FIRE MIKE TOMLIN NOW!

[Gonzo]

isn’t tomlin the highest paid coach in the NFL ?

[StillerInCT]

isn’t tomlin the highest paid coach in the NFL ?

Andy Reid I believe

[CzechSteeler]

isn’t tomlin the highest paid coach in the NFL ?

Andy Reid I believe

Tomlin is reportedly 2nd.

[DumlinBumlinStumlin]

isn’t tomlin the highest paid coach in the NFL ?

Andy Reid I believe

Tomlin is reportedly 2nd.

He needs to do an Andy Reid and get in with his life’s work somewhere else

[Rod & Wire Mill]

isn’t tomlin the highest paid coach in the NFL ?

Andy Reid I believe

Tomlin is reportedly 2nd.

Lotta daylight between those two guys.

[AirRescueFF]

isn’t tomlin the highest paid coach in the NFL ?

5th in all sports.

Sickening.

[Orangesteel]

Andy Reid I believe

Tomlin is reportedly 2nd.

Lotta daylight between those two guys.

Ha! Just a bit!

[Works At A Bank]

Tomlin is tied at 3rd with Jim Harbaugh and Sean Mcvay. Sean Payton is #2 behind Reid

[the-other-burg]

Last night was the first time in my life where i truly found myself hoping the Steelers would fail.

Thank you for that, Art and Tomlin.

I cant in good faith hope for any success for this team until Tomlin is gone. And that sucks.

[StillerDownSouth]

Andy Reid I believe

Tomlin is reportedly 2nd.

He needs to do an Andy Reid and get in with his life’s work somewhere else

Rooney won’t fire him and eat $48 million.

[DumlinBumlinStumlin]

Tomlin is reportedly 2nd.

He needs to do an Andy Reid and get in with his life’s work somewhere else

Rooney won’t fire him and eat $48 million.

We assume this status quo, Tomlin was given a decree to win a playoff game this year. He failed miserably, with that game and the previous 4 game collapse.

[DumlinBumlinStumlin]

Starkey is expounding on this simple fact. The decree, then all the bad lists Tomlin has made.

Joe Starkey: Besides finding a new coach, Steelers must find a franchise quarterback — by any means necessary

When he was complimented back in October for making a bold change at quarterback, Mike Tomlin said, “That’s why I’m well compensated.”

Well, sure, making important decisions is part of it. But the main reason Tomlin is one of the highest-paid coaches in all of American sports is to win big games, and he simply doesn’t anymore.

Like, never.

Like, eight years without coming close to a playoff win.

Like, six straight playoff losses in which his teams have been cumulatively outscored in the first quarter, 73-0.

It’s time. I take no pleasure in saying that. Tomlin has been a winner and an incredible representative of the city. But it was team president Art Rooney II who said last year, after a double-digit playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills, that “there’s an urgency” to win some playoff games. Or at least one.

“I think everybody, myself, Mike, guys that have been on the team for a while ... everybody, we've had enough of this,” Rooney said. “It’s time to get some (playoff) wins. It's time to take these next steps.”

Time to take these next steps … or what? Coordinators have changed. Quarterbacks have changed. General managers have changed. There is only one more place to look.

Check the mind-blowing facts …

• The playoff-win drought of eight years is the Steelers’ longest since a streak that began in the 1960s (they actually didn’t win a single playoff game, ever, until 1972).

• The average margin of defeat in their six-game playoff losing streak is more than two touchdowns.

• They have also missed the playoffs nearly 40 percent of the time in those eight years — three out of eight — and have been disregarded as double-digit underdogs in each of their past three.

• They have won three playoff games in the past 14 years, or half as many as the Houston Texans in that time frame.

• Tomlin owns the NFL record for most consecutive playoff games surrendering 40 points or more (three, from 2017-21)

• No Steelers defense had ever allowed a running back to do what Derrick Henry did Saturday — rush for 186 yards in a playoff game.

• The division title drought of four years is the Steelers’ longest since a streak that began in the late 1980s.

• In five of the past seven years, the Steelers have lost at least three games in December.

• The Steelers ended this season on a five-game losing streak in which they were outscored 137-73.

• The Steelers have not beaten an upper-echelon quarterback in a playoff game in 15 years.



This was probably the worst playoff defeat of all, considering it came at the hands of the Steelers’ arch-rivals and began with the team looking totally disinterested.

“They weren’t ready to play,” said ex-NFL GM Doug Whaley on the WPXI postgame show, “and that falls squarely on the coaching staff and Mike T.”

Game analyst Kirk Herbstreit was even more critical after the Steelers fell behind 21-0.

“I don’t see any fight, any pushback,” Herbstreit said. “Where the hell is the fight? This is the Pittsburgh Steelers. There’s nothing. They’re just going through the motions.”

The whole country heard that.

