play1:02Why Mike Tomlin stepping down makes sense to Jeff SaturdayJeff Saturday reacts to Mike Tomlin stepping down as the coach of the Steelers after 19 seasons.
play1:59Rich Eisen ‘saddened’ by Mike Tomlin stepping downRich Eisen weighs in on Mike Tomlin stepping down as the head coach of the Steelers.
play2:27Stephen A. not surprised by Mike Tomlin stepping downStephen A. Smith reacts to Mike Tomlin’s decision to step down as the coach of the Steelers after 19 seasons.
play1:37Alex Smith lauds ‘one of a kind’ Aaron RodgersAlex Smith lauds ‘one of a kind’ Aaron Rodgers Alex Smith joins the “The Rich Eisen Show” to discuss Aaron Rodgers’ career after the Steelers’ wild-card loss to the Texans.
play1:14Stephen A.: It’s time for Aaron Rodgers to retireStephen A. Smith explains why Aaron Rodgers should retire following the Steelers’ playoff loss to the Texans.
play0:53McAfee wonders who replaces Mike Tomlin in PittsburghMcAfee wonders who replaces Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh Pat McAfee reflects on the Steelers having to find a new coach for the first time in 19 years after Mike Tomlin’s decision to step down.
What does Mike Tomlin’s future hold? Adam Schefter weighs in (1:32)Adam Schefter breaks down future options for Mike Tomlin after his decision to step down as the coach of the Steelers. (1:32)
Why Mike Tomlin stepping down makes sense to Jeff SaturdayJeff Saturday reacts to Mike Tomlin stepping down as the coach of the Steelers after 19 seasons.
Rich Eisen ‘saddened’ by Mike Tomlin stepping downRich Eisen weighs in on Mike Tomlin stepping down as the head coach of the Steelers.
Stephen A. not surprised by Mike Tomlin stepping downStephen A. Smith reacts to Mike Tomlin’s decision to step down as the coach of the Steelers after 19 seasons.
Stephen A. Smith reacts to Mike Tomlin’s decision to step down as the coach of the Steelers after 19 seasons.
Alex Smith lauds ‘one of a kind’ Aaron RodgersAlex Smith lauds ‘one of a kind’ Aaron Rodgers Alex Smith joins the “The Rich Eisen Show” to discuss Aaron Rodgers’ career after the Steelers’ wild-card loss to the Texans.
Alex Smith lauds ‘one of a kind’ Aaron Rodgers Alex Smith joins the “The Rich Eisen Show” to discuss Aaron Rodgers’ career after the Steelers’ wild-card loss to the Texans.
Stephen A.: It’s time for Aaron Rodgers to retireStephen A. Smith explains why Aaron Rodgers should retire following the Steelers’ playoff loss to the Texans.
Stephen A. Smith explains why Aaron Rodgers should retire following the Steelers’ playoff loss to the Texans.
McAfee wonders who replaces Mike Tomlin in PittsburghMcAfee wonders who replaces Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh Pat McAfee reflects on the Steelers having to find a new coach for the first time in 19 years after Mike Tomlin’s decision to step down.
McAfee wonders who replaces Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh Pat McAfee reflects on the Steelers having to find a new coach for the first time in 19 years after Mike Tomlin’s decision to step down.
Everything changes with time. The NFL that Mike Tomlin was watching as he accepted Art Rooney’s offer to take over as Steelers head coach on the evening of Jan. 21, 2007, doesn’t look all that similar to the league we just saw run through a frantic wild-card weekend, one that ended with the Steelers being blown out 30-6 by a sloppy Texans team. It was the final game of his Pittsburgh tenure, as Tomlin stepped down Tuesday.
That, in the end, meant it was probably time for a fresh start for all parties. The Steelers haven’t won a playoff game since 2016, when they made it as far as the AFC Championship Game before being blown out by the Patriots. A seven-game losing streak in the postseason would be a tough enough pill to swallow, but Tomlin’s teams haven’t even led in one of those games for a single snap in the second half.
Something had to break that cycle, and perhaps Tomlin’s departure will do that. What’s also simultaneously true, though, is that the Steelers themselves are very different organizationally and philosophically than the team Tomlin took over in early 2007. They were one of the league’s model franchises. In some ways, they still are. But in others, they’ve lost what made them so unique and special.
As a result, this becomes one of the more fascinating head coaching jobs to come available in recent memory, and it opens the door for a potentially transformative change for the Steelers moving forward. What’s next for the Steelers? And could that inform who’s next to take over what might be the league’s best head coaching opportunity?
That’s just not normal. Some coaches are concerned that they won’t have an ability to implement their ideas and find players who fit their system before they get fired. With the Steelers — assuming Pittsburgh sticks with precedent — they have had enough time to bring multiple generations of players through the building. By that definition, this is the best job opportunity to come available in many years, perhaps since Tomlin took over for Cowher.
