Stephen A. thinks the Steelers should do WHAT about Mike Tomlin? 👀 ‘It’s time’ | First Take

Stephen A. thinks the Steelers should do WHAT about Mike Tomlin? 👀 ‘It’s time’ | First Take

First take Shay Cornet here with you. Stephen A is right there. We got Cam Newton in the house as well as Dan Orlowski on a very good post Thanksgiving Monday. Bears in first place in the NFC. First thing out your mouth. All right. Well, what did you think I was going to do here? Um, there we go. Yeah, but let’s go to the AFC first. We’ll talk about that all later on. The AFC yesterday, uh, a little bit perplexing, I think is the word I’ll use. Bills beat the Steelers 26 to7 in Pittsburgh in what was a very disappointing outing for the Steelers defense. and Aaron Rogers. Buffalo rush for 249 yards. Aaron Rogers struggled wearing a cast on that broken left wrist just didn’t look right and the Steelers have now dropped five of seven since starting the season 4 and one. Steelers fans were not happy chanting fire Tomlin during the loss. And so here is is coach Tomlin’s reaction post game. What goes through your mind when the when there when the crowd there’s a crowd chanting to chaining to fire you in your home stadium? Man, I share their frustration tonight, man. We didn’t do enough. Um, and that’s just the reality of it. The solutions to turn this thing around exist in your building? Certainly. What gives you the confidence that they do? Keep watching. Keep watching. There is still hope for the Steelers. They are tied for the top of the FC North with the Ravens right now. But let’s focus more on the head coach here. How do we view Mike Tomlin today, Stephen A? That it’s time It’s over. Um, I know that’s a bit um, shocking for most people to hear, especially coming from me, a Steelers fan who loves me some Mike Thomas. I’ve loved and admired him for years. I’m in no way trying to imply that this man is not a head coach. It’s not a quality head coach. He’s not a Hall of Fame head coach. I’m not trying to imply that at all. I’m quite sure that the minute he’s gone from Pittsburgh, there’ll be at least 20 at least 20 teams that have won him and deservedly so. This is about Pittsburgh and that’s what we have to understand here. And before I go any further, I will ask the producers to put Olavski and Cam up on the screen so I can see them both when I ask this one question, albeit rhetorically. Cam, look to the camera to your left, my brother. Here it is. If any other coach had not won a playoff game since 2016, what would we be saying? Correct. Anybody else? That’s the bottom line. Now, we can talk and get into specifics about Mike Tomlin and how he entered Pittsburgh and he said, “Run the ball, stop the run.” And I think it’s fitting that on the day that we have this discussion, the Pittsburgh Steelers gave up 249 yards rushing and they rushed for 58 yards. Their offense was pathetic. Their defense was even worse. Uh they seem to have no cohesiveness whatsoever. They seem bereft of talent. And that’s not what we anticipated coming into this season when they went and spent about 175 million improving that defense. But I’m saying as it pertains to Tomlin, Cam, and Dio, shove all of that aside. You’re steal a nation. And anybody that’s involved with sports that covers sports will tell you what is the absolute worst position to be in. Mediocre, middle of the road. you’re not a championship contender and you don’t stink enough to position yourself to be very very high in the draft where you can ultimately improve your roster through the draft. They have been a model of mediocrity or slightly above for over a decade. That’s unacceptable. And so I think that when you heard the f it hurt me. It literally hurt me to hear Chance to fire Mike Tomlin, fire Mike Tomlin because I don’t wish that on anybody, but especially that brother and what he’s meant to the Pittsburgh Steelers for 19 years. But this is not about whether or not he can coach. This is about results. And in the city of Pittsburgh, in Steeler Nation, they had every right to express themselves the way that they did. It was not offkilter. It was not wrong. It was none of those things because what they’re saying is is that we haven’t won a playoff game in 10 years. We don’t even know if we’re going to make the playoffs this go round. And looking at this team, even if we did make the playoffs, it’ll be officially, you know, 10 years from 2016 to 2026 that we’ve won a playoff game. And to be rhetorical, I’ll end by asking the same question I just asked two minutes ago. If any coach in any sport