Much of the national media, of course, fawns over Tomlin for “overachieving,” never considering a basic question: Why is it that nobody expects anything from the Steelers anymore? Why is the ceiling overachievement?

It’s nice that they sometimes make the playoffs, although 44 percent of the teams do, but not so nice that when they arrive, it’s like a Group of Five team getting into the College Football Playoff. Everybody knows they have no chance to win it all.

If the thought is that Tomlin overcomes flawed rosters, please note that he has plenty to do with forming those rosters. Those who believe he must overcome faulty quarterbacking should realize that he handpicked Kenny Pickett, Justin Fields and Russell Wilson.

There’s nowhere else to look.

I’m guessing Rooney won’t have the fortitude to do what needs to be done. He will again settle for high-end mediocrity. He will again err on the side of “stability” when any reasonable observer knows that, at this point, it is merely stability for stability’s sake.

Having said all that, there is one spot on an NFL team that is more important than the coach, and that is the quarterback.

It’s a quarterback’s league. The Ravens found theirs with the last pick of the first round in 2018.

The Steelers cannot hope to be that lucky, or smart. They’re desperate.

Wilson, who played gamely in the second half Saturday, is clearly not the answer. Fields isn’t, either, and drafting where the Steelers always draft doesn’t lend itself to finding a franchise quarterback.

Still, they might have to draft a quarterback in the first round or try to trade up.

They also have to consider more drastic ideas. One would be trading T.J. Watt, as repulsive as the thought might be. The Steelers have won exactly nothing with him, and he is due for another huge contract as he goes into his age 31 season. Could he still fetch a couple of high draft picks? Khalil Mack was 27 when the Oakland Raiders traded him for two first-round picks.

Would a George Pickens trade net something big? I’m just spitballin’ here. Could Rooney get Tomlin to waive his no-trade clause (Adam Schefter reported that Tomlin has one of those) and get something back?

It’s nearly impossible to survive and have a legit shot without a star quarterback.

The AFC now has Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, C.J. Stroud and either Josh Allen or Bo Nix as the last men standing. That isn’t by accident.

The Steelers don’t belong in that company.

They haven’t belonged there for a long, long time.

First Published: January 12, 2025, 12:36 a.m.
Updated: January 12, 2025, 1:54 a.m.

[DumlinBumlinStumlin]

Jason Mackey highlighting will the Rooneys change course from the simple norm

Mackey: After another collapse and one-and-done postseason, the Steelers must make actual changes in 2025

Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin walks off the field after losing to the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025, in Baltimore, Maryland. The Baltimore Ravens won 28-14.


BALTIMORE — As some Steelers players showered, changed and walked toward the team bus late Saturday night at M&T Bank Stadium, others remained in the visitors’ dressing room, soaking in the silence.

Najee Harris wore a pair of headphones that definitely weren’t necessary. A fan whirred overtop George Pickens’ locker stall.

For a season defined by a gigantic thud — the Steelers suffering a 28-14 loss to the Ravens in an AFC wild-card game to end the year with five consecutive defeats — there was an eery amount of silence in the moments that followed.

“Haven’t gotten it done,” Cam Heyward said quietly in a room across the hall. “Opportunity was there. Our execution was not.”

It hasn’t been, which takes us to another noise-based metaphor that awaits: The Steelers darn well better make some of it in the days, weeks and months ahead after how this thing unraveled.

Sure, they scored 14 points in the third quarter to make a game out of it. Russell Wilson, who completed 20 of 29 passes for 270 yards and two touchdowns, repeatedly applauded the Steelers’ fight.

Had Wilson found an open receiver instead of forcing the ball to Calvin Austin III (through three Ravens defenders) on fourth-and-15 midway through the fourth quarter, perhaps this would’ve gone down to the wire.

Save me the positive spin or finding any way to look at this other than the brutal, unvarnished truth: The Steelers are mediocre and flawed … and unless they’re willing to admit that and act accordingly this offseason, it’s hard to take anything they do seriously.

That discussion starts, of course, with coach Mike Tomlin, who has dropped six straight postseason games during a drought that stretches back eight years. Tomlin has been at the helm for far too many late-season collapses — and this might be the worst.

During their five-game losing streak, the Steelers allowed an average of 27.4 points per game. Three times their opponent gained at least 401 yards, including a season-high 464 by the Ravens, 299 of them on the ground.

A few weeks after Derrick Henry brutalized the Steelers, he showed up to the playground and did the same thing again, finishing with 186 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries.

“They were the better group,” Tomlin said. “They wore us down a little bit. The fatigue component of it became a factor.”

Henry is really good. So is Lamar Jackson. But it wasn’t just about what the Ravens did. Let’s think about what the Steelers failed to do … and have failed to do.

Tomlin takes an immense amount of pride in the Steelers being physical, so much so that every year we talk about those physical camps in Latrobe, how you can’t box without sparring, that sort of thing.

