Would the Pittsburgh Steelers be 8-2 right now if not for Mike Tomlin and his coaching staff? While Steelers fans love to criticize their coaches, those barbs have lessened this season. In fact, many are promoting Tomlin as a lead Coach of the Year candidate. Mark Kaboly, in fact, finds it hard to even see where they might have stepped wrong.
“Boy, they’ve pushed all the right buttons of when to bring people back”, Kaboly said on 93.7, referring to the timing the Steelers have employed. In this case, he was talking about Nick Herbig making an impact play his first game back.
“Maybe they’re just being a little cautious. I mean, Herbig could have come back last week”, he said, but the Steelers waited. And he forced a fumble on the first drive of the game. “It just seems like everything they’re doing is right right now. You just wonder if it’s going to at one point catch up with them”.
You can go all the way back to Tomlin and the Steelers deciding to hire Arthur Smith as offensive coordinator. At the time, few found much inspiration in the move, but anything was better than Matt Canada. Then, of course, the Steelers pursued Russell Wilson and essentially flipped Kenny Pickett for Justin Fields.
“Is there any decision that you look that they’ve made, and you say, ‘Hmm’”? Kaboly asked. “Right now, even [Troy] Fautanu over Broderick Jones was probably the right decision, too now. Every decision [Mike Tomlin]’s made is working”.
It is working well enough to get the Steelers out to an 8-2 record and in the driver’s seat for the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs, anyway. If the Steelers run the table over the final seven weeks, they will secure a first-round bye. Right now, they are tied in the loss column with the Buffalo Bills, who have a worse conference record. The Kansas City Chiefs are one ahead of them in the loss column but would fall behind them in the event of a head-to-head loss. If the Steelers, Chiefs, and Bills were to tie at two losses, the Steelers would advance.
But Kaboly was mostly talking about the in-season moves Mike Tomlin has made. Obviously, the biggest call was going with Russell Wilson after Justin Fields started the season 4-2. The Steelers faced heavy media criticism when reports surfaced of their plans. Since then, they have participated in a self-promoting apology tour.
On the whole, at least in-season, there are few broad decisions you can criticize Tomlin and the Steelers for beyond those that nitpick. They have pulled strings pretty masterfully, even at times from a game-planning perspective. In the past two weeks, they have made two of the hottest quarterbacks in the league look quite uncomfortable.
