In a recent ESPN Sportsnation poll that asked which head coach would wind up being the most successful between Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh, the Pittsburgh Steelers head coach deservingly won out with 54% of the 16,450 total votes.
Harbaugh of course captured his first Super Bowl championship in 2012, which tied him with Tomlin, who has led the Steelers to two Super Bowls in his first six seasons. While Harbaugh does currently have a slightly higher winning percentage than Tomlin does (.677 to .654), it is important to remember that he has never beaten the Steelers in the playoffs and that the two coaches are .500 against each other in their 10 regular season meetings.
In three of those five wins that Harbaugh has against the Steelers, however, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger did not play due to injury, so that\’s a huge asterisk.
The Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens have both had some serious turnover on their respective rosters this past offseason which will really test the coaching mettle of both Tomlin and Harbaugh moving forward. Should the Ravens wind up sweeping the two regular season meetings between the two teams in 2013, you would probably have to move Harbaugh ahead of Tomlin at that point, even though he has failed to beat the Steelers in the playoffs.
These two head coaches figure to be around for quite some time, so it will be a while before we ultimately get to answer the question once and for all.