What the heck happened early on?

The Steelers looked like they didn’t want to be there in the first half, as the Ravens outgained them 308-59. That included a 164-19 edge in rushing yards.

“Where the hell is the fight?" Kirk Herbstreit said on the Amazon broadcast. "They're the Pittsburgh Steelers. They're going through the motions."

Herbstreit, of course, wasn’t wrong. And I’m pretty sure it’s the head coach’s job to have his team ready to play, which Tomlin clearly did not.

It’s also the job of the head coach to oversee the conceptualization of game plans designed to beat the other team, another glaring failure in this one.

Ravens coach John Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Todd Monken looked like they were impersonating Herman Boone’s split-veer offense from “Remember the Titans” — six plays, like novocaine, give ‘em time, always works.

On the Ravens’ third drive, they marched 85 yards in 13 plays in 7:56, all of them runs. Jackson tortured the Steelers with zone reads. Tomlin and defensive coordinator Teryl Austin took entirely too long to adjust.

In the fourth quarter, the Steelers were also penalized for having too many men on the field, their lack of organization allowing a freebie conversion for the Ravens on what would’ve been an important — and close — 4th-and-1 try.

If only that was the first time that sort of thing happened.

As for their own game plan, where do we start? The Steelers failed to score on their opening drive for the 20th consecutive game. They’ve also failed to score in the first quarter of their past five playoff games, allowing 63 points in the process. They had a whopping two first downs (to 19 for the Ravens) in the opening 30 minutes.

“We weren’t good enough,” Tomlin said. “A drop here and there and things of that nature, when you’re playing good people, it really gets highlighted. We just weren’t good enough.”

What the Steelers did after halftime felt like a mirage comeback for a mirage season.

In baseball, there’s a term called “eyewash” for an action or activity that really doesn’t mean anything … it’s just kind of meant to look good. That’s how it felt watching the Steelers score on their first two drives of the third quarter on Wilson passes to Van Jefferson and Pickens.

The Steelers were still outgained by 184 yards and were nearly doubled in time of possession. They still watched their season wash away, as their division rival did the exact opposite — peaking with a four-game winning streak, playing complementary football and solving some defensive woes.

It’s also why I kept thinking about the idea of noises versus silence, a dynamic that has framed the better part of the Steelers’ existence.

They’ve long preferred to deal in the latter, craving stability and in-house hires and simply hitting the mute button when the former grows too loud. Here’s hoping they finally take a different approach.

I don’t know if they’ll move on from Tomlin. There’s an overwhelming amount of evidence that says they’ll do nothing and trust the process. But we’re also aware of what championship football looks like, and how the Steelers comported themselves in this one is not that.

“They definitely put a belt to butt today,” DeShon Elliott said.

It’s also not one game. Elliott said he was aware of the Steelers’ reputation before signing with them last offseason, knowing they’ve started strong but struggled to have the same sort of oomph at the end of seasons.

Elliott’s frustration was obvious after this loss, his tone low, his answers trailing off.

“I know that we’ve played well at the beginning of the season, then [crapped] the bed at the end,” Elliott said. “Same thing happened this year. We have to figure out what’s the problem. We have to figure out how to get better.

“We have to figure out how to get past that point. We have to figure out how to finish strong in seasons to go into the playoffs hot.”

Team president Art Rooney II said last offseason that the organization was fed up. “We’ve had enough of this,” he stated. “It’s time to get some [playoff wins]. It’s time to take those next steps.”

Don’t let the second half or a handful of victories against bad teams fool you. The Steelers did not. They figured out how to go ice cold. It has been a concerning trend, too. One that everyone can see.

There’s something amiss here. What occurred against the Ravens felt like a symptom of a larger problem on the inside.

But as long as the Rooneys continue to prefer silence instead of fixing the problems that have been screeching and squealing to everyone on the outside, we’re all just wasting our time thinking the mediocre results will ever change.

First Published: January 12, 2025, 5:00 a.m.
Updated: January 12, 2025, 8:21 a.m.

[the-other-burg]

https://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com/2 ... -wild-card

“In addition, for all the people who love to cling to the narrative of “Tomlin would be hired in five minutes if the Steelers fired him,” - enough of that. That argument is so tired and lame. It basically suggests that instead of having a real standard for winning and moving on if big goals aren’t met that Steelers fans should be content with the franchise banging their heads against a wall every year expecting a different result”

[anpsteel]

Tomlin is tied at 3rd with Jim Harbaugh and Sean Mcvay. Sean Payton is #2 behind Reid

I think it is very important, that whatever message is being delivered to Art, to be sure to include the fact, that Tomlin pointed out, “That’s why I’m highly compensated”

[anpsteel]

https://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com/2 ... -wild-card

“In addition, for all the people who love to cling to the narrative of “Tomlin would be hired in five minutes if the Steelers fired him,” - enough of that. That argument is so tired and lame. It basically suggests that instead of having a real standard for winning and moving on if big goals aren’t met that Steelers fans should be content with the franchise banging their heads against a wall every year expecting a different result”

The people who like to parrot the, he’ll be hired in a minute, forget that he has a coaching tree of ZERO


If the league were that enamored with his coaching abilities, that would be any number greater than zero

[DumlinBumlinStumlin]

I’ll bet he will never be hired again. His fraud is totally exposed

[DumlinBumlinStumlin]

Terry just lambasted Steelers fall from norms

Jimmy said to swap Tomlin and McCarthy.

