To the national media, Mike Tomlin remains one of the NFL’s top head coaches. The Associated Press voted on the top coaches in football with Tomlin coming in fourth place, trailing only Kansas City’s Andy Reid, New England’s Bill Belichick, and San Francisco’s Kyle Shanahan. Tomlin received multiple second-place votes but ultimately landed just inside the top five, with the AP writing:
“Tomlin has never had a losing season in 16 years with the Steelers. He had Ben Roethlisberger for 15 of those seasons but finished 9-8 with rookie Kenny Pickett taking over at QB in 2022. Tomlin has won a Super Bowl in two appearances. He was named on seven ballots.”
Voters could rank their top five choices with Tomlin showing up on plenty of them. As AP notes, and has become “the stat” associated with Tomlin, he’s never had a losing season. There’s been three occasions in which his Steelers finished 8-8 but he’s never finished below .500. Last year gave that streak quite the scare, Tomlin’s team sitting at an ugly 2-6 entering the bye week. But Pittsburgh regrouped and got hot down the stretch. The Steelers finished the year 7-2 with a clearer identity and better health, RB Najee Harris getting past his toe injury and T.J. Watt returning from his partially torn pectoral.
The last time Pittsburgh finished with a losing record came all the way back in 2003, when Bill Cowher’s team ended the season 6-10. The following draft, they took QB Ben Roethlisberger 11th overall.
Pittsburgh will look to keep that streak going in 2023 with an improved offseason roster and more experience offensively. They’ll look to break some droughts along the way, missing the postseason in 2022 and failing to win a playoff game since the 2016 season when they made it to the AFC Championship Game. Those are Tomlin’s missions this time around.
Despite a lack of recent success, Tomlin is revered by the media for his stability, consistency, and he’s always good for a headlining quote. He and this roster should be under pressure this season, even knowing the AFC and AFC North are unrelenting.
Per the results, Reid received all but one first-place vote, the outlier going to Belichick. The third- and fourth-best coaches will face each other in Week One when Shanahan’s 49ers travel to Pittsburgh to face Tomlin’s Steelers. The only other head coach listed in the top five is Baltimore’s John Harbaugh, edging out Los Angeles’ Sean McVay and Philadelphia’s Nick Sirianni.
