Mike Tomlin is on the hot seat
PITTSBURG (BVM) — Mike Tomlin has been the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2007. He is one of the few African-American coaches in the National Football League. He has the most wins by an African-American head coach and has the longest streak for most consecutive winning seasons by a head coach. Tomlin is recognized on and off the field for his achievements as a head coach. However, for all of his praises, there is still much criticism for the direction the Steelers have gone in the past decade.
Within the past 10 years, the Pittsburgh Steelers have been a product of drama and wasted talent. They have had constant shortcomings in years where they were expected to go to the Super Bowl. Winning seasons and division titles are great, but that is what should be expected. As Tomlin always says, “the standard is the standard,” and the standard in Pittsburgh is winning championships.
If Tomlin were to be losing in championship games or Super Bowls, it would be harsh, but at least he’d be credited with reaching such games. The problem is he never even gets to these matchups. In the last 10 years, the Steelers have won a total of three playoff games, two of which were against backup quarterbacks and the third was a game where they didn’t even score a touchdown. The Steelers have been to one AFC Championship, where they were battered around by their older brother, the New England Patriots. Within their last decade of postseason football, they have suffered many embarrassing losses and even their wins were extremely unimpressive.
Obviously, not everything is a coach’s fault. Tomlin couldn’t control things like Ben Roethlisberger throwing four interceptions against the Cleveland Browns or Tim Tebow torching the Steelers’ defense in Denver. However, there comes a certain point where Tomlin has to be pointed out for flaws and shortcomings.
Throughout the years, the Steelers’ locker room drama continually got out of hand because he chose to ignore it. The Steelers often play down to competition because they underestimate their opponents. They blow way too many comfortable leads or have to rely on talent and luck to bring them back into games. The Steelers should have been equal rivals with the Patriots during their period of dominance, but were purely another team that was bullied by New England for the past 20 years.
In the end, players and staff can be blamed, but the head coach is ultimately the main one responsible for these downfalls. The Steelers have had a constant rotation of talent that Tomlin has done little to nothing with. One can blame individual players all they want, but Tomlin has failed to utilize these players.
In the end, is one player’s faults in one game the cause for the team’s lack of success in other years? For example, Fitzgerald Toussaint fumbled the ball in the divisional round against the Denver Broncos in 2016, which isn’t Tomlin’s fault. But what about other years? Is Toussaint to blame for the Steelers going 11-0 and falling to 12-5? Is he to blame for the Steelers missing the playoffs in 2018, despite them having a 97% chance of making it in Week 11? Is he to blame for the Steelers making headlines off the field for non-football related reasons? No. Tomlin has to take the blame for at least some of these shortcomings.
Now, Coach Tomlin is on the hot seat. As the Baltimore Ravens and Browns continue to improve, the Steelers continue to stagnate. Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown have both made Super Bowls in their time away from Pittsburgh. The Steelers’ archrival Tom Brady won more playoff games in 2021 than the Steelers have within the past decade, with Brown as one of his wide receivers. Every time the Steelers look to prove everyone wrong, they only reinforce narratives of being a below-average team.
Tomlin may be a good head coach, but “good” doesn’t cut it. He has constantly underachieved, and is on the verge of being fired if he does not make an impact soon. But considering the lack of results that he has produced with the level of talent that the Steelers have had, that is looking unlikely at this moment.
