The Pittsburgh Steelers find themselves near the final stretches of their rebuild. They’ve made changes at every single position imaginable. Organizationally and culturally relevant changes have begun to overtake the organization. The turning of a new leaf, one might say. But is Mike Tomlin still the man for the job? Sportsvival talks about this today.
We all know the elephant in the room. Mike Tomlin has not won a playoff game in eight years. Sure, some of the rosters were not that good and some of the rosters were lucky to get into the playoffs. But eight years without a playoff win is completely inexcusable by a franchise that loves reminding everybody about the standard. They went through quarterbacks, wide receivers, defensive players and everyone else that you could imagine. Art Rooney II said it best last year when he said “It’s time for the team to take its next steps.”
Allow me to preface this by saying that I like Mike Tomlin. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be so passionate, and I wouldn’t say some of the things that I say purely based on passion and desire for winning football. I believe all coaches and athletes deserve some level of grace and understanding especially throughout the course of a rebuild. But for a head coach who has never had a losing season and looks to raise hell every December, there comes a point where words and phrases are cheap, and the results are what do the speaking. For a little bit of context, every single team in the AFC North has won a playoff game in the same timeframe that we are waiting for Tomlin to win one. The New York Giants won a playoff game with Daniel Jones in the SAME timeframe as we wait for Tomlin to win another.
But, things are obviously not all doom and gloom. Objectively, the Steelers have been drafting very well over the past few years and their activity in free agency and trades is about as refreshing as stepping outside in the middle of a summer day and taking in a big deep breath. Tomlin has his hands and fingerprints over a lot of these decisions and most of these decisions are not bad decisions and you can see where they are trying to go with these decisions being made. Sure, I’m a little apprehensive about having Aaron Rodgers for a year. Nothing against the guy, but, being 41 years old under this offensive line that you don’t know what you’re gonna get every single week isn’t the best recipe for success.
The fan base is restless and it’s understandable as to why. Tomlin does a lot of talking and the overall results are less than ideal year in and year out. But, they extended TJ Watt. They acquired Jalen Ramsey. They acquired DK Metcalf and Jonnu Smith. They are obviously trying to build something which is something that offensive coordinator Arthur Smith knows and will be able to run to the best of his ability. According to TJ Watt, the defense will be “running new schemes that we’ve never seen before.” which sounds great, but the words mean less and less if and when this playoff winless streak continues.
Overall, it’s relatively simple. They’ve made changes. They’ve done essentially everything differently. They still believe the same man is the man for the job. They still believe in him. They still believe in his message. But we must not forget the words that Art Rooney II said last year before training camp began: “ it’s time for this team to take the next steps.” If Mike Tomlin cannot take that next step as a coach and as a leader of men, it will be time for the Steelers to not only ask incredibly tough questions, but they will have to answer them if they find themselves on the end of another embarrassing playoff loss this upcoming year.