The last time he brought his players into Acrisure Stadium, the lot of them were booed loudly by the assembled Steelers fans, the video ritual mixing Styx’s “Renegade” and black-and-gold defensive highlights was jeered and some of those in attendance chanted for Mike Tomlin to be removed from his position.
Tomlin will return to the stadium on Monday night in first place in the AFC North.
This reality, the product of the Steelers’ stirring Sunday afternoon victory over the Ravens in Baltimore, seemed likely to limit the questions at his weekly news conference to the subject of a “Monday Night Football” game against the Dolphins. It didn’t turn out that way. Toward the end of the session, he was asked if he’d felt like he was “in the hot seat” last week.
“Man, I’ve been in the hot seat for 19 years,” he said.
The follow-up from the same reporter focused on whether Tomlin believed he had something to prove to the fans.
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“I always feel like I’ve got something to prove,” Tomlin responded. “Not necessarily to anyone in particular. That’s just the spirit in which I go about what I do professionally.”
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So the questions about Tomlin’s future are not going away soon. Neither should he, though.
There is nothing to be gained by the Steelers organization by moving on from Tomlin at the close of the season. He continues to demonstrate his extraordinary ability at fulfilling his job description, which is to make the Steelers the best team they can be within a given season.
There are moments when he and his assistants make the wrong calls. There are games in which he gets outcoached. There are circumstances in which he makes the wrong decision. There are major decisions he gets wrong, most notably involving the composition of his staff. Here’s the thing: Watch enough football, and you’ll recognize there is no one who can avoid all of these detriments.
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What you’ll rarely see elsewhere is a coach who consistently wins games with some combination of the following at quarterback: Mason Rudolph, Duck Hodges, 38-year-old Ben Roethlisberger, 39-year-old Ben Roethlisberger, Mitch Trubisky, Kenny Pickett, Justin Fields, 36-year-old Russell Wilson and soon-to-be/oops-now-he-is 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers.
In Washington, Dan Quinn won 12 games last season with rookie stud Jayden Daniels, but he is now 3-10 with the young QB compromised or absent because of injury. In San Francisco, Kyle Shanahan went 13-3 in 2019 after the franchise committed to Jimmy Garoppolo as the team’s starter, then plunged to 6-10 when Garoppolo was hurt.
Tomlin has shown the ability to work with what is available at the most important position and produce success. It is not easy to locate an exceptional QB, evident by the Steelers’ two-decade trek from the end of the Terry Bradshaw era to the arrival of “Big Ben.” It’s not like there’s a quarterback store offering guaranteed Pro Bowl performances — or your money back.
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Through all of this, Tomlin still has yet to experience a losing season — the longest streak to start an NFL career in history. It has become common to dismiss this as inconsequential, as though going 3-14 or 5-12 somehow engenders the same degree of misery as finishing 10-7 with a playoff berth.
There is a preference for emphasis on Tomlin’s streak of seasons without a playoff victory, now at eight years, possibly to be extended in 2025.
What’s curious about this being the issue is how much fury a particular loss or rough stretch can generate among some in the Pittsburgh media or within the fan base. If all that matters is what occurs in January, why become so enraged with the 6-6 start to this season? Or the schedule-aided collapse a season ago? Or the three-game December losing streak in 2023?
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The noise resulting from the noise that emanated from Acrisure during last month’s loss to the Bills was such it led to comments from Roethlisberger and Ryan Clark about Tomlin’s job security and to a needless but unsurprising cheap shot from James Harrison. The 2008 Defensive Player of the Year said on a podcast he never thought Tomlin was a “great coach.”
This is the guy, remember, who essentially forced the Steelers to waive him near the end of the 2017 season with his comportment relative to basic team activities.
It also impacted the CBS broadcast of the Steelers’ most recent game at Baltimore with analyst Tony Romo twice cryptically referring to the impact the result would have not only on the 2025 season, but also beyond. We all knew what he meant.
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Is Tomlin a great coach? He is tied with Dan Reeves for 10th in career victories among all who’ve worked in the league, more than Bill Parcells, Bud Grant, Steve Owen and Marv Levy. Harrison is tied with three others for 103rd in career sacks.
It would not be impossible to find a coach better than Tomlin were the Steelers to move on from him, but neither is it impossible for me to win a billion dollars in the next Powerball drawing. The odds against me are far more extreme, but my risk also would be much less significant.
We have seen the Titans move on from Mike Vrabel after a couple of rough years. Now, they’re one of the worst teams in the league, and Vrabel has the Patriots competing for the No. 1 seed in the AFC.
Tomlin was the surprising hire by then-owner Dan Rooney in January 2007 after Bill Cowher chose to step down. As with most of the work Rooney did in invigorating the Steelers’ brand, this decision has continued to keep the Steelers among the most successful franchises in the most competitive sports league on the planet.
Think winning this often is easy? Check out the Raiders, the Jets, the Giants, all championship organizations at one point, now owners of a combined seven victories. That’s as many as the Steelers this season in what Pittsburghers call a disappointing year.
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