Rooney II Weighs in on Tomlin

As a side point, the lack of a franchise QB was Cowher's decision, ultimately. After all, how many high draft picks did he spend on QBs?

 

I remember when Cowher was first hired, following Noll and his four Superbowl rings, I just wasn't sure what to expect. Then I remember "Cowher Power" and I loved Bill Cowher as our coach. I was sad to see him leave. After Tomlin won a Superbowl and then made it to another one, I was glad he was our coach. My buddy like many here grew tired of him back in October. Since then, the team played well. They could have won 6 in a row. They were close with both the Rats and Dolphin games. I had to admit, in October, I questioned whether Tomlin would survive. Even before this news, it was a safe assumption that he would be retained. All of the Superbowl winners recently have several years with their coaches. Consistency works.

 

Agreed, as long as you are sticking with good players/coaches/people in the front office...
We have been pretty blessed compared to the rest of the league...
It is certainly better than the mess in Cleve, where the new owner, gave his new head coach, exactly ONE season to do his best to turn the team around, with 3 different qb`s, and trading away their star runninback...
After endorsing said coach as such a great hire, wth a "ton of potential"...
On the flip-side, tho...
Doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results, is the definition of insanity, by many people...
I`m not down on Tomlin... There are many areas of in-game management, he could improve on, IMHO...
And I have to wonder, in some cases, whether management ties his hands on picking his staff...
Personally, I`m glad Arians is gone, but i get the feeling the Rooneys made that choice, over Tomlin`s objections...
Who knows?
I think he is worth sticking with, for now, as a head coach...
I think the players relate to him, and like you said, there is something to be said for consistency...
However, I do fault him, for having this team come out "flat/unprepared", too often, when they shouldn`t...
That is also a head coaches job.. And he really needs to improve on that...
I lay a lot of the blame for our team`s INconsistency, at his feet...
GO STEELERS!

 

maybe... But I'd say his past coaching performances would indicate otherwise. People forget he was on the verge of being fired prior to the Bledsoe injury. If that season didn't go well, he likely loses his job. He said as much in his " Football Life" documentary. Bledsoe is a borderline HOF'er (he's the tier below), and Belichek couldn't seem to coach him up? And he had already been to a Super Bowl. I think Brady is one of the few QB's in the league who would succeed in any system. Love him or hate him, he's self motivated like the greats in every sport. He competes with himself and that's it.

If Bledsoe doesn't get hurt, the world never sees Brady. Was't like Bill was stashing a 6th round QB on the bench to coach up, or as the heir apparent, and unleash on the world at a later time

not saying the guy can't coach. Simply saying sometimes **** is just chalked up to luck. In my book luck is; opportunity meets preparation. Both were prepared and seized the opportunity... And here we are.

 

I've heard this argument a few times. So, I was curios to see if any validity existed to support this point of view. In my opinion this argument is inaccurate. Below I'll detail the info that has lead me to this conclusion. First, I think most can agree that in most instances franchise quarterbacks are predominantly found in the first rd. Banking on a later draft pick to be the face of your franchise and lead you to the promise land is not a logical move. given this criteria I looked at all first rd. picks from 92 (when Cowher took over) and 2004 ( when Ben was drafted) to determine who was available as it relates to our draft position. Any QB that was available at the Steeler's pick or after in Rd 1 and a few who we're near the top of Rd 2, I'll Bold the name.

the layout will be Year--Steeler's draft position--players in rd 1-

1992-Steeler Pick 15—David Klingler/Tommy Maddox
1993-Steeler pick 23—Drew Bledsoe/Rick Mirer
1994-Steeler pick 17—Heath Shuler/Trent Dilfer
1995-Steeler Pick 27—Steve McNair/Kerry Collins
1996-Steeler Pick 29—No QB drafted in the first round (Tony Banks Rd 2)
1997-Steeler Pick 24—Jim Druckenmiller (Jake Plummer Rd2)
1998-Steeler Pick 26—Peyton Manning/Ryan Leaf
1999-Steeler Pick 13—Tim Couch/Donavan McNabb/Akili Smith/Daunte Culpepper (Culpepper went 11th)
2000-Steeler Pick 8 —Chad Pennington
2001-Steeler Pick 19—Mike Vick/(Drew Brees Rd2 Pick 32) At the time, would have been a pretty big reach at 19.
2002-Steeler Pick 30—David Carr/Joey Harrington
2003-Steeler Pick 16—Carson Palmer/Byron Leftwich/Kyle Boller/Rex Grossman (We took Troy here...seriously better pick than Palmer at 1.)

