Who is at Fault?

Who is at fault ? Really I mean it. I know I used to be a Tomlin fan but I am starting to wonder.

I feel like we have gradually been getting worse year after year the last 10 years. Here is my problem with Tomlin teams within the last 10 years:

1. The Players are not disciplined. I feel like we are pretty good at evaluating talent but for some reason we just don’t play in unity. I feel like we lost our edge ever since leaders on the team like Hines Ward and Joey Porter left. The team has gradually become about individuals. Anotiono and Leveon were allowed to do what ever they wanted I feel. Ben in his own way lacked discipline. Ben was all world talent but didn’t always seemed as prepared as he could have been. Today we have talents like Claypool and Busch and Najee who have a ton of talent and could be premier players at their own positions but they either aren’t coached up, aren’t prepared or lack motivation. I guarantee you if any of these guys played for the Patriots Belicheck would have them playing t a different level. What is the reason for this. Is it lack of leadership amongst the players, Is it Tomlin, is it the Coordinators?

2. When was the last time we had a good Coordinator on either side of the ball? To me this is a direct reflection of Tomlin. Does he want a bunch of yes men around him? Is he afraid to be challenged? Why doesn’t he let some one coach the defense? Why can we go out and pluck a young up and coming coordinator from the Rams or 49”era. like a QB coach or passing game coordinator and turn him into our Offensive Coordinator?

3. We do we hold onto players so long who are underperforming or start them when they arne’t deserving of starting? Where is the accountability? Najee should not be starting ahead of Warren. Greene should not have started last season for as long as he did. Canada should not still be coaching. Why is their fear of change?

4. I know everyone is focused on Canada and the Offense but to me Austin is almost worse. He was given a premier coach to assist him and the highest paid defense in the league. I am done with the scheme we run. It is fundamentally broken. They are asking our middle linebackers to do too much. They are asking guys to be fast enough to cover RB’s, Wr’s and Te’s on crossing patterns and strong enough to get off guards and centers to stop the run. Their may be three MLB’s in the NFL who can do that consistently well. We offer them no protection with our one gap penetrating defensive line. We don’t tie up the offensive lineman with our smallish defensive lineman. This is all on Tomlin. We used to be a 3-4 defense with a big nose tackle in the middle and I understand the NFL has changed but some teams still implement that quite successfully. You can point to 2008 where we had kind of a hybrid of Tomlin and Lebanese defense and it was really good, but we are now fully all about a gap penetrating defense as if stopping the run is of no priority what so ever. We have completely sold out to stop the pass and in particular to get to the QB. You see what happens when our most important asset in that department is out.

5. Team building. We have completely ignored building the back half of the defense and the offensive line. Is that Tomlin or is it the Front Office?

6. Small coaching staff - why don’t we have a Pass Game Coordinator or Run Game Coordinator on offense or defense? Almost every team in the NFL has these positions. Who is the guy that assists Tomlin on challenges. This was the second game in a row where we missed challenging a bad call. Game day coordinator or clock management or anylytics or half time adjustments, these are all areas we seem to be lacking in as a team.

 

It's definitely Tomlins fault. He is the leader. IMO he needs to also have the balls to make the necessary changes when they need to be made.

Harvin should be released immediately! Surely a guy off the street can punt better than him. He's trash!

Canada should be released as well obviously.

So Tomlin is at fault because neither has happened yet.

 

Look here sometimes this site is hard to find for people


http://thesteelersfans.com/forums/forums/steelers-talk.5/

 

Spot on...

 

Well technically it’s Rooneys and higher ups fault for giving Tomlin the keys to the franchise. Never made the necessary changes.

Then it’s Tomlin's fault for having one of the easiest gigs in sports and still screwing it up.

Just look at the wasted draft picks over the years…

We took a Maryland scat back over a starting center in the league. Just to take a RB the next year in the 1st round. Prime example of why this roster is the disaster it is.

All the wasted picks on terrible Maryland players. Where did Matt Canada coach before Steelers? Maryland.

It’s not even hard to pin the blame here. Those are the obvious screw ups that was 100% a Tomlin decision. I can only imagine the long list of others.

 

I find it hard to argue with any of this. Rooney has kept Tomlin well past his experation date. So in all honesty he deserves the most blame.

 

We tip our cap to all other teams.

 

What other Maryland players did they pick since Canada joined the staff? I think it was just the two in 2020. Do you really thing they are in this mess because a safety they took in the sixth round in 2020 didn't work out?

Yes, McFarland over Biadasz was a terrible choice. No argument there.

 

Many wasted picks over the years. When you mention any of the picks the typical response is "its only 1 pick". Well each and every year we seem to have 1 or 2 per draft of "its only 1 pick".

 

Mike Tomlin

 

You start with Art and work your way down from there. The coaching, the drafting, the player development. Plenty of blame to go around.

 

Are there teams who hit on every draft pick?

 

the fans - for being unrealistic with their expectations with a rookie QB

 

100% Mike Tomlin. The moment he mismanaged the Antonio Brown incident in the locker room was when i was done with him. My overall problem with Tomlin is he didn't transition his style from a veteran led team that had the professionalism to prepare properly and hold themselves accountable to the "new money" young kids. He seemingly approached the team the same way but then as that team became younger and the veterans that policed the locker room were gone the lack of discipline became apparent within games and off the field. The dumb penalties, the numerous examples of losing to teams that we should have beaten, terrible clock management, terrible in game adjustments if any, and ack of control over younger players (brown and bell). He allowed two sets of rules for players like Ben, Brown and Bell.

