With another season for the Pittsburgh Steelers ending perfectly according to script, the fanbase is clamoring for a new story to be written next year.
Once again, the team under chief playwright, Coach Mike Tomlin, needed a sand wedge to chip their way into the playoffs. Once again, they shot a double bogey and exited stage left after the first game.
Speaking of exiting stage left, Tomlin wouldn’t tolerate any questions concerning his future in the post-game press conference, which of course, makes it exciting for us to talk about now.
Sure, we could ramble on about another history making year for T.J. Watt, or about the emergence of the running game, or the Velcro-like cornerback play of rookie Joey Porter Jr.
But the offseason and the subsequent year is all about the Book of Tomlin, and his place in history in the team, and for that matter how soon he will be history.
So, what better to finish the year than with a melliferous worded discussion about the Bard of the NFL. Let’s give it a final Spin.
Four Chapters
The book of Coach Mike Tomlin can be broken into four chapters, three of them already written, one of them perhaps carrying the most dramatic scenes left to compose.
Let’s crack open the leather tome and give it a read.
Chapter One – The Super Bowl Era
This is perhaps the most controversial portion of the Tomlin story in Pittsburgh. Some of his most virulent detractors will say he won a Super Bowl in 2009 only because he inherited Coach Bill Cowher’s well-stocked player pond.
This is a true enough statement. It’s the accompanying criticism that is terribly off target. The belittling of the accomplishment reveals a lack of appreciation for the genius of the coach at the time.
Yes, his first day of work meant conducting practices with a roster full of Pro Bowl and All Pro veterans. Certainly, this locked and loaded squad would be the envy of any rookie coach throughout the course of NFL history.
However, it was both a blessing and a tremendous burden.
Imagine coming into a facility as one of the youngest ever coaches where there are battle tested and hardened talented players like Hines Ward, Heath Miller, Alan Faneca, Willie Colon, Aaron Smith, Casey Hampton, Brett Keisel, Clark Haggans, James Farrior, James Harrison, Ike Taylor, and Troy Polamalu. Each of them were wearing Super Bowl rings.
Now, young man. You go ahead and start telling them all that there is going to be “a new Standard around here”. We’ll watch.
The fact that he pulled this off in such a convincing manner proved he was a Stone Cold Leader from the get-go.
Chapter Two – The Changing Of The Guard
Sometime shortly after Aaron Rodgers bested Ben Roethlisberger in the Super Bowl in 2010, Tomlin began cleaning house and hiring his own interior designers.
He glanced around the faces of his players and coaching staff and determined there were too many old people. He declared that well beloved Defensive Coordinator Dick LeBeau’s strategy was as old as an 8-Track Player blaring out Waylon Jennings and hadn’t evolved properly with the times.
Not only did LeBeau get bid adieu, but so did many of the players who were recruited and trained by the old defensive stallion. Off to pasture and the glue factory they went as well.
Players like Casey Hampton were told the game was now too fast for his brand of run stoppery and he and some of his closest friends were given pink slips and a bag of donuts.
Tomlin intended to transform his remaining players into a “modern” defense, a squad completely retooled to adjust to the new NFL rules favoring softy cake quarterbacks protected by referees and video game type passing games.
Middle linebackers were going to be built more like greyhounds than Rottweilers and the need for speed became the team’s new official drafting policy.
These were also the early “Young Money” days, as Tomlin endeavored to surround his youthful franchise quarterback Ben Roethlisberger with an arsenal of gifted speedsters capable of chasing down his long frisbee throws.
Hines Ward? You’re too slow, Joe.
The gold bars stored in the Rooney coffers started moving from defensive storage facilities to Hollywood flashing offensive coffers.
How did this second chapter work out for Tomlin? The defense started to lose its edge and most sadly…its brand. Teams noticed rather quickly that Big Snack wasn’t blocking out the sun at the line of scrimmage anymore and it became the soft belly of the defense. Kind of ironic.
Opposing tight ends were left to freely roam the spacious, welcoming blades of grass in the center of the defense and players like Rob Gronkowski began to circle Steelers games on their calendars as stat padding opportunities of the highest caliber.
In truth, these were some of the most exciting days in the Tomlin era where the offense flew with wax wings ever so close to the sun before the inevitable melting occurred.
With Big Ben, Antonio Brown, Martavis Bryant, Heath Miller, Le’Veon Bell and a formidable offensive line to boot it was among the most prolific offenses ever to wear Steelers uniforms.
With win loss records of 11-5 (2014), 10-6 (2015), 11-5 (2016) and 13-3 (2017), these were the glory years of the Big Ben era with playoff appearances four years in a row. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get over the considerable road bump of the New England Patriots and the doorway of greatest hope started to shut and there was a distinctive odor left behind.
Steelers Nation pined for the Steel Curtain days of the team, and instead were served up a combination of Air Coryell and The Greatest Show on Turf.
Could we please have our defense back? They were last seen on a milk carton.
Following this period of brightness, the shades continued to close and the remainder of the Big Ben era aged along with him with seasons of 9-6-1 (2018), 8-8 (2019), 12-4 (2020), and 9-7-1 (2021).
