The Pittsburgh Steelers haven’t won a playoff game since 2016, and after back-to-back losses to 2-10 opponents shrunk the team’s 2023 playoff odds, it doesn’t look promising that the streak will be broken. Colin Cowherd ripped into Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin during today’s episode of The Herd, arguing that he’s not using his talent.
“This is embarrassing. Pittsburgh’s got a really good young tight end, two excellent wide receivers, I love both their backs. And the O-line? C’mon, they put draft picks and money into it,” Cowherd said. “It’s still ok, and it still looks like this? But hey, they’ve never had a losing season. Boy, is that the standard for the Steelers?”
Cowherd said that the New England Patriots’ excuse is that Bill Belichick can’t draft the right talent, while Pittsburgh’s issue is that Tomlin can’t utilize the talent the organization has.
“Pittsburgh’s front office has a history of finding gems everywhere,” he said. “I don’t think there is a franchise that drafts better wide receiver or tight end talent over the last 20 years than Pittsburgh. Tomlin’s can’t do anything with it.”
The second statement about Tomlin not being able to do anything with the talent the organization has drafted is somewhat unfair just because of the 20-year qualifier. Tomlin succeeded and got a lot out of guys like Mike Wallace and Antonio Brown along with JuJu Smith-Schuster among others. But the big issue, and I think Cowherd’s main point, is he didn’t a Super Bowl with any of those guys. While he did reach one with Wallace in 2010, recent history is obviously not in Tomlin’s favor when it comes to playoff success.
It doesn’t even matter at this point how good guys are in the regular season. The Steelers just haven’t been prepared to win in the playoffs, and this season they weren’t prepared to take care of business against two teams that came in a combined 4-20 when they took on the Steelers. A lot of that falls on the players and their failures in execution as well, but in both losses, they came out flat and dug themselves a hole they couldn’t recover from. Playing down to the opposition has happened far too often under Tomlin, with this season clearly being no different.
If the Steelers collapse and fail to make to the playoffs, Tomlin’s seat might find itself warm for the first time during his tenure in Pittsburgh. I don’t think it will happen because of how Pittsburgh operates, and I have a hard time seeing them really ever move on from Tomlin unless things go completely off the rails. But there’s no doubt that fans are frustrated, and you have to think players and members of the front office are frustrated that this team is falling apart and that the Steelers haven’t experienced in meaningful success in far too long.
It’s going to be interesting to see how the Steelers finish, with three of their final four games on the road, but the efforts of Sunday and Thursday doesn’t lend much hope to the idea that this team could still sneak back in the playoff field.
Watch Cowherd’s full breakdown below:
