The Steelers’ 2023 season has been put out of its misery, ending as so many have before in recent years: a disappointing, blowout playoff loss. The only change-up lately is when they miss the playoffs altogether. But with the Buffalo Bills stamping them out in the Wildcard Round, they have another long offseason to look forward to.
The biggest question hanging over the team as we speak is the future of head coach Mike Tomlin. While a firing seems unlikely, speculation has been rampant about his continuing. When asked about his contract status after the loss to the Bills, he walked away mid-question.
Beyond that, there is…the quarterback question. Is Kenny Pickett the guy? Will he get another season’s reprieve without a challenge? How will the team address the depth chart? Do they re-sign Mason Rudolph, one of the few significant unrestricted free agents?
The Steelers are swirling with more questions this offseason than usual, frankly, though the major free agent list is less substantial than usual. It’s just a matter of…what happens next? Where do they go from here? How do they find the way forward?
Question: How much control will Mike Tomlin have over who the next offensive coordinator will be?
As has been repeated ad nauseam over the years, as a general practice, the Steelers organization operates as a collective. Strictly speaking, the owner, Art Rooney II, has the final say on everything. That’s the owner’s prerogative, and he can step in whenever he feels like it.
But on the whole, we constantly hear about joint decisions being made between Rooney, head coach Mike Tomlin, and the general manager, now Omar Khan (previously for many years Kevin Colbert). When it comes to coach hirings, though, they usually allow for more leeway to the coach. Colbert claimed responsibility for hiring Todd Haley, for example, belonged to Tomlin, even though many believe otherwise.
It does, perhaps, make Tomlin’s answer during Thursday’s press conference slightly more intriguing when asked about who would be responsible for hiring the next offensive coordinator. “It’ll be a small group”, he said via the team’s website. “It’ll be, obviously, myself, Art Rooney II, and Omar Khan”.
After his last four coordinator hires—Keith Butler, Randy Fichtner, Matt Canada, and Teryl Austin—were all internal promotions, Tomlin also specified that he was looking for an outside hire with previous coordinating experience.
Is that comment an indication that he is being hand-held through this more than on previous decisions? I don’t think there’s any question that the weight of the entire organization is on this one. Everyone in that building must understand how crucial the next hire is.
And yes, that includes getting a more definitive answer about who QB Kenny Pickett is and whether they well and truly whiffed in the first round in 2022. They realized that Canada was not the answer. Now they need a coordinator who can tell them if they have the answer under center. And that may be too much for Rooney to leave squarely in Tomlin’s hands.
