poor defense it is hard to come back from that even with a high potent offense.

If your gonna fault Tomlin in one area it has been his in ability to cultivate top level talent amongst his coordinator hires. I do think perhaps he is a notch below Bellicheck and Reid in that area. I think we dropped the ball also in the last few years when the whole offensive line basically was lost to retirement or not retained all at once. Part of that blame can be put on Colbert as well.

From a team building perspective, I do believe Tomlin has recognized a lot of this and thats why you see us putting so much emphasis into building this line up. Seeing the success of teams like SF and Tennessee with strong run games and solid defenses can go a long way towards carrying team especially a young QB who is developing. I do think Tomlin is more like Beliicheck in that they are both defensive minded coaches where as Reid is an offensive minded and more innovative coach. I think that ultimately Tomlin can perhaps have more success with Pickett at the helm for the following reasons:

1. Ben had an Ego. He desired to have a high performing passing offense and there seemed to be friction all the time with a lot of his coordinators. You look at some guys wh are really talented and into all of that stuff and they may be good but do they win? Aaron Rodgers is a perfect example. Super talented and very productive but it appears from the outside that he is difficult to coach. Guys who undermine the coach and don’t play within the system often don’t succeed in the long run. Perhaps you can say Bellicheck did a better job of managing Brady than Tomlin did with Roethlisberger. The circumstances were a little different though as Bellicheck was already well entrenched in New England when Brady came along. The opposite was true for Tomlin and Roethlisberger. Perhaps Tomlin wanted to be more careful in how managed Roethlisberger from a team chemistry perspective as a result.

2. Tomlin is more tenured and entrenched now. Picket is a young kid and one without an Ego. I think it is the work ethic of Picket that will contribute to him just getting better and better but also I think he will be more of a team player than Ben was. I think he will play within the system more and be more supportive of his OC than Ben was. That goes a long way towards team chemistry and keeping everyone else in line on the team. You never saw people question Bellicheck because Brady never did. I don’t know if that was the case with Ben and Tomlin. I think that opened doors as a result for big personalities like Bell and Brown to do what they did.

3. Obviously if we will be able to build a team similar to SF with Kenny’s rookie contract. The blue print as it pretty much always has been is dominant defense and a strong run game with a good QB. I don’t think you need a great QB if you have the other two elements. The only question that remains is will we be innovative enough on offense to help Pickett grow and will we be able to win shootouts or come from behind if need be.

One thing I am certain of. Tomlin had some pretty amazing units both on offense and on defense. He has proven he knows how to build and coach up both units. Mid to late 2000’s Defenses and mid to late 2010’s Offense. The issue has been more around building two good units at the same time. I don’t know who you pin that on. Is it Tomlin fault, Colberts fault or Rooney’s fault? I think the Steelers have always held on to some of their stars for perhaps a little too long and perhaps that hurt them especially with that aging defense during the Killer B years but on the flip side of that coin that sentimental element is what makes the Steelers special as well.

 

A couple other good examples to support my narrative above.

Troy Aikman and the 90’s Cowboys. That team was built around a awesome run game and dominant Defense. Aikman was good but he was no Mahomes or Brady. No. He was even an Aaron Rodgers who only won one Super Bowl. I think Pickett can develop into an Aikman type QB.

Buffalo Bills today. I see a lot of similarities to the Bills now compared to the Steelers during the Killer B’s era. Awesome passing offense, average to poor defense and without Josh Allen scrambling there run game is pretty non existent. One other thing they seem to turn the ball over a lot in big games. Kind of sounds like the Steelers during that time. To amy teams got enamored with Brady and the Patriots but they were different. Brady rarely turned the ball over in big games. The Patriots always had a sound defense and a solid run game with awesome play action passing. In fact Brady didn’t need them to invest heavily in the WR’s because he was so good at bringing average players up a notch with his precision and attention to detail. I always thought it was Bellicheck but then I realized Bellicheck;s biggest accomplishment was providing the foundation around Brady and coaching up the defense letting Brady do his thing.

If your gonna build around an explosive airiel attack to the detriment of the run game and or the defense, you better not turn over the ball. Thats the difference between Josh Allen and Mahomes. You can cover up warts with a strong aireil attack so long as you don’t turn the ball over.

That is one thing Bellicheck did very well. Even when they had an amazing airiel attack he always was able to be multi faceted by having a strong run game if need and when needed and a solid defense. Perhaps Tomlin learned that he never wants to be in that position again like he was with Ben and only being one dimensional around the passing game.