Another week, another round of debates about the merits of Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. His team has suddenly fallen to 7-6 on the season after dropping two games in a span of five days to teams that were eight games below .500 at kickoff, and suddenly so many are convinced that he’s forgotten how to coach—or never knew in the first place.
Not so for one of his former players, CB Bryant McFadden, who has long ago entered the realm of the media. Asked by Zach Gelb on the Zach Gelb Show if he would entertain a trade for Tomlin this offseason if he were in charge of the Steelers, his answer was clear.
“No, because who are you bringing in? Now the thing about Steelers fans, just like about Patriot fans, [they’re] extremely spoiled”, he said. “Extremely spoiled. So the first time things look to be a bit rocky or not going as planned, they’ve been saying, ‘Mike Tomlin this, Mike Tomlin that’”.
There is no debating the fact that this past week has been a low moment in Tomlin’s career. He just became the first winning team to lose to multiple teams who were eight games or more below .500 in a single season in NFL history—a very dubious achievement, to be sure, though also somewhat arbitrary.
There are two things I don’t care for, though, when it comes to defending Tomlin and his position. One is the “no losing seasons” argument, which becomes somehow less and less impressive with each one. The other is based on fear. If you fire Tomlin, then who do you get?
The argument is if the Steelers fire Tomlin, everybody else in the league “will all jump at the chance to go get a guy like Mike Tomlin”, McFadden said, which is probably true. “So if you’re Pittsburgh, you’ve got to remember, if you’re letting him go, who are you bringing in?”.
I don’t know, but did anybody predict that they would have hired Mike Tomlin in 2007? Or his predecessor, Bill Cowher? You don’t truly know who’s out there until you have the opportunity to start looking.
The only question that should matter when evaluating Tomlin’s future is this: can he still lead the Steelers to a Super Bowl? If the answer is no, he has to go. If the answer is yes, then you have to keep asking questions, starting with, what would it take to put him in that position? And can somebody else do it easier, sooner, more often?
More than half of current NFL head coaches have only been on the job for three or fewer seasons. Chances are in another three years, half of them or more will be gone from those jobs. There’s a massive amount of turnover every year at the head coaching position. But you can’t just not make a move you believe needs to be made just because you don’t know if you can find a better answer. You can’t possibly find a better answer without trying, so if you deem the current solution insufficient, you have to start looking. It’s that simple, really.
