Ok Rooney Wake Up

Not completely true, within three years of the 96 SB run, every starter on defense was let go/cut in favor of younger players. Net result was several losing seasons between 97 & 2003, which built the core of the Steelers SB teams of 00s.

 

Huh?

They went 10-6, 11-5, 7-9, 6-10, 13-3, 10-5, and then 6-10 and drafted Ben.

I guess there were 2 in a row? But the there was no immediate dismantling and rebuild. There was an age out and an expense out. The normal post SB cycle for every salary cap era SB team.

 

Three losing seasons in that timespan = several losing seasons.

 

Ok.

But there was no directive to tear it down, trade players out, accumulate draft picks and rebuild. Like the various NFL teams we have all seen do that over the last decade plus. Teams that have no interest or intent on winning for 2-3 years as they construct their roster.

The Steelers intended to be competitive and contend every year between 1996 and 2003. Some years they just didn't accomplish that goal. They have never had the goal of entering a season and just enduring it to accumulate draft picks and experience as they rebuild their roster.

 

But unlike today, they also didn't bring in 6-7 guys 30+ to fill such holes.

 

Ok.

We would have to go back and look at each roster. I do not remember the specific sequencing of roster turnover. But there was never a take a year or two off and rebuild mandate from ownership and there never will be.

 

I don’t think anyone wants to fire him today. But after they get pounded Sunday night, they should ABSOLUTELY fire him early next week. And if by some miracle they beat the Ravens on Sunday, they’ll lose 38-10 in the 1st round of the playoffs. For the high percentage of Steeler fans that want to move on from Tomlin, it’s not because of yesterday’s game it’s because of the MANY games like yesterday. How many Steelers fans were texting or calling friends before yesterday’s game saying this game has a Tomlin loss written all over it. We all knew they would play terrible yesterday.
And that is because of Mike Tomlin. That is the culture he has created.

 

Tomlin backers look so dumb at this point I pity them.

 

Billy Martin and the Yankees aside, it's pretty hard to get fired more than one or two times from any team. But if you're actually trying to say any other team would have fired multiple HC's for the same record that's nearly as ridiculous. Forget the rest of the league, you don't even have to go out of our division for an example. Just look at Harbaugh. Basically, he and Tomlin have been the same coach for almost two decades.

Tomlin: 192-114-2 reg season, 8-11 postseason, 7 division titles, 1 SB title
Harbaugh: 180-112 reg season, 13-11 postseason, 6 division titles, 1 SB title

Yeah, he's won 5 more playoff games but I'd also argue he's done less with more, certainly since 2018 when Lamar Jackson joined the league.

Another example is Andy Reid's 13 seasons at Philadelphia with a 130-93 reg season record (lower win % than either MT or Harbaugh), 10-9 postseason record, 6 division titles, and 0 SBs. His contract was not renewed, but he was also inducted into the Eagles Hall of Fame as part of the 75th anniversary team. So no, he wasn't fired 5 or 6 times either.


Winning consistently in the NFL is incredibly tough. Owners, not only the Rooneys, do not like firing coaches with non-losing seasons. To put some numbers on that, in the last ten seasons, there have been 65 head coaches fired in the NFL. Only 5 of those were fired after a non-losing season. That's 7.7% of the time. Even if the Steeler HC was named something other than Tomlin, there's no expectation given the overall NFL stats that the Steelers, or any other team in the NFL, would have changed coaches more than once during the last 18 seasons, much less 5 or 6 times.

 

You say that I am assigning Tomlin powers that you don't believe he has, yet you believe that the Rooneys weren't going to pay Pickens so they told Khan to trade him. So the guy that decides who is on the roster or not and who does their job well enough to stay with the team isn't making decisions....but the Rooneys won't pay Pickens because they think he's trouble.....so they pay another troubled soul in Metcalf over $30 million a year? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Ask anyone close to the team....Mike Tomlin has huge powers within the organization with personnel and all other decisions. Even when Dan Rooney went to Ireland for his political position, he publicly stated that he was going to lean on Mike Tomlin more in his absence. Not the GM or another family member. Mike Tomlin. And Dan was the most hands-on owner of the family.

