There’s a subset of Steelers fans who want to fire Mike Tomlin whenever the team loses two or three games in a row. If that ever happens, another owner will park a limo outside the Pittsburgh facility, put a big bag of cash in the back seat, and open the door.
Tomlin is, as 2023 approaches, our No. 2 coach in the NFL. If he was ever available, he would instantly be hired by another team. Some owners who are happy with their head coaches would at least ponder the possibility of upgrading to Tomlin, if Tomlin ever were fired — or if he ever becomes a free agent.
Tomlin has a high degree of respect and admiration among his peers. He knows how to motivate players, perhaps unlike anyone else in the sport. He gets the collective group to play better than the individual pieces would suggest they should. And he consistently wins.
He also has a knack for keeping potential problem players under control. As other coaches learn when those players end up on their teams. (And it’s not just Antonio Brown that falls into that category.)
Since taking the job in 2007, Tomlin has never had a single losing season. It looked as if it was going to happen last year, after a 2-6 start. Then came a 7-2 finish — and a sigh of relief from the rest of the AFC playoff field that the closing kick wasn’t enough to get a seat at the table.
Tomlin has made the most of his seat at the table. Hired 16 years ago, after a report surfaced that Russ Grimm would be the heir to Bill Cowher, Tomlin won a Super Bowl in his second season and returned two years later. And while it has been 13 years and counting since the Steelers have made it back to the championship round, Tomlin has done all in his power to get the team as close as he can.
The Steelers are far from being the most talented team in the NFL. On paper, they face the very real prospect of finishing last in the AFC North for the first time since 1988, when it was the AFC Central. Tomlin typically defies the on-paper assessment of the situation.
Think back a decade or so. How frequently when a season approaches has the narrative been, “Watch out for the Steelers!”? They’ve been stuck with the Patriots dominating the conference for years, and now it’s the Chiefs. Along the way, the Bills and Bengals developed into high-end contenders. Other teams (Jets, Dolphins, Jaguars) are threatening to do the same.
Some would dismiss Tomlin’s success by saying he benefited from a Hall of Fame quarterback. But while Ben Roethlisberger does indeed merit a bronze bust, there’s a big gap between Ben and Tom Brady. Roethlisberger had more physical skills than Brady; Brady worked relentlessly to get the most out of what he had and to push his teammates to do the same.
Disputed reports emerged over the years about Ben’s in-season work ethic, or lack thereof, when it comes to studying plays and film. Roethlisberger made no attempt to hide his offseason habits; he told Chris Simms four years ago that he doesn’t throw much if at all in the entire offseason.
Then there’s the fact that Tomlin presided over the evolution of a surly young quarterback who was disliked in and out of the building (as noted in Playmakers, one former teammate once opined to me that Roethlisberger was a “turd”) into an elder statesman who managed to thrive long enough to get many to forget his four-game suspension in 2010 for off-field allegations of sexual misconduct.
Another dynamic applies to Tomlin. Unlike Bill Belichick and Andy Reid, Tomlin doesn’t run the show. By all appearances, Tomlin doesn’t even hire his assistant coaches. The Steelers use a broad consensus approach to basically all issues, with no one claiming credit or ducking blame. Ultimately, owner Art Rooney II seems to have much more sway over the team than anyone realizes. Remember when Bruce Arians was forced out as offensive coordinator and replaced by Todd Haley? Some saw Rooney’s fingerprints on the move, not Tomlin’s.
At his core, Tomlin is a football coach who plays the hand he’s dealt, each and every year. From players to staff to offensive system to defensive system, Tomlin picks up the cards and figures out how to get the most out of them. And he does it better than almost every other coach in the NFL.