[swissvale72]

Terry just lambasted Steelers fall from norms

Jimmy said to swap Tomlin and McCarthy.

I've always felt that McCarthy > Tomlin. Plus, he's a pittsburgh guy, from greenfield

[the-other-burg]

Amazingly there are still many Tomlin defenders out there.

Perception is such a relative animal. People will twist situations into a pretzel in order to match their perception.

Here’s one very common example:

“Mike Tomlin consistently has his team overacheiving. Its not his fault they fail in the post season. They shouldnt even be there.”

You see, the person that makes this argument either intentionally or unintentionally, absolves Tomlin from creating those low expectations to begin with.

If you support Tomlin you will watch the same exact events, at the same exact time, but you will remember a completely different story.

Truly fascinating how the mind works. Especially those whose mind is so simple, that you can see them falling into traps without any self-awareness.

[DumlinBumlinStumlin]

Everyone saying this needs to put in their place

Lying pretending asshats

[AirRescueFF]

Dumbest thing that Rooney could have done after making those comments a year ago (aside from stupidly offering a 3yr extension afterwards), would have been to not tie all years to post-season performance. At least, give management the option to void any remaining years. A "highly compensated" individual producing shit work in January shouldn't have had a problem with that.

[.Kodiak]

I "quiet quit" Tomlin and the Steelers 2 years ago. It's made the last 5 games thoroughly enjoyable. I could not have hoped for, much less imagined, such a humiliating defeat yesterday.

I did not suffer yesterday. I thoroughly enjoyed the beat down. PIT on the other side of a near perfect dream game for Tomlin and Deuce. That HAD to sting Rooney deeply.

[langer]

I can't wait for next season to roll around and all of what happened at the end of the season is totally forgotten and the production line of bullshit gets started. I actually enjoyed watching the game last night, it was so bad that it was good. One of the laughingstocks of the National Football League.

There is a license to underachieve with Coach Mike so we get to have these experiences year after year.

I'm curious to see if Vrabel can turn around the Pats. That will shine yet another gigantic beam of light on Coach Mike's performance.

[the-other-burg]

Lets face it, anyone who hasnt given up on Tomlin yet, never will.

The sample size of his efforts is large enough and the results are undeniable.

The jury is out for the greater of humanity.

We can safely write off those who are still defending, still clinging to this sinking ship, as unsalvageable.

[DumlinBumlinStumlin]

Dulac couching his words……. Doesn’t mean Tomlin would ask out though.

Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports the Steelers are “not planning to make any move involving” head coach Mike Tomlin.
Five straight losses left their mark on the fanbase and created some belief that the Steelers could move on from Tomlin. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that teams might call on Tomlin’s availability earlier in January. This was never really something that was set in reality, where Tomlin has been Steelers coach for 18 seasons without a losing record. Pittsburgh will likely see major change on the offensive side of the ball, and perhaps it’s possible that they move on from offensive coordinator Arthur Smith. Russell Wilson and Justin Fields are both free agents. There’s a lot to solve for the Steelers outside of Tomlin.

[the-other-burg]

Dulac couching his words……. Doesn’t mean Tomlin would ask out though.

Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports the Steelers are “not planning to make any move involving” head coach Mike Tomlin.
Five straight losses left their mark on the fanbase and created some belief that the Steelers could move on from Tomlin. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that teams might call on Tomlin’s availability earlier in January. This was never really something that was set in reality, where Tomlin has been Steelers coach for 18 seasons without a losing record. Pittsburgh will likely see major change on the offensive side of the ball, and perhaps it’s possible that they move on from offensive coordinator Arthur Smith. Russell Wilson and Justin Fields are both free agents. There’s a lot to solve for the Steelers outside of Tomlin.

A city in denial.

[DumlinBumlinStumlin]

The city is not in denial, you mean the Tomlin mafia and Rooney

[the-other-burg]

The city is not in denial, you mean the Tomlin mafia and Rooney

I see reddit, mainstream fans, media, seems like more people support him than not

[DumlinBumlinStumlin]

The city is not in denial, you mean the Tomlin mafia and Rooney

I see reddit, mainstream fans, media, seems like more people support him than not

So in other words. The phantom fans