As you can see the only legitimate choice would have been Brees...but it's not as though we would have had the Brees of today. I personally liked Brees coming out, but only if we could've snagged him in Rd 2.

So, in conclusion—I don't feel Cowher had much option, given our draft position and available talent. Getting a franchise QB is part scouting talent and part luck that your down season coincides with a good QB draft. I obviously didn't account for potential trades as there is no way to tell if we could move up in a given year.

 

I agree and also I loved Steve McNair. Ben actually reminds me a lot of him actually. McNair was one of the toughest dudes to ever play the game. He was like Brett Favre to me. Me and my buddies used to always say he was the second toughest qb ever.

 

If him you refer to is Cowher. Was not 2008 the hardest schedule ever assigned to the Steelers that year? How'd we finish that year?

 

THe ifs and buts are tired. The Patriots didn't fire him and he's proven repeatedly that he's arguably the best coach in the NFL. I also have to question the on the verge of being fired statement. His first year as the Patriots head coach is his only losing season and the following year he won the Super Bowl.
5-11
11-5
9-7
14-2
14-2
10-6
12-4
16-0
11-5
10-6
14-2
13-3
12-4
12-4

Care to point out when he was on the verge of being fired by Kraft? There's not an owner in the league that would fire a coach for a record like that.

 

Him, is referring to Peyton Manning. Cowher is no where near the GOAT.

 

this is the resume ownership would be looking at when considering firing.
6-10
7-9
7-9
11-5
5-11
5-11-first season with pats.

Track record doesn't instill a lot of confidence early.


Words came from his statement, on video. I'd say it has validity. And he was speaking in terms of the early portion of his second year with the pats. If you're an owner and you see his body of work prior to your organization, which was underwhelming to be kind. And you go 5-11 you're first year, you're leash as a coach is pretty short. That's the point I'm making. It wasn't like this guy showed up with a winning resume where you give him a large amount of time. He had one winning season in his previous 5 coaching years prior to the pats job. And you put up a 5-11 stinker... With Drew Bledsoe. His job was not as secure as people would like to remember. He said so himself.

And as as I said previously, not saying he's not a good coach. Things fell in place for him...Brady, tuck rule... And the rest is history. But I think the walk on water credit he's given is a little overblown. With Brady, you could likely make josh mcdaniels the coach and win10-11 games a year.

 

I think McNair was gone by the time we picked?

 

McNair would have been awesome for us. I think he would have fit the Steelers mold perfectly.

 

Blast, do you think Tomlin is a good "teaching" coach? Do you think he's an Xs and Os kind of coach or more of a motivator?

This is my biggest complaint under Tomlin, our inconsistency. Start strong finish weak one season and start weak finish strong the next. The bottom line is one season was as good as the other and we finished out of the playoffs. It's good that we kept fighting and finished strong, Tomlin deserves credit for that. He also deserves an equal amount of blame for the crappy start and losing to teams that we should beat. The verdict is still very much out on Tomlin but 8-8 seasons during Ben's prime years wasting away in Mediocreville WILL NOT CUT IT!

 

I'd put him in the motivator category too. My perception is that he'd be in the bottom quadrant of Xs and Os coaches. I really believe that's why the Rooneys have the current set up as it is with LeBeau and Haley as the coordinators. Two strong Xs and Os coaches. I may be wrong about that but Tomlin seems to have trouble with situational football and game management so I wouldn't have much confidence if he had to devise a gameplan.