On December 8th, the Steelers had beaten the Browns and were 10-3. The media was raving about the team, ranking them as one of the league’s best and some were pushing Mike Tomlin for Coach of the Year.
But in 11 days, the team lost three straight games to the Ravens, Eagles and Chiefs, and hate erupted and was quickly and viciously leveled by some Steelers fans and local media against the longest-tenured head coach in team history.
Those sentiments grew stronger after a loss to the Bengals and reached their peak after the playoff loss on Saturday night to the Ravens, Tomlin’s fifth straight one-and-done in the playoffs.
Many of the criticisms have merit, but the intensity and volume of his disparagement are as harsh as they are disrespectful and dumb.
Mike Tomlin is Hall of Fame certified.
When his time for the yellow jacket arrives, he’ll be a first-ballot Hall of Famer like Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher.
Tomlin has an overall record of 183-108-2 in 18 years. He’s the winningest Black coach in NFL history (Tony Dungy is second with 139) and is 11 wins from becoming the winningest coach in team history.
Tomlin has also never had a losing season.
Chuck Noll (7) and Bill Cowher (3) can’t make that claim. Neither can other legendary coaches like Don Shula (1), George Halas (6), Tom Landry (8), Paul Brown (4), Marty Shottenheimer (2), Dan Reeves (9), Chuck Knox (8), Bill Parcells (5), Tom Coughlin (8), Mike Shanahan (7), Tony Dungy (1), Bill Belichick (8) and Pete Carroll (4).
Even active coaches Andy Reid (3), Sean Payton (5) and John Harbaugh (2) have losing seasons.
Some dismiss this fact and quickly point to futility in the playoffs (8-11), his last win coming in 2016.
But imagine what his critics would have said if the team had back-to-back losing seasons and failed to make the playoffs.
Tomlin has his faults.
He’s loyal (some would say stubborn) to a fault and is slow to make adjustments, particularly on offense.
Yet not only is his offense still frustrating disgruntled fans, but the defense, which the team invested heavily in, was trucked by the Ravens to the tune of 464 total yards with no real fight, urgency or change in philosophy (no press coverage, lapses on long yardage plays, no deceptive blitzes, etc.)
Fans have also tired of his famous “Tomlinisms” as they’ve failed to translate into postseason success.
But this is not all his fault.
Under former GM Kelvin Colbert, the team focused primarily on defense and failed to find Big Ben’s eventual successor.
In 2018, they could have had Lamar Jackson but selected safety Terrell Edmunds instead with the 28th pick.
In 2019, they traded up to the 10th pick and selected linebacker Devin Bush. He showed great promise but was never the same after his injury.
In 2020, they could have had Jalen Hurts with the 49th pick. Instead, they selected Chase Claypool.
None of those players are on the team today.
As much as some want to blame Tomlin and claim that he drafted those players, that’s not entirely on him.
Second-year GM Omar Khan has brought change and is focusing on offense, with particular attention paid to rebuilding an ignored offensive line.
But many fans and local media pundits don’t care, especially after Saturday night.
They prefer to lob venom and insults, the favored one being that Tomlin won his Super Bowl with Cowher’s team. That’s a “go-to” for critics who want to belittle and diminish Tomlin’s career or who are itching to respond to the fact that he’s never had a losing season.
As we’ve pointed out numerous times, Cowher had three losing seasons overall and went to the Super Bowl in his fourth season, losing to the Dallas Cowboys that year. Curiously, we never hear anyone saying that Cowher inherited Noll’s team or that he was one and done in the playoffs in his first two seasons.
In Cowher’s final season, he went 8-8. Tomlin took over and went 10-6 and 12-4, the latter during which he won his Super Bowl. But instead of applauding him for improving what Cowher left behind, haters dismiss the accomplishment.
Last year, calls for Tomlin’s firing gained steam. This year, calls for him to be traded erupted (he has a no-trade clause in his contract). Now some have the nerve to call him an overrated coach, as if he’s done nothing in his career.
Remember, this is a man who won with players like Duck Hodges, Mason Rudolph and Mitch Trubisky. Even Chuck Noll couldn’t manage to not have a losing season with Bubby Brister at QB.
In 2020, he coached the team to a 12-0 start before finishing 12-4. The team was called a fraud yet he got 12 wins out of a so-called fraudulent team.
He won in 2023 despite a slew of injuries to the defense including Cam Heyward (6 games), Minkah Fitzpatrick (5) and the entire linebacker crew. Yet after losing three straight and sitting at 7-7, Tomlin coached them to a 3-game winning streak and a playoff appearance.
Yes, they lost to the Bills but it was with Mason Rudolph under center and no TJ Watt, who was lost to injury the week prior.
But that’s overrated, right?
These critics want Tomlin out so badly that they’re willing to endure the team’s first losing season in 22 years, the last 18 of which have been under Tomlin.
They should ask Jets, Giants, Browns, Raiders, Titans and Jaguars fans how losing feels.
The Steelers have tough choices to make this offseason that will include changing personnel and maybe replacing coordinators.
If Tomlin is gone and the team has a losing season, rest assured these same haters will blame Tomlin for it.
If a new coach comes in and wins immediately, those same haters won’t say the new coach won with Tomlin’s team. Instead, they’ll say that Tomlin couldn’t win with that team.
Mike Tomlin deserves blame and changes have to be made, but one of those changes should not be to Pittsburgh’s head coach. He’s a great coach who knows how to coach but needs to do some things differently to adjust to today’s NFL.
So to all of the Tomlin critics, if you think Tomlin is the true problem and must be shipped out, be careful what you ask for.
Because a bad outcome won’t be Tomlin’s fault.
