In Thursday’s press conference to wrap the 2023 season and answer questions about the path into the offseason, head coach Mike Tomlin expressed one of his biggest professional regrets of his career—never getting C Maurkice Pouncey a Super Bowl ring.
“I think I always move in that urgency,” Tomlin said via the team’s YouTube Channel when asked about getting a guy like Cameron Heyward a ring. “I think you can point to guys like that annually that are deserving of being champions and you want them to have that taste. It’s probably one of my biggest regrets professionally is that Maurkice Pouncey, for example, is not a world champion.”
Pouncey was drafted in 2010 and was a part of the team that lost to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XLV. He did not participate in that game due to an ankle injury, which was a huge hit to the Steelers at the time. Perhaps things would’ve played out differently had he been available. The Steelers never returned to the Super Bowl the rest of his career, but he did participate in an AFC Championship Game during the 2016 season, a 36-17 loss to the New England Patriots.
Pouncey responded to Tomlin’s comments on his Instagram account, saying “Thank you Coach T means the world but Never regret it Coach You made me a champion at life I’m forever thankful!”
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This also brings back the memory of the Steelers’ 2020 playoff loss, after which QB Ben Roethlisberger could be seen sitting on the bench with Pouncey, the two sharing an emotional moment. Roethlisberger later explained, “I wanted to win it for him.” They knew it was Pouncey’s last season and the team was rallying around trying to get him a ring.
Heyward and T.J. Watt are two more players who have spent their entire careers with the team but have never enjoyed success in the playoffs. Between the two of them, they have one playoff win. The way things are trending, Heyward may never see that. He already said he is not retiring, but he will be turning 35 before the 2024 season begins, and the Steelers have uncertainty at quarterback—the most important position on the team. The path back to playoff success is murky without a franchise quarterback to help get you there.
