Trending
Last week, The Steelers embarrassed themselves on a national stage, losing their second straight game to a 2-10 team on Thursday Night Football in a week where every one of their division rivals beat quality teams.
The loss is a part of a yearly tradition where the Steelers play down to the level of a team in a complete rebuild at least once a season.
Something must change, and I argue that the coaching decisions of Steelers head man Mike Tomlin as well as the style with which he interacts with players are holding the team back, and the only way forward is either a shorter leash or parting ways.
Tomlin is an overrated media darling. He won the Super Bowl in his second year as a head coach and made it back in his fourth year. Since then, the organization has barely done more than tread water. It is his 17th year now, and the Steelers have managed only one more conference championship appearance in 13 years.
I don't think that it is a coincidence that Tomlin made it to two Super Bowls and won one with what was essentially previous coach Bill Cowher's roster. After the five or so years of Tomlin's tenure it took for players developed under Cowher's regime to retire, the team has never reached the same level of relevancy. That is not just happenstance.
The Steelers' lack of playoff success in the 2010s is inexplicable. Pittsburgh had a generational talent at WR, one of the shiftiest running backs in the league and a QB destined for Canton. The defense was impressive and could take over games. However, despite all the talent on the team, the Steelers have won a whopping three playoff games since losing the Super Bowl to the Packers.
Even the three wins accumulated since then under Tomlin have been practically freebies. In 2015, the Steelers defeated a Bengals team led by AJ McCarron 18-16, only to lose to Peyton Manning's Broncos 23-16.
The following year, Pittsburgh made it all the way to its lone conference championship appearance since the 2011 Super Bowl. The Steelers won their wildcard matchup against the Dolphins 30-12, and then beat the pre-Mahomes Chiefs in the divisional round, 18-16. After that, Tomlin and the Steelers were once again defeated by the team they could seemingly never beat when it mattered most, the New England Patriots.
That's all the success there is to speak of. Every other playoff berth for the Steelers, and there were many, ended in instant defeat, often in embarrassing fashion. The worst of these was certainly the 2011-2012 postseason, when Pittsburgh had the perfect opportunity to redeem itself after the Super Bowl loss to the Packers. Instead of doing that, the Steelers played down to their competition and were upset by the Broncos in the midst of Tebowmania on the first play of overtime.
At this point in Tomlin's career, one metric is blinding people more than anything else: his lack of a losing season. While impressive on the face of it, the constant droning about maintaining mediocrity instead of fluctuating as every other team does (and maybe getting a high draft pick for once) protects Tomlin from any criticism.
The lack of failure is not success. There is a purgatory in between those terms, and that is where the Steelers have resided for every year since 2011. The importance placed on the lack of a losing season also fails to consider how many times the Steelers finished at .500 or barely above it.
It is important to consider what Tomlin actually does from the head coach position. He is a defensive-minded coach, and therefore is more involved on that side of the ball. However, defensive coordinator Teryl Austin calls plays on that side of the ball. Tomlin merely suggests plays when necessary.
Compare Tomlin to coaches in the new wave such as Mike McDaniel, who also gets the best out of his players by treating them with respect while also being one of the greatest offensive minds of a generation, and he seems like a dinosaur in comparison.
Without calling plays, Tomlin can only make decisions regarding timeouts and challenges, and impact the culture of the organization from the top down. The former has always been a problem for Tomlin. I can think of countless times where instant replay confirmed that a review was not going to go the Steelers' way, but the red flag was still thrown. Nevertheless, Tomlin is always willing to roll the dice and lose a timeout that will undoubtedly come in handy later when the team refuses to put the game away against sub-par competition.
Tomlin isn't opposed to wasting timeouts outside of the challenge process as well. In last week's game against the Patriots, the Steelers brought out the punting unit in a seemingly do-or-die situation, and had to call a timeout to bring back the offense. That's a lack of situational awareness that is unacceptable from one of the 32 best leaders of football teams in the world, let alone someone who is considered to be near the top of that 32.
With having a positive impact through play calling and sideline duties off the table, the last shred of an argument Tomlin's defenders throw out is his influence on the Steelers' culture. Although Tomlin's strategy of treating his players in a cordial manner has led to limited success, it has also created a locker room ready to explode.
The lack of accountability and formality between players and coaches within the Steelers' locker room allows problem players to exist almost uninhibited. In no position group is this problem more obvious than with the wide receivers. Antonio Brown, Juju-Smith-Schuster and Chase Claypool were all detrimental to the success of the team despite their on-field prowess, and had to be let go.
You'd think after dealing with that catastrophe, Tomlin would right the ship and take authority. Instead, Tomlin has allowed two additional bad actors to infect the locker room: Diontae Johnson and George Pickens. Both have been spotted standing motionless while a play develops away from them at points during this season. While taking reps off is a fact of life in any professional sport, phoning it in is completely different than doing absolutely nothing.
Pickens has also included social media in his antics, repeatedly liking posts critical of his own quarterback, and at one point removed all Steelers content from his Instagram page. Pickens had character issues in college at Georgia, and it is clear he has learned nothing.
Both Pickens and Johnson needed to be traded immediately after the season in an effort to prevent the spread of such a toxic mindset. The "me-first" attitude towards having a good statline is that of a child, not a professional athlete interested in a long career and team success. Given that the Steelers were able to trade away Claypool for a second-round pick, I see no reason why Pickens and Johnson wouldn't be worth at least that a piece. Perhaps the Steelers could use those picks on a quarterback who can throw at more than half a touchdown pass a game.
Tom Coughlin's tenure with the New York Giants, though four years shorter, was more productive despite more seasons of "failure". With their respective teams, both head coaches won eight playoff games. While Tomlin's winning percentage is a whole tenth higher than Coughlin's, Coughlin has two rings to Mike Tomlin's one.
How did Coughlin will Eli Manning, a slightly above-average quarterback, into hall of fame consideration by defeating what is widely considered the greatest sports dynasty of all time, twice, and Tomlin can't even make it to two conference championships with Le'veon Bell, Antonio Brown and Big Ben? Because the standard is the standard, and for Tomlin, that standard is mediocrity. All he must do is spit out one of his signature Tomlinisms, and all is forgiven in the eye's of sports media.
Many have said that the Steelers would be foolish to let Tomlin go, as another team would surely hire him. While that may be true, that doesn't cancel out the need for change. Sometimes, what's best for one team isn't best for another. The Steelers and Tomlin could very well end up better without the other than with them.
Sometimes, people and organizations just aren't right for each other anymore. I'd much rather find out what life without Tomlin looks like regardless of how scary that may seem, than continue to be spoon-fed the same gruel year after year. Enough is enough. Wait till the end of this year, or maybe the next, and let him go on to greener pastures. I can guarantee that there will be a line of coaching talent out the door, waiting to become the next great coach in the Steelers' storied history.
Contact Aaron Lee at alee@newsandsentinel.com