Happy New Year! Let’s start 2025 with a take quake. The Pittsburgh Steelers are 10-6, have a playoff berth clinched heading into their season finale, and while they’ve lost three straight games, they’re still a team that has aspirations of competing in the playoffs. But former New York Jets GM and current NFL analyst Mike Tannenbaum thinks that if you take Mike Tomlin out of the equation, the Steelers are fighting for the No. 1 overall pick.
“To me, when you look at the word value and coaching, if you take Mike Tomlin out of Pittsburgh, they’re a 2-3 win team. Look at that roster when you look at 1-53. So to me, you may not be happy with him, but I would always say running a team, who are you gonna get that’s gonna be better? I’m hard pressed to think that there’s someone better than Mike Tomlin for the Steelers,” Tannenbaum said on ESPN’s Get Up this morning.
Tomlin is a divisive coach in Pittsburgh due to his lack of playoff success, but he’s still a good coach and one of the most consistent in the league. But to say he adds 7-8 wins every year is a little bit ridiculous. Tannenbaum clearly hasn’t looked enough at Pittsburgh’s roster to consider the Steelers a two-win team minus Tomlin. They have one of the best front sevens in football led by T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith and Cameron Heyward and an All-Pro safety in Minkah Fitzpatrick. On offense, Russell Wilson has performed like a top-15ish quarterback this season, George Pickens is an elite weapon at receiver, and Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren are solid out of the backfield.
I wouldn’t have an issue if Tannenbaum said the Steelers wouldn’t be a playoff team without Tomlin. It’s debatable but not a crazy take, but to say that they’d be a 2-3 win team without him doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. There’s enough talent on this roster for the Steelers not to be one of the worst teams in the league without Tomlin leading the ship.
Tannenbaum is right though when he posits the question of who the Steelers could hire that’s better than Tomlin. Hiring a new coach is never guaranteed to improve anything, and while it’s really a moot point anyway since Tomlin isn’t going anywhere, there isn’t anyone the Steelers could realistically hire who would be viewed as a clear-cut upgrade over him as head coach. That part of his argument makes sense, and the Steelers’ stability is why they’ve been such a successful franchise.
But Tomlin isn’t taking one of the worst rosters in the league to the playoffs. To say the Steelers are a two-win team without him is a discredit to Omar Khan and Andy Weidl’s roster building and a pretty ludicrous take.
