On December 8th, the Steelers had beaten the Browns and were 10-3. The media was raving about the team, ranking them as one of the league’s best and some were pushing Mike Tomlin for Coach of the Year.
But in 11 days, the team lost three straight games to the Ravens, Eagles and Chiefs, and hate erupted and was quickly and viciously leveled by some Steelers fans and local media against the longest-tenured head coach in team history.
Those sentiments grew stronger after a loss to the Bengals and reached their peak after the playoff loss on Saturday night to the Ravens, Tomlin’s fifth straight one-and-done in the playoffs.
Many of the criticisms have merit, but the intensity and volume of his disparagement are as harsh as they are disrespectful and dumb.
Mike Tomlin is Hall of Fame certified.
When his time for the yellow jacket arrives, he’ll be a first-ballot Hall of Famer like Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher.
Tomlin has an overall record of 183-108-2 in 18 years. He’s the winningest Black coach in NFL history (Tony Dungy is second with 139) and is 11 wins from becoming the winningest coach in team history.
Tomlin has also never had a losing season.
Chuck Noll (7) and Bill Cowher (3) can’t make that claim. Neither can other legendary coaches like Don Shula (1), George Halas (6), Tom Landry (8), Paul Brown (4), Marty Shottenheimer (2), Dan Reeves (9), Chuck Knox (8), Bill Parcells (5), Tom Coughlin (8), Mike Shanahan (7), Tony Dungy (1), Bill Belichick (8) and Pete Carroll (4).
Even active coaches Andy Reid (3), Sean Payton (5) and John Harbaugh (2) have losing seasons.
Some dismiss this fact and quickly point to futility in the playoffs (8-11), his last win coming in 2016.
But imagine what his critics would have said if the team had back-to-back losing seasons and failed to make the playoffs.
Tomlin has his faults.
He’s loyal (some would say stubborn) to a fault and is slow to make adjustments, particularly on offense.
Yet not only is his offense still frustrating disgruntled fans, but the defense, which the team invested heavily in, was trucked by the Ravens to the tune of 464 total yards with no real fight, urgency or change in philosophy (no press coverage, lapses on long yardage plays, no deceptive blitzes, etc.)
Fans have also tired of his famous “Tomlinisms” as they’ve failed to translate into postseason success.
But this is not all his fault.
Under former GM Kelvin Colbert, the team focused primarily on defense and failed to find Big Ben’s eventual successor.
In 2018, they could have had Lamar Jackson but selected safety Terrell Edmunds instead with the 28th pick.
In 2019, they traded up to the 10th pick and selected linebacker Devin Bush. He showed great promise but was never the same after his injury.
In 2020, they could have had Jalen Hurts with the 49th pick. Instead, they selected Chase Claypool.
None of those players are on the team today.
As much as some want to blame Tomlin and claim that he drafted those players, that’s not entirely on him.
