On Saturday, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio published the written version of his top 10 head coaches in the NFL. As he spoiled ahead of time, he ranked Mike Tomlin second in the league, ahead of Bill Belichick and only behind Andy Reid. It’s not worth rehashing Florio’s thoughts on Tomlin or his rankings but more interestingly, Florio used the space to talk a little bit about owner and Team President Art Rooney II and his relationship with Tomlin.
Here’s the most interesting part Florio wrote.
“By all appearances, Tomlin doesn’t even hire his assistant coaches. The Steelers use a broad consensus approach to basically all issues, with no one claiming credit or ducking blame. Ultimately, owner Art Rooney II seems to have much more sway over the team than anyone realizes. Remember when Bruce Arians was forced out as offensive coordinator and replaced by Todd Haley? Some saw Rooney’s fingerprints on the move, not Tomlin’s.”
Some of this seems to be conjecture. “By all appearances” is doing lots of heavy-lifting here and Florio doesn’t cite anything specific. Keep in mind Florio can make great points but he’s a bonafide pot-stirrer, a “just asking questions” guy who loves to think about the juiciest and most controversial point possible. When he hears hoofbeats, he thinks zebras, not horses.
Still, his thoughts have merit. While Rooney is viewed as a completely hands-off owner, the total opposite of Jerry Jones, that probably isn’t true. We know Rooney is one of the front office’s “Big Three” when it comes to draft decisions, working alongside Tomlin and the GM (then Kevin Colbert, now Omar Khan) to come to a consensus that’s always presented as a “Steelers’ decision.”
Though Rooney isn’t compiling scouting reports or tracking 40 times, he sets the table for the direction the team is going to go. When he wanted to improve the team’s running game in 2021, they drafted RB Najee Harris, the class’s most obvious choice. And it’s safe to say he endorsed the idea of taking a quarterback in 2022. When Rooney offers his “State Of The Union” speech after every season, his comments almost always correlate to the team’s free agency moves. When he said earlier this year QB Mitch Trubisky wasn’t going anywhere, Trubisky stayed and received a contract extension instead.
Does Tomlin truly not hire his assistant coaches? That’s a bolder claim that lacks evidence. When Tomlin wanted to hire Brian Flores, he walked into Rooney’s office, got approval, and made the hire. In that story, it sure seems like Tomlin has plenty of freedom and Rooney giving the green light seems like a reasonable thing any owner would want to have. Taken at face value, this wasn’t a situation where Rooney was forcing candidates on Tomlin, telling him who they were and weren’t going to hire.
Rooney’s “pull” in the organization is probably the same as virtually every other owner. The difference is the Steelers have this mystique about its ownership. Sure, it’s unique, family-owned that offers incredible job security but every owner has some control over their team. It’s why they’re the owner and they’re going to have serious input on the direction of their team. In that regard, the Steelers are just like any other team in professional sports.
