Why is it so hard to list Tomlin's best attributes as a coach?

In my experience whenever I ask someone to list Tomlin's best attributes as a coach they respond with a combination of his overall record, the fact he's never had a losing season, that he won a SB, etc.

I then say "great, those are nice, but those are his results...not his attributes". Attributes are characteristics of Mike Tomlin as a coach.

For instance, can we say Tomlin is a great tactician. Or perhaps he is a master of managing the clock. Or perhaps he makes really adept in-game adjustments. Or maybe he is an astute evaluator of talent. Perhaps he is a strict disciplinarian who ensures his teams are ready to play week in and week out.

So I ask again, could someone please list Tomlin's best attributes as a coach? Not results, but attributes. I will start with one -- players seem to like him a lot. He is relatable, players find him cool. He is a "players coach" and I mean that in the most positive way possible.

What else can we come up with?

 

This could be a short thread.

 

He's quite the wordsmith.

 

Because he has exactly none. He was at his best taking over a Cowher led team that was very disciplined. That is long gone and we are seeing what Tomlin can do with the guys he has groomed, jack sh!t.

 

He mastered the language of coach speak.

 

An even better question would be, what would Tomlin be without Ben?

 

He doesn't live in his fears and lets the team do whatever they want

 

Out of a job

 

He'd be Hue Jackson.

 

They say he is a great defensive coach

 

Wasn't his specialty DBs / being a secondary coach? Yet our secondary has been the biggest weakness of the defense every year under Tomlin.

 

I hear he has fresh minty breath. Couldn't come up with anything else.

 

If smooth talk won football games, he’d be king of the NFL. But it doesn’t. So he’s not.

 

He is the 911 operator. He is calm in the midst of the storm, he is decisive when the moment calls for it. He is firey when the team needs emotion, calm confidence when the chips are down. He is a life coach who happens to coach and guides young men on their journey. He is the delia lama of the NFL. All of which would be fine if he cared about the x''s and o''s of the game more than the final story.

 

I like the way he talks and his gestures are funny.

 

What were Cowher's positive attributes? He yelled and slobbered. That's all I got. What about Dick Lebeau? Looked like a genius when our defense was stacked with talent and got run out of town when that talent dried up. Tomlin has had a ton of success. Even if you think he deserves none of the credit for that you have to answer what has changed? Has Tomlin gotten even worse as a coach or is it possible that the players are not as good as they used to be? I really wish I could believe it was simply a matter of incompetent coaches as it should be easier to replace an incompetent coach with a competent one than it is to replace the players with better ones. Unfortunately I think what happens on the field is 90% or more on the players and not the coaches and our players on defense are simply not looking good enough. For sure Butler and Tomlin aren't doing anything or at least enough to overcome the players but again I am left wondering why it was enough from them in the past but now it isn't. Coaches do not generally fall off a cliff the way older players sometimes do.

 

I think it’s a mix. You need players at or above a threshold skill level, obviously. But you also need to give them responsibilities and tasks they can execute. Either one without the other is going to produce inconsistent results.

 

He know how to pick out a nice pair of sun glasses.

 

I forgot he is also excellent at diagnostic medicine .

 

I've been told...

• He doesn't call the offense (that's the OC)
• He doesn't call the defense (that's the DC)
• He doesn't draft the players (that's the GM)
• He doesn't play the game (that's the players)
• He doesn't draw up the schemes and adjustments (that's the coordinators)
• He doesn't teach the players (that's the position coaches)
• He doesn't control the crybabies (that's their own fault)
• He doesn't control who the coordinators are (that's the GM/Owner's job)

Here's what he is...

A cheerleader who was clearly a passenger on the super bowl winning team (see: Switzer, Barry). He was handed a great franchise with experienced coordinators and exceptional talent. His one noted "asset", that the players like him, is clearly a detriment. His sole responsibility is to manage a game and he is terrible at that. He needs to be fired. He won't be.

 

That's pretty sad, still waiting for his best attributes? Were Bradshaw, Harrison wrong? Somebody tell us something that he is good at?

 

He does have one. He is a good bull ****ter.

 

keeping Dr. House in check?

 

Maybe because we have 1st and 2nd round draft picks all over this defense and Tomlin has a major hand in drafting these players. It's not that a coach gets worse it's that he doesn't get better. The league has changed since he took over its not necessarily the war of attrition he wants to make it out to be. It's not ,this is what we do and how we do it. It's a Chess match more than ever and I'll say it again we are playing Connect 4...we can't seem to draft defense but we can draft offense? Look who is supposed to be a defensive coach and look at our DC they're not making anyone better and you can say they're making them worse. The high picks have been invested....do something with them.

 

Ouchie wa wa!