Mike Tomlin is, without a doubt, the most polarizing figure in Pittsburgh sports. Today, Sportsvival analyzes the good, the bad, the positives and negatives of the Pittsburgh Steelers keeping or getting rid of Mike Tomlin.
To begin, let’s get the most common argument out of the way, Mike Tomlin has never had a losing season. Yinzers and anti-Tomlin people use this argument for completely different reasons. I believe numerous things can be true. Number one, it’s incredibly impressive that Mike Tomlin has never had a losing season considering things like changing rosters every year, the implementation of the salary cap, the impressiveness of Tomlin’s ability to maintain an overall positive culture that leads to stability in the regular season and nearly always competing for the postseason. On the other hand, I also understand why people are fed up with the non-losing seasons argument considering Mike Tomlin hasn’t won a playoff game in eight seasons and counting. For reference, the last time the Pittsburgh Steelers won a playoff game, I was 17 years old and entering my final year of high school. I’m 25 now.
A genuine criticism I do have of Tomlin is his lack of offensive awareness and creativity. Sure, Tomlin is a defensive minded head coach. Nothing wrong with that, but Tomlin has no offensive creativity. Anyone remember Matt Canada? Tomlin does not surround himself with great assistant coaches, and this causes the roster and overall standard of the organization to suffer. Say what you want about guys like Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, or even Duck Hodges, Tomlin does not do offense well. Tomlin is not one to take chances if he views them as unnecessary. Which, 98% of the time, he does. The reality is, you cannot win in the playoffs with conservatism. You need to take chances and try and win, instead of trying not to lose.
Something I do have to give Tomlin credit for is his ability to win in the regular season with subpar rosters. It’s no surprise that the Steelers have been in the middle of a rebuild for a while now. The Steelers have drafted exceptionally well over the past few seasons with the likes of Omar Khan, Tomlin and Andy Weidl at the helm. I believe this is the main reason why the Rooney family still believes that Mike Tomlin can win. They see the rosters that they have and they know they’re not very good, yet, Mike Tomlin always has them in the middle of a dog fight every year. That much is not debatable. Playoff winless streak or not, it says a lot about Tomlin and his coaching ability to have his team in the midst of it every season.
One of the arguments I’ve never truly liked is the “who would you replace him with” if he was fired question. Not that it’s a bad question, but it’s a rather lazy question with a rather simple answer. Say he were to be fired or traded. Are you telling me the Pittsburgh Steelers aren’t smart enough to be able to find a good young college coach, offensively minded and capable for the modern NFL if Tomlin's struggles continue? I believe that is an argument made in poor faith for a football family that has six Super Bowls to their name. The Steelers had the Chicago Bears call their phone not too long ago about the availability of Mike Tomlin. Art Rooney II shut that conversation down fast. Who did the Chicago Bears end up getting? Former Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. Sure, Johnson hasn’t coached a game yet at the NFL level, but his job in Detroit speaks for itself. Who’s to say if the Steelers didn’t trade Tomlin to the Bears that they couldn’t have made an offer to the young Johnson? It’s revisionist and hypothetical, but I think it’s a worthy question to ask anyway.
Another argument from the pro Tomlin crowd that I’ve never liked would be the argument of “what if you turn into Cleveland if you get rid of him?” I can’t help but find that argument to be funny for a very sad reason. The Cleveland Browns have won a playoff game more recently than the Pittsburgh Steelers. And that game happened in our own house. The New York Giants have won a playoff game more recently than Mike Tomlin. The Philadelphia Eagles rebuilt twice with two separate head coaches, and two separate starting quarterbacks in the same time frame where we are still waiting for Mike Tomlin to win one playoff game. These are the things about Tomlin that just drive me crazy. How much longer does the fan base have to wait? It’s not like they don’t have talent, they almost won the AFC north last year before they choked it away. There’s no case to be made that they’re lacking talent to be good enough to win a singular playoff game. If so, how is Tomlin the right man for the job to finish this rebuild? Two presidential elections later, and we’re still having the same conversation. The older I get, the more I feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.
Overall, I believe Mike Tomlin is still a very good coach. I know for a fact he does more right than wrong. He’s loved by his players and by the organization. Most people who dislike him do not dislike HIM, they are upset and disappointed with the lack of playoff success that Steelers fans have become accustomed to. In other words, spoiled. But I don’t believe that they are spoiled in expecting more. There’s a difference between expecting a playoff win after almost a decade, and expecting a championship every other season with a below average roster. Steelers fans are not asking for the second option.
I believe the Steelers would be right to give Tomlin the ability to see the end of this rebuild through. But that doesn’t mean he should get a lifetime contract. I believe Rooney should hold Tomlin to a higher standard and the seat that Tomlin sits on should be a hell of a lot warmer than lukewarm. But that doesn’t mean I want him fired. I believe they should move on very similarly to when Andy Reid ran his course in the city of Philadelphia. I think it worked out well for both parties in the end. Who’s to say that can’t happen again if Tomlin were to leave Pittsburgh? I imagine a very similar conversation happened before Chuck Noll left. And a very similar conversation happened before Bill Cowher left. So on and so forth. I think you guys get the point. If Bill Belichick can be fired after winning six Super Bowls, Mike Tomlin can be looked at under a microscope for his playoff futility. But, maybe after the 2026 draft, maybe the Steelers have a plan of keeping Tomlin around because they believe that he is the right man for the job after they hopefully find their franchise quarterback in 2026 and after patching up numerous other holes on the roster after the draft in Pittsburgh. Only time will tell, but until then, we will have to see what Tomlin and his staff can accomplish with a roster that has a bunch of questions that won’t be answered until the season begins.
(photo courtesy of the Virginian- Pilot)