Mike Tomlin’s been the Pittsburgh Steelers’ head coach since 2007. Over that long tenure, there’s been plenty of highs and lows. He’s won a Super Bowl, been to and lost another, and had years without making the postseason at all. But to Tomlin, the most adversity-filled season came in 2019.
He joined the L3 Leadership Show, as Tomlin does every year around the time of the annual Man Up Conference, to discuss all things life and football and was asked about a season when he had to deal with an extra dose of difficulty.
“I think the 2019 season always will stand out for me, professionally speaking,” Tomlin said. “Ben got hurt in the second game. We got faced with a lot of challenges. Player availability standpoint. It took us awhile to gain our traction, find a new normal, if you will. And find a way to do our jobs.”
In the first half in Week Two against the Seattle Seahawks, Ben Roethlisberger suffered a season-ending elbow injury. Pittsburgh began the year 0-2, blown out by New England in the opener, and turned to second-year QB Mason Rudolph for his first offensive snaps. Just days before Roethlisberger’s injury, the team had traded Josh Dobbs, who likely would’ve been next-man-up if he was still on the roster.
Pittsburgh cycled through quarterbacks the rest of the season. Rudolph suffered injuries and took his lumps as a first-time quarterback. That opened the door for UDFA Devlin “Duck” Hodges, who played in eight games and started six. While quarterback was the centerpiece of the conversation, it’s easy to forget about the other injuries the team dealt with. RB James Conner missed a chunk of time. WR JuJu Smith-Schuster missed four games. There were times when the team turned to the likes of Kerrith Whyte Jr. and Trey Edmunds to run the ball and Tevin Jones and Deon Cain to catch it.
Despite an 0-3 start, the Steelers clawed their way back to .500 at 5-5. They then rattled off three straight wins, edging out victories over Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Arizona, and put themselves in playoff position at 8-5. But they collapsed down the stretch, losers of their final three, and missed the postseason with an 8-8 mark. While it was a disappointing finish, they still exceeded all expectations and some regard it as Tomlin’s best coaching job of his career. Most other teams in that situation would’ve been picking in the top five, not fighting for the playoffs.
Catch the whole conversation with Tomlin below that mixes in football nuggets with some life lessons.
