Sunday’s game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Seattle Seahawks will feature two of the winningest coaches in NFL history. Mike Tomlin, with 171 career regular-season wins, is one game behind Bill Parcells and sits at the 14th spot for the most wins by a head coach while Pete Carroll is just a couple wins behind him with 169. Tomlin is in his 17th season, while Carroll is in his 18th. With a wave of young and fresh head coaches entering the league over the last decade, they have both been able to hold onto their jobs and enjoy winning cultures in their respective cities.
Carroll appeared on Kiro News in Seattle this week and was asked about Tomlin’s success as a head coach.
“This game is about performance that’s based on, really, repetitions of doing things right and doing them well. And that calls for consistency and the focus on that and that calls for habits, creating habits where guys can get really grooved in so they can execute no matter what the situation is,” Carroll said in a Kiro News Radio interview that was posted on Apple’s podcast platform.
His words hold true in a season that has been a whirlwind of adversity for the Steelers. Look no further than the fact that QB Mason Rudolph will be starting his second game, with a long break in between his last starts, for this must-win game. It was the same story last week and the Steelers put together their most complete performance of the year. Beyond Rudolph, the Steelers were dealing with starting two safeties who hadn’t started at that position for the team. Patrick Peterson moved from his normal corner position to play free safety and Eric Rowe came off the practice squad for his first game in the 2023 season. Both players had interceptions and were a big part of the Bengals win. A credit to Tomlin and his coaching staff for “creating habits,” as Carroll said, to put his players in position to win regardless of situation.
“Mike Tomlin has figured it out,” Carrol said. “He hasn’t had a losing season in his career. That’s something I think is remarkable and should always be noted, and he’ll be a Hall of Famer because nobody has ever done that probably.”
Should Tomlin and the Steelers walk out of Lumen Field with a win on Sunday, they will have secured their 20th straight non-losing season as a franchise dating back to 2004. It will also be Tomlin’s 17th consecutive season without a losing record. Both of those marks are close to the longest streaks in league history. The major knock on Tomlin has been his lack of playoff success. He is 8-9 in the postseason and hasn’t gotten a postseason win since the 2016 season.