goes 10 years without winning a playoff game, what are you going to say? There’s nothing you can say in their defense. Not even Mike Tomlin can speak in his own defense for 10 years without a playoff win. Yeah, I mean, you’re 100% correct, Stephen A. I and I attack it through this. The the the roll out of what your offseason acquisitions was to do did not pan out. It was a mismanagement of of offseason moves that everybody has to be held accountable, especially when you know the person that you got rid of is shining somewhere else. That person, George Pickkins. What’s the biggest issue that I’ve been saying amongst others this whole year? The Pittsburgh Steelers do not have any skillful talent on the on the receiving position, running back position, that really plays to Aaron Rogers strength. When you’re looking at tight ends to be the leading receivers and leading the the the team of receiving yards, when you’re when you’re scratching and clawing, you’re scratching your head and you’re saying to yourself, where is DK Metav? is this is the per if this is the person that we acquire for a second round pick and this is all we’re getting as low as 12 yards in the game 22 yards in the game three receptions two receptions and then you look down and you said you made these acquisitions or you made these decisions in the offseason the the the acquiring of Darius Slay the acquiring of of Jaylen Ramsey which I think that that that was the only one that pretty much panned out. you give away a Minka Fitzpatrick for Christ’s sake. And then you have a Jonnu Smith that everybody offensively has been playing very vanilla all year. So that’s the accountability part that I have to say, hey, we all have to be held accountable and a spade is a spade when in regards to the things that you tried to do just didn’t pan out the way you intended it to do. Um, I think yesterday was the one of the lowest and most embarrassing Sundays of Mike Tomlin’s tenure. Great head coach, obviously. Incredibly accomplished. to have a team go into your building with out there starting tackles and line up and you know this and run the same run play over and over and over and over and over again and you not stop it and you’re the Steelers, this the Pittsburgh Steelers that have been built on a physical tough dominant presence specifically at home. This team, Buffalo, ran a JV offense last night for the tune of a historical number. And I think when you watch that happen, that takes you back. That takes you back to Ging that felt different. It It had a feeling of I haven’t seen this before. And name me, Stephen A, you’re the fan. Name me an organization that has a more dire future perspective than the Steelers do. They’re unbelievably expensive. They’re the second oldest football team in the NFL and they have a team right now that is in the worst position you could be in. You don’t really matter truly when it comes to the playoffs. Now, if you get in, anything could happen, but you’re but you’re not a true contender yet. You’re going to have the 18th pick of the draft. Yeah. And so, you’re sitting here going, “What are we future- wise? I don’t I don’t know of an organization that we could sit there right now and be like the the the future looks as bleak as it does for Pittsburgh right now. I I I will say this to your point. TJ Watt mentioned that after the game said, “I’ve never seen a team run the same play over and over again and have that much success with it.” He said, “I’m at a loss for word.” So, it wasn’t just you feeling that way. They felt that way obviously in the locker room as well. Just to push back a little bit here, they are tied for first place in the division. All signs point to them making the playoffs this season. What if they do win a postseason game? What if they do finally get over the hump and win it? Jay, that’s like asking if my hairline look moved two feet forward and I got an afro. You know, I mean, it’s not happening. Okay, it’s over. Okay, so let’s get that out the way. I mean, don’t don’t do that to yourself here. Here’s the reality, y’all. Over I’mma put it in perspective and and and I challenge anybody to push back from this. And I take no joy in this because again, I love me some Mike Tomlin. They’re six and 11 in their last 17 games. They ended last season losing five straight and then they lost in the playoffs to the Baltimore Ravens. Let me throw this at y’all. They’ve lost six consecutive playoff games, okay? Over since 2016, they’ve been in the playoffs six times. They’ve lost each one of those games. Do y’all know in each one