The Pittsburgh Steelers haven’t won a playoff game since 2016, and a lot of the blame for that has fallen on head coach Mike Tomlin. But former Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert, who played a part in hiring Tomlin in 2007 and worked with him up until Colbert’s retirement after the 2022 NFL Draft, thinks that Tomlin deserves more credit. Speaking to Scott Brown of Steelers Depot at Grandview Golf Club on Monday at an annual gathering of Western Pennsylvania high school football coaches, Colbert praised Tomlin for getting the Steelers in a situation to win “year in and year out” and said he doesn’t get enough credit.
“No,” Colbert said about Tomlin getting enough credit. “Mike Tomlin is a superb NFL head coach. I know people talk about, ‘Well they haven’t won a playoff game’ in how many years it is, but to win a football game is extremely hard in the National Football League. To win a division is extremely hard. To make the playoffs is extremely hard. To win a playoff game, extremely hard. To have a chance to be in that situation year in and year out, it’s very, very difficult and I think that gets shortchanged when people talk about not winning a playoff game. I think that Mike has been extremely diligent in making sure that the Pittsburgh Steelers have a chance each and every year. That’s what we want. But, to that point, Mike’s never happy when we don’t win Super Bowls.”
Colbert isn’t wrong that it’s incredibly difficult to win in the NFL and consistently be in the playoffs. That’s why, by and large, Tomlin’s thought highly of around league circles and why he just earned a three-year extension from the Steelers. There are plenty of fan bases that would be thrilled with what Tomlin has done by dragging inferior rosters to the postseason and giving the Steelers a shot when it really matters.
But they just haven’t executed, and in Pittsburgh, it’s a bigger issue. We hear all the time that the standard is the standard. In Pittsburgh, the standard is winning Super Bowls. Tomlin knows that, and it’s probably why Colbert said he’s never happy when that isn’t the case. It’s a franchise that has six rings, one of which did come under Tomlin, but the lack of recent success in the postseason has brought a lot of frustration for a fan base that’s used to winning and being one of the preeminent franchises in the league.
That’s why Tomlin has caught so much flak, probably more than he would if he was coaching the Titans or Vikings or Cardinals. He’s done a good job by keeping the Steelers competitive every single year, and while it is hard to win a playoff game, he’s done it plenty of times before. It has to happen soon before patience completely wears thin among the fan base. With the talent the Steelers have, this could be the season that drought finally ends.
If it doesn’t there’s going to be a lot of unhappy fans and people who think Tomlin is overrated. It’s a fair opinion to have, especially given just how long it’s been. I tend to side with Colbert that being competitive every single year and competing is an incredibly hard feat and should be celebrated a little bit more, but it’s hard to look at Pittsburgh’s recent playoff results and be satisfied. There are games they should’ve won and games they flat-out didn’t show up for. That makes it harder to be rosy about the idea of competing.
At the end of the day though, I still think Tomlin is one of the best coaches in football, and I do think he can get this team over the hump. While they might not be legitimate Super Bowl contenders this season, a playoff win is very well in the realm of possibility, and it’s something that very well could happen this season.
