Mike Tomlin can be a very polarizing figure.
Many in the national media will praise the long-time Steelers head coach for never having had a losing season and somehow finding a way to pull out close games when everyone writes Pittsburgh off. Others will criticize Tomlin for his lack of playoff success the last decade and for showing too much loyalty to his players and coaching staff, that being the reason former OC Matt Canada was in his position as long as he was before getting fired earlier this week.
NFL Network analyst and co-host of the Move The Sticks podcast Bucky Brooks sides with the former, listing Tomlin as his top candidate to take home the NFL Coach of the Year award thus far for managing to keep his team in the thick of the playoff hunt while having one of the worst offenses in recent memory.
“Yeah, Mike Tomlin… talk about doing the most with the least,” Brooks said on the Move The Sticks podcast. “A little more scrutiny on the team because he just fired Matt Canada the offensive coordinator. They weren’t being very productive. He talked about it’s about scoring points, and they need to score points. But even with those issues, they still are a team that’s right there. They’re still right in range to win the AFC North. They’re right there to go into the postseason. I think that you have to tip your hat to the job that he’s done so far.”
Brooks praised Tomlin’s ability to coax victories from a flawed roster a little over a week ago, stating that Tomlin has a way to force teams to play ugly football. That allows him to cover up his own team’s deficiencies while maximizing its strengths of running the football and playing good defense to win close games. That has happened against teams like the Baltimore Ravens, who are one of the best teams in the AFC this season and have been putting points up in droves against their opponents, the Steelers beating Baltimore 17-10 in Pittsburgh earlier this year.
To be fair, Pittsburgh has a talented roster and plenty of talent in the passing game to get the job done. The combination of the play calling and offensive game planning by Canada and the execution — or lack thereof — by QB Kenny Pickett has amounted to Pittsburgh’s passing game being second worst in football. The Steelers are averaging 170 passing yards a game with Pickett taking a step back in Year Two. Whether it be Tomlin forcing the Steelers to play more conservative or his sticking Canada until this week, he does need to shoulder some of the offensive woes to date.
Still, Tomlin managed to make the move to move on from Canada midseason, and despite Pittsburgh getting outgained on offense in every game this season, the team sits at 6-4 and in position to make the playoffs and potentially still win the AFC North. It’s been a statistical anomaly of a season for the Steelers as they’ve managed to continually defy the laws of the game of football by squeezing out victories at an unsustainable rate. For that, you must tip your hat to Tomlin as his ability to keep this team together, to keep winning amid adverse circumstances is certainly worth some recognition. Should he get this team in the playoffs, then we can start talking about actually him taking home the accolade.