of those games at some point they’ve trailed by at least 21 points? Do you know that’s a new NFL record? Do you know that at no time have they led in any of those six playoff games and they’ve been outscored 73 to nothing in the first quarter of those playoff games. I’m going to repeat that. Six playoff games 0 and6 a 21-point deficit in each of those games. a new NFL record. Outscored 73 to nothing in the first quarter. Do you know what that means, Shay? That means even when you got to the playoffs, they were basically saying you didn’t belong in the playoffs. So, not only did you get to the playoffs on the rare occasion that you did and you didn’t win, but you flagrantly displayed that the playoff teams that were there in the mix with you was simply on another level than you were. And now we get to this point where you look at Aaron Rogers. He looked yesterday he looked like he should retire. I’m not and we all know how much I love me some Aaron Rogers. He looked like he should retire yesterday. DK Metave. I mean, what are you gonna say? You clearly needed more talent than that. Pickkins, which Cam brought up. Look at how he’s looking in Dallas, which highlights how y’all haven’t been able to get a quarterback. So, I don’t want to just mention Tomlin because Omar Khan is not a name that any of us should forget. He is the general manager for the Pittsburgh Steelers. What the hell are you doing? Couldn’t get any help before the trading deadline, huh? Couldn’t find a way to work it out with George Pickers to stay, huh? You know why? Because you didn’t have a quarterback that anybody has any kind of faith in. And that’s been the kryptonite for the Pittsburgh Steelers for the most part. But in this particular season, what has made it worse is that what you usually hang your hat on, which is defense, has been poorest. They’ve been embarrassed on several occasions. They haven’t been impressive on most occasions at all. And they spent the boatload of money, including dare I say, TJ Watt, who was in the discussion as the best defensive player in football. We ain’t talking about him like that this year now that he’s gotten his money. So all of those things come into play. It’s just a colossal failure across the board. And Steeler Nation is absolutely right. Maybe not about just Tomlin, but they are right to feel the way that they feel. This is not the the the Steelers that we’ve known and have loved and have respected and have revered for decades. This is a shell of that. And I think the only person that could, you know, thank God we haven’t heard from Terry Bradshaw because we know how unapologetic he is in his criticism. But you know what? Who would be able to argue with him? No one. I just I just can’t think of a lot of teams and organizations that have a less hopeful perspective of the future than Pittsburgh. And what do they do good? Like from the fans perspective, you have to ask yourself what to your point, we’ve known a franchise to always have this the steel curtain. Yeah. When you give up the as much yards, the last person to put up this much yards, God rest his soul was OJ Simpson respectfully. And you give up that not with Tomlin at the helm to say, “Oh, you you can’t stop nobody.” And then when you look offensively and you start to say like, “Yo, you gave up a a person.” And and might I add, let let’s take a step back real quick. In the offseason, George Pickkins was still on your roster when Aaron Rodgers was working out at UCLA with DK Metav. Aaron Rogers was not a Pittsburgh Steeler yet. That was a sign that, hey, y’all go through the OTAAS, y’all go through the first beginning of of of mini camp or whatever and that was it. They still had George Pickkins on the roster, right? They shipped them off later on. So now when the the mismanagement of the roster, to my point, is where you get these issues. Yeah, the timing. This is an organization we typically trust, right, to make the right decision. We always look to the Steelers to be somewhat of an example in the way they do things. So we’ll see how they move forward from here. As of right now, they still are tied at the top of their division. [Music]

On First Take, Cam Newton, Dan Orlovsky and Stephen A. Smith join Shae Cornette to discuss what is going on with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Mike Tomlin.

0:00 Buffalo Bills vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
0:51 Mike Tomlin’s comments
1:24 Thoughts on Mike Tomlin
8:55 What is happening with the Pittsburgh Steelers?

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