2019 was the year with Roethlisberger’s elbow injury and 2020, although enticing in the beginning, ended with an embarrassing meltdown in the Wildcard round of the playoffs with a 48-37 smackdown by the Cleveland Browns that was over by the first half of play.
This fade to grey portion of Big Ben’s career also highlighted Tomlin’s biggest career mistake as this should have been the time the team was earnestly working on its succession plan. But, because they didn’t, it brings our little story here to a rather disappointing Chapter Three.
Chapter Three – In Search Of The Next Man Up
Big Ben’s decline in the last few years of his time as a Steeler was clear to witness by anyone other than his shrinking legion of fanboys. In order to accommodate his lack of throwing arm strength following his elbow surgery and with his mobility faded as well, the team responded by engineering a quick release throwing offense that resulted in a blurring hangover caused by incessant two-yard pass plays.
Now, Big Ben was gone, but the offense was left behind, like sweaty uniforms, along with an offensive coordinator in Matt Canada who was firmly out of his league.
For years it could be argued the team was more Big Ben’s than Tomlin’s but now with Roethlisberger retired, the future was firmly and unquestionably on the shoulders of the team’s head coach.
Could he win without Roethlisberger?
He tried to answer that question by picking up free agent Mitch Trubisky to have what he imagined would be a reliable starter to plug and play into the team’s offense. Tomlin loves players with meat on the bones of their resumes, and he’s always been easily allured to “pedigree” with Trubisky having been a former number two overall pick in the NFL Draft.
Was it possible Trubisky’s once bright future could be reignited with superior coaching? Tomlin must have believed so.
The team doubled down on next manning up their quarterback position by choosing Kenny Pickett with the twentieth selection of the 2022 NFL draft. Pickett, already a local legend based on his stardom at the University of Pittsburgh, was originally expected to hold a clipboard on the sideline for his rookie year as the experienced Trubisky drove Big Ben’s former offense.
Unfortunately, Trubisky looked like the same quarterback the Chicago Bears had discarded, with the only difference being he was now wearing a Steelers uniform.
It didn’t take Steelers fans long before they were singing chants of “Kenny…Kenny…Kenny” in 50,000-part harmony from the stands. Soon, Pickett came off the bench in relief of the ineffective Trubisky. Although, he wasn’t reminding anyone of another Pittsburgh graduate named Dan Marino, Pickett did show stretches of promise.
Yet, promise wasn’t enough as the team ended the season 9-8 and failed to get into the playoffs.
In 2023, with the words in this part of the book still painful to Steelers fans, hopes were blazing as Pickett flashed brilliance during the preseason. Did we have our next franchise quarterback after all?
Was this going to be an unbelievable season?
Unfortunately, it ended as yet another one to forget. The lowlight was losing back-to-back to a pair of teams who were 2-10 at the time.
Chapter Three finished with something Tomlin had never experienced in his career before. Job insecurity.
He was able to get his team to rise out of the hole they had dug and side door their way into the playoffs once again.
But, yet another playoffs with a rapid exit left Steelers Nation in a foul mood.
Although the national media continued to try to get Tomlin sized in his Hall of Fame jacket with every comment and observation made about him, the fanbase and much of the local media were now asking tough questions of their head coach.
The Last Chapter – The Legacy Defining Years
Even Tomlin’s most ardent supporters will agree it’s been a long time since he’s been able to get his team on a serious Super Bowl run.
His players have been fast to wrap their arms around Tomlin to say, “You’re not taking away our coach.” The Rooney family joined in the hugfest by offering up a contract extension.
Still, the writing is on the wall with black and gold crayons. Having a slightly above average win loss record isn’t going to bake the cookies anymore here in Pittsburgh.
It would be an error to over-interpret Tomlin’s contract extension. Essentially, it’s a sweetening up of the exit clause.
There is no question that if next year ended up being yet another season of general mushiness Tomlin would be on the thinnest of ice, skating his last few sweetly worded pressers.
On the other hand, if Tomlin does end up shapeshifting this team into a legitimate Super Bowl contender, then don’t expect him to linger around the Steelers locker room for another five years either.
One more Super Bowl victory. That’s all that is left on Tomlin’s bucket list. If he raises another Lombardi Trophy high, that will be a sufficient stamp to secure his legacy.
He’s got promising futures for the rest of his life. If he doesn’t end up being a future NFL Commissioner, he’ll be handed golden microphones in NFL commentary booths for as long as he has a voice.
The conclusion to the long-windedness of this Spin is that you are about to experience the Last Chapter of the Coach Mike Tomlin story in Pittsburgh. There are just a few years left, and that’s only if all goes well.
Enjoy this time for us to share together with the great leader of men. Whether you are an ardent Tomlin supporter, or one who was disappointed he wasn’t escorted out of the building with a picture frame and a houseplant in a box, you must admit this:
He’s one of the greatest personalities and unique coaching talents in all of Pittsburgh Steelers history.
A book is always sad, when it’s a good read, when you realize you’re reading the last few pages.
Until we Spin again.
