A few episodes of The Terrible Podcast ago, we were asked an interesting question. What are Mike Tomlin’s biggest mistakes of his Pittsburgh Steelers’ coaching tenure? While that’s a basic and broad question for someone entering his 18th year with the team, it’s better than the alternative. The gushing national media praise of his non-losing season streak, even though that’s not his or the franchise’s goal. Or the constant harping on the negative of zero playoff wins since 2016 and this offseason’s 72-hour news cycle over his contract extension worthiness.
Hearing it real-time, I didn’t have a great answer for the question. Sitting back and thinking about it some more, here’s a list of mistakes he’s made. All these examples are obviously critical but it’s not a commentary on his entire career. Far from it. Like anyone else who has coached for as long as Tomlin has, there’s valleys to match his peaks.
These moves will be focused on things he had obvious control over. And they’ll be limited to singular events instead of overall trends or resumes. Clear errors and blunders without nuance over where (and who) to assign blame.
If readers are interested enough, I’ll write a “Mike Tomlin best decisions” article later this offseason.
1. Not Firing Matt Canada After 2022 Season (2023)
This was the answer I briefly offered up on the podcast. Hiring Matt Canada in the first place could make this list in itself. But I can at least sorta see the rationale for it. A relatively fresh face and a desire not to hand QB Ben Roethlisberger a new coordinator and coach for what we knew was going to be his final season. It still was a bad and wrong hire but I can offer more grace there.
What I can’t do is I excuse Tomlin keeping Canada after 2022. Perhaps you could argue Art Rooney and the team’s philosophy of not firing coaches mid-contract was the barrier. But if Tomlin really wanted Canada out, it would’ve happened. For community’s sake after drafting Kenny Pickett, the team didn’t want to start anew. But with a young quarterback and offense and given Canada’s ugly track record two seasons in, the writing was on the wall. He wasn’t going to be the long-term answer. It was either rip the band-aid off now or do it later. Tomlin chose the latter and Canada became the first Steelers’ coordinator fired mid-season since World War II.
Right after the 2022 season, I (and was far from the only one) tweeted what would happen in 2023.
If anything, I undersold it. Canada was worse than “meh” and failed to survive the entire year. And Pickett is gone. But we knew it was the wrong decision for all parties ,a choice that’d only stagnant this franchise.
A disaster wire-to-wire, the team had a chance to save some face by dumping Canada going into Pickett’s second year. Who knows how his replacement would’ve fared and if Pickett’s career would be any different but once the team committed to Canada for 2023, we knew the car was headed off the cliff. Over and down she went.
2. The Jacoby Jones Incident (2013)
A moment to at least laugh back at with years and hindsight at your sail, it’s one of the wildest coaching gaffes in recent memory. In a primetime game against the Baltimore Ravens, Tomlin inadvertently stood on the field as KR Jacoby Jones raced down the left sideline for a likely touchdown. Tomlin danced out of the way and Jones was tackled shortly after.
It led to a week-long controversy over how Tomlin drifted onto the field. He would tell reporters he lost place of himself and Jones while staring up at the scoreboard. I reject the idea Tomlin did so intentionally but no matter the reason, it was an inexplicable moment.
The NFL opted against taking away a Steelers’ draft pick fined Tomlin a hefty $100,000 for his wandering. This moment wasn’t as consequential as others, though it didn’t make it any less bizarre.
3. “Unleash Hell” Comment (2009)
Master at the mic, Tomlin’s 2009 “Unleash Hell In December” comments came back to bite him. Following a Nov. 30 overtime loss to the Baltimore Ravens, a peeved Tomlin told reporters postgame he and the Steelers would “unleash hell” in December. For posterity, here’s the full quote.
“We will not go gently. We’re going to unleash Hell here in December. Because we have to. We won’t go in a shell. We’ll go in attack mode. Because that’s what’s required.”
Click above and listen to that quote. You can feel the windup in Tomlin before saying it. He took a swing but whiffed miserably.
Pittsburgh not only lost their next two games but did so in embarrassing fashion. As 15-point favorites, the Steelers were upset by the Oakland Raiders at home the following week before being cooked by the Cleveland Browns 24-6 four days later. It dropped the team from 6-5 to 6-7 and out of the playoff race.
It’s easy to forget the Steelers, as they always do, rallied to win their final three games to finish 9-7. But the damage was done. Tomlin’s comments were replayed over and over, the butt of the joke.