Dotson may not move the needle with you, but when you consider that the team could have signed him to an affordable contract and had him long term, he would have helped solidify the offensive line sooner and they wouldn't have had to use as many high draft picks on the OL and spend huge bucks on free agent signings like Seumalo. They could have used draft picks in other places to strengthen other areas of the team instead of trying to replace great talent they already had at reasonable cap numbers.

As far as quarterbacks go, Dart or Shough are looking pretty good at this point. Maybe we will find out about our sixth round pick at some point. I just know that Tomlin and Rodgers making goo-goo eyes at each other over the years and him signing here isn't a coincidence. Choosing Russell Wilson over developing Pickett or Fields was another disaster with no future upside.

As for the Canada issue, I can and did document that horror show that happened under the watchful eye of Mike Tomlin for far too many years. It was a complete disaster. I can tell you for a fact that Art Rooney wasn't breaking down tape and telling Tomlin that the offense was a masterclass in offensive creativity, so he better keep Canada.

Maybe the organization doesn't want a rebuild. It's possible. I personally think that if Tomlin approached AR several years ago and suggested it was time, ownership would have been onboard. We have discussed at length how Tomlin puts a vet player on the downslope of his career on the roster nearly every single time over a young player that needs development. It's a coaching trait of his that has always seemed to be front and center of his rosters.

I know you feel like I am bashing Tomlin here, but I am just a believer that Mike Tomlin usually gets what Mike Tomlin wants and always has.

I don't want Tomlin embarrassed and thrown out on the street while we all scream insults at him while throwing rocks at him. I just don't get that crowd and that train of thought. I think he should be thanked for everything he did for the Steelers organization and the fans for so many years, and wish him well in his next move in life which will most likely be very successful. I would like nothing more than to see this team go on a run and shock the world. It's what I am truly hoping happens. It's just difficult to imagine that happening. I think he has been a classy leader and face of this organization for close to two decades and should be respected for his work. It is most likely coming to a close, but his time in Pittsburgh should be celebrated and it should be understood that it is just time for a completely new coaching direction with new ideas because that cycle hits every coach that has ever existed at the highest levels of football if they are in one place long enough.

 

But
We have all kinds of injuries
But
That was PI at end of game
But
NFL suspended our #1? Wr
But
The NFL would rather have Balt vs Pitts as a prime time meaningful game
But we don’t have a #2 wr
Did I miss anything?

 

I was going to say, I've seen a number of Poni's predictions, and it's gotten to the point that if I see Poni's predicted something, I assume the opposite will happen.

 

I don't think anyone will or could develop Pickett or Fields.

 

You may be correct. My point is that Tomlin chose options that were already not very good quarterbacks and they are only going to get older and worse. They were never and are not ever going to be the future of the team, yet that is the path that was taken rather than trying to go young. Even when Pickett was in there, once he got injured he was looking for a reason to move off of Pickett and he decided to roll with Rudolph instead. Every team in the NFL knows what Rudolph is, and it's not a starting QB in the NFL. Again, that's how Tomlin always seems to be drawn to the more known quantity. It's just how he always rolls.

 

I really don’t want to argue about Dotson but you’re making a few mistakes:
McCormick was a fourth round pick. The high draft picks were at OT and not connected to Dotson being on the roster or not.

Dotson and Semalu would be equal in terms of cap hits. So no cap impact there.

All publicly available evidence indicates Tomlin does not have as much unchecked authority as your post seems to describe.

This is not so much a defense of Tomlin. I don’t care if you or anyone else wants him gone or holds a negative opinion of his performance. But the assigning of everything to Tomlin is getting a bit much.

Rooney doesn’t want a rebuild. Full stop. The Steelers have never gone into full blown rebuild mode and youth movement in the almost 40 years I can somewhat remember.

Everyone has a boss.

I am also tired of the Steelers bringing in fantasy football all stars from 6 years ago as third contract free agents. It’s a low percentage strategy.

It’s also a strategy you can roll the dice on because you have cap room by not paying a QB. Especially if you’re willing to move off misevaluations like Thornhill and Slay.

I think they should be signing younger players trying to find the NEXT Thornhill and Slay that other teams missed but that’s a larger tangent.