Furthermore, his total lack of coaching tree to me is an indictment of his style. Great his players love him, but that doesn't win you playoff games. Ben needed discipline and a coach holding him accountable as well. I always saw Brady and Manning after every series studying pictures, etc. Nope not Ben, he was sitting with hat on. The coach needed one set of rules and accountability (ala Bill B). Look what happened with Harrison, he basically revolted. Doesn't always seem in the playoffs we are out-coached. Terry Bradshaw was dead on, he's a cheerleader soundbite guy that worked for a veteran team, but you give this guy a young team its a recipe for disaster.

I truly believe due to Mike being black the Steelers are very reluctant to fire him due to the Rooney rule and the continued focus on lack of black head coaches. The organization doesn't want the backlash which you know would be a tsunami ("How can you fire a coach that has never had a losing season"). It won't be "hey the guy hasn't won a playoff game in 10 years." He had a hall of fame QB, arguably one of the best receivers in the game, a great tight-end, one of the best RB's in the game, etc etc. He had great talent and underachieved due to lack of preparation, lack of discipline, inability to make in game adjustments and terrible clock management. Yes I was all over the place, but the bottom line is it starts with the Head Coach and his time has been over five years ago.

 

Nope, but its blatant many of the picks are throwaways when selected. You cannot tell me Heywards lil bro does anything for the team. Id rather pick some big OLineman who could potentially play in a couple years.

Punters least of our concerns. Its just 1 pick. U can get a punter pushing carts right now who'd be the least of our concerns also.

 

How about picking a QB in the first and last round in the same draft after having signed a former #1 pick QB, and holding on to Ben's backup?

If that doesn't qualify as incompetent, then I don't know what does.

 

jeh.

 

I'm not talking about since Canada. I'm talking about since the beginning.

Sean Davis over Vonn Bell, James Bradberry, Kevin Byard, Carl Nassib. I believe Artie Burns was a Tomlin pick as well but we will just stick with the clear cut Tomlin decisions.

Edmunds over Sony Michel, Lamar Jackson, Nick Chubb, Shaq Leonard.

We wasted two picks a 7th in 2018 and a 6th in 2019 on Alabama DTs because a Tomlin hire Dunbar vouched for them. So that falls under Tomlin imo.

2019 7th on Derwin Gray from Maryland.

2020 4th on McFarland from Maryland over Biadasz. 2020 6th on Brooks Jr from Maryland.


Do you see all the wasted draft capital in just 7 drafts on clear cut Tomlin decisions. These are just the obvious ones. We don't know what else was really his idea. Also, if he's such a great football mind how come not ONE of these little hidden Maryland gems have ever panned out? Not ONE.

 

This is Newton's first year. You're writing him off already? Lots of punters pushing carts in your neighborhood are there?

 

Who's newton? Yep...many punters are and they dont cost a draft pick. Maybe boswell has a brother that can punt.

 

the answer to the question is....

wait for it....

ROONEY!!!!! SHAZAAM!!!!!

 

Sorry, got My Cams mixed up. Why they drafted a punter is a mystery to me too but, punters pushing carts?

 

The moment he lost me was probably when he got on the field and tried to act like it was a accident against the ravens. I've been replied to before on this board and others that cowher did too but they were completely different. Cowhers was a moment of passion, frustration and losing his cool. Tomlin was just being sneaky and it shows me a little about his character or lack thereof which has bled down to the players through the years. We used to have much better discipline, accountability and very little drama. Now it's stupid penalties, finger pointing and kids running off their mouths and posting videos of dancing and things like that.

 

Total organizational failure, players included. I hope the Rooney's are
huddling up to try to correct these failures.

 

Wow, this thread spiraled into a clandestine web of rumor.

The Steelers are always in the chase. I know a lot here hate that fact.
A lot teams never sniff success. There are teams that have never been to a playoff.
That said, there are things that have gone wrong here.

I totally dismiss the draft theory or the 2 QBs... come on, that's just not accurate.
You lost a Franchise QB and those are not easy to replace, so they came up with Option A, B and C and maybe D.
So moving on from there, I as well as many other have huge respect for Kevin Colbert.
But there have been some head scratchers. The Punter was mentioned, you only draft a punter if he is Ray Guy or the likes of.
The GM/Head Coach relationship has to be fluid, they have to be on the same page when it comes to what they want and what they can work with and skills to utilize.
Something has been misfiring here.

Pittsburgh has a reputation for being a blue-collar (small market) franchise. They build through the draft, they lose players at contract time.
It is so important to be good at the draft if that's the mold they want.
But that's not exactly the case as witnessed by the cost of the current defense.

Where did the wheels come off? Aside from Ben retiring....
Scouting is important. These guys need to do a better job of drilling into the later rounds for talent and finding younger Free Agents to blend with the draft that fit a system and supply alternate type weapons (players like TJ) to this team.

• Omar Khan General Manager
• Dan Rooney Jr. Vice President of Player Personnel
• Andy Weidl Assistant General Manager
• Sheldon White Director of Pro Scouting
• Dave Petett Assistant Director of Pro Scouting
• Mark Sadowski Director of Player Scouting
• Dan Colbert Director of College Scouting
• Phil Kreidler Senior Scouting Assistant

They have a big job ahead this off season.