4. Drafting Jason Worilds Over Sean Lee (2010)
The Steelers are always quick to point out they draft as a team. It’s a Pittsburgh decision, not an individual one. Still, someone has to get their way in the room, and in the second round of the 2010 NFL Draft, that was Tomlin. As was reported at the time and in the years since, Tomlin pushed and steered the Steelers to taking Virginia Tech EDGE rusher Jason Worilds over Penn State ILB Sean Lee with the 52nd overall pick.
In all fairness. Worilds wasn’t a bad player. After a slow start to his career, the light came on and he recorded 15.5 sacks across the 2013 and 2014 seasons. Had he not abruptly retired after his age-26 season, maybe that progress would’ve continued. But based on sheer results, Lee was the better player. A two-time Pro Bowler, one-time All-Pro, and once finished in the top five of DPOY voting. Injuries were a problem but objectively, Lee was the superior talent.
If you stretched criteria, you could comprise this list entirely of draft misses. But in this case, there’s clear lines pointing to Tomlin driving the bus on this pick, making it an exception and one worth adding to the list.
5. Slew Of Bad O-Line Coach Hires (2013, 2019, 2021)
Credit to Tomlin for tabbing Mike Munchak. That was finding gold. Hiring Jack Bicknell Jr., promoting Shaun Sarrett, and promoting Adrian Klemm was nothing but sifting through dirt. I’ll place any coaching hire on Tomlin and these three were among his worst.
Bicknell was a complete whiff. Hired in 2013, he was effectively replaced mid-way through the season before officially being canned after just one year. He hasn’t had a head o-line coach job in the NFL since, bouncing from one college job to the next. Sarrett was Munchak’s right-hand man and it’s hard to exactly fault the team for promoting him once Munchak left. But Sarrett was hired without basically any interview or process, offered the job as he, Munchak, and Tomlin sat together as Munchak departed. After also being promoted from assistant to in charge, Klemm didn’t even last one full season, leaving to take the Oregon Ducks job in a year where a young and changing o-line labored to the finish.
That’s three bad misses along the offensive line, two coming in recent years. It’s hampered the team’s ability to rebuild in the post-Pouncey/Foster/Decastro, etc. era and Pittsburgh’s line has been one reason why the offense has bottomed out in recent years. Thankfully, that seems to be changing now. Pat Meyer isn’t Munchak but he looks pretty good compared to these guys.
6. Trading Josh Dobbs (2019)
Hindsight proved to be 20/20 here. For the first time in probably ever, the Steelers rolled the dice rostering two quarterbacks when they traded Josh Dobbs to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sept 9, 2019. Six days later, QB Ben Roethlisberger blew out his elbow and was lost for the season.
It left the team with two young quarterbacks to carry the load the rest of a long season. A second-year Mason Rudolph and UDFA gem Duck Hodges. The team played musical chairs with the pair the rest of the season while the Steelers’ defense played their heart out.
Clearly, Dobbs was no savior to the franchise. But there’s zero question he would’ve been a stable and better option whose legs would’ve been a real threat to defenses. If Dobbs plays out the entire year and the Steelers get the exact same defensive production, they make the playoffs. Guaranteed.
You could argue this is more organizational than squarely on Tomlin. And you might be right. But a mid-season roster trade like this, especially at quarterback, is something Tomlin had to have given a clear green light to. It burned them immediately. They’ve carried those scars since, rostering three quarterbacks each year and valuing experience top to bottom.
7. Screwing Up Roster Rules (2020)
A hidden “gem” on this list. Similar to the Jacoby Jones incident, this one didn’t really hurt the Steelers but it was a mistake all the same. New CBA rules allowed teams to dress up to 48 players on their 53-man Active/Inactive roster provided eight of them were offensive lineman.
For the 2020 season opener against the New York Giants, the Steelers only dressed 47. Inactive for the game were: OG David DeCastro, QB Josh Dobbs, RB Anthony McFarland Jr., ILB Ulysees Gilbert III, NT Carlos Davis, and TE Zach Gentry. DeCastro was legitimately injured but the rest? The Steelers could’ve dressed another player.
Asked about the decision post-game, Tomlin copped to rules confusion and accepted responsibility for the screw-up. Fortunately, the Steelers still came out on top 26-16 in an empty Giants’ stadium during the pandemic. Still, you won’t often see teams botch how many players they’re allowed to have available.
Honorable Mentions: Too Slow To Start Mason Rudolph (2023), Far Too Intense Inaugural Training Camp (2007), Not Playing LB L.J. Fort Enough (2017), Various Clock Management Blunders (2024 Bills Wild Card Game, 2023 vs Patriots, 2021 vs Titans, 2020 vs Colts, 2015 vs Bengals)
