During his end-of-season wrap-up press conference, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin revealed that the next Steelers offensive coordinator is going to come from outside of the organization. This is noteworthy as of the Steelers’ last five offensive coordinators, only Todd Haley was not promoted to offensive coordinator from within the organization.
On the Rich Eisen Show the other day, Rich Eisen encouraged Tomlin to do that and follow the George Costanza method of doing the opposite.
“George Costanza, once famously, turned his life around by doing the opposite,” said Eisen. “And Jim Harbaugh turned Michigan around because he started doing the opposite. He got some guys on the staff who did the opposite of what he was thinking about or what he thought was right. They [The Steelers] said today in the press conference they’re going to hire an offensive coordinator from outside the organization….What I’m saying is, I don’t know, some hot shot with a billion new ideas that you would never think the Pittsburgh Steelers would run in a million years, get that person. Try it out.”
The Seinfeld episode Eisen is referencing comes from season five episode 22 titled “The Opposite.” As Eisen explained, George, a character who was continuously down on his luck, decided to do the opposite of every instinct he had. For the Steelers, every instinct would be to hire from within and promote either running backs coach Eddie Faulkner or quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan who split offensive coordinator duties after Matt Canada was fired midseason, but as Eisen said, they shouldn’t.
Just like how George finally became a winner after avoiding his every instinct he had and doing the opposite, the Steelers can as well by following the same path. Avoid a common name with connections like Byron Leftwich and shoot for an offensive mind like Eric Bieniemy or Brian Griese. Go get someone from the Shanahan tree who can inject the offense with some modernity. Pittsburgh’s offense looks like they are still in the early 2000s, they need to get with the times.
Sticking with the safe choice or someone the team knows won’t turn this team into a contender. Pittsburgh’s offense has talent, but neither Canada nor previous offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner could figure out how to use the talent on that side of the ball.
If Pittsburgh does change it up, good things can happen. The Steelers have talent on the defensive side of the ball, and showed that even with a Stone Age offense last season when the defense was healthy they could win games. With a modern offense, the Steelers could be a more serious contender if the defense can also stay healthy.
Normally you never want to be like George, but this time you do. Be like George Costanza, Tomlin.