Noll, Cowher and Tomlin weren’t just afforded time out of the kindness of the Steelers’ hearts, of course. They won. The Steelers proudly have the best winning percentage of any team (.612) since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, and they’re tied with the Patriots for the most Super Bowl victories of any team with six. We don’t know whether the Rooneys would tolerate any extended period of losing, in part because there simply hasn’t been one in Pittsburgh.
Why Mike Tomlin stepping down makes sense to Jeff Saturday
Jeff Saturday reacts to Mike Tomlin stepping down as the coach of the Steelers after 19 seasons.
For decades, the Steelers were a developmental machine. Nobody was better at drafting promising players and molding them into upper-echelon, starting-caliber talent. Other franchises had good drafts, but the Steelers were the envy of the NFL.
That has changed. For several years now, the Steelers have ceded that developmental factory reputation and have been just like any other team in football, using meaningful doses of free agency and trading for veterans to cover holes on their roster.
Now consider what we saw from the Steelers on Monday night in their lopsided loss to the Texans. Let’s take the 11 players they used most often on offense and defense and just chart how they were acquired. In this case, nearly half of the players the Steelers relied on during their most important game of the season came from other organizations, either via trades or free agency:
Draftees (11): Mason McCormick, G; Troy Fautanu, OT; Zach Frazier, C; Pat Freiermuth, TE; Calvin Austin III, WR; Joey Porter Jr., CB; T.J. Watt, edge; Cameron Heyward, DT; Alex Highsmith, LB; Derrick Harmon, DT; Keeanu Benton, DT
Let’s contrast that to Steelers teams from the past. Let’s go back to 2016, essentially the midway point of the Tomlin era, and look at the lineup from the venerated coach’s last playoff win, an 18-16 victory over the Chiefs. Was it equally dependent on imported talent?
Undrafted free agents (4): Alejandro Villanueva, OT; Ramon Foster, G; Eli Rogers, WR; James Harrison, edge
Rich Eisen weighs in on Mike Tomlin stepping down as the head coach of the Steelers.
That ability to draft and develop at a high level, year after year, was just as important to the Steelers’ engine as their coaches. Noll and Cowher never returned to the NFL after leaving the Steelers, so we never got to see whether they were the same caliber of coaches without the steady stream of in-house talent. It’s only fair to assume that Tomlin, 53, will eventually return to the league somewhere else one day, but I wonder whether that will actually happen when push comes to shove.
To answer that question, we have to figure out why it closed. There have obviously been personnel changes in the front office. Longtime general manager Kevin Colbert, who joined the team from the Lions in 2000, retired after the 2021 season and was replaced by Omar Khan, but the shift toward using more outside talent started before that change.
While the Steelers obviously landed hits here and there, many of those players weren’t ably replaced. Pittsburgh simply had a bad stretch of drafts, especially in the top 100 picks and relative to their usual expectation of landing difference-makers and potential Pro Bowlers. Let’s run through those drafts:
2011: Here’s a class where the Steelers did land a Pro Bowler and future franchise legend in Cam Heyward, who came off the board in the first round. After that, though, the only other selection who became a regular starter was tackle Marcus Gilbert, who managed only two full seasons without getting injured during his time in Pittsburgh. Third-round pick Curtis Allen never made it at cornerback.
2012: Another very good pro in the first round, as the Steelers drafted guard David DeCastro, but he was the exception. Mike Adams, Sean Spence and Alameda Ta’amu, their next three picks, had only brief runs in the starting lineup. The saving grace was seventh-round pick Kelvin Beachum, who spent his rookie contract as a starting tackle before heading elsewhere.
2013: Le’Veon Bell was the star of this draft as Pittsburgh’s second-round pick, but the Steelers famously weren’t able to work out a second contract with him. First-round pick Jarvis Jones managed six sacks in four years, while third-round wideout Markus Wheaton didn’t make it to a second contract in Pittsburgh. There was a useful player later in the draft in sixth-round pick Vince Williams, who eventually emerged as a starting inside linebacker.
2014: Shazier looked excellent early in his career before sustaining the neck injury. Second-rounder Stephon Tuitt delivered, but the next two picks were Dri Archer and Martavis Bryant, who didn’t last long in Pittsburgh. There also weren’t any Day 3 picks to emerge from this class with any sort of notable career.
2015: Bud Dupree delivered one season with a double-digit sack total across six years in Pittsburgh, which is fine, but he probably ended up as something close to an average first-round pick. Second-rounder Senquez Golson never played an NFL game, while third-rounder Sammie Coates lasted two years on the Pittsburgh roster. On Day 3, the Steelers nabbed tight end Jesse James and backup linebacker Anthony Chickillo, but this class never really came together.