Earlier this week, former Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark said that while head coach Mike Tomlin is “unfireable,” he should leave Pittsburgh because his voice has grown stale. Although a breakup between Tomlin and the Steelers is unlikely, Colin Cowherd took exception to Clark’s claim that Tomlin is “unfireable.”
“I’ve always found this fascinating, Andy Reid and Bill Belichick got fired, but apparently Mike Tomlin is unfireable,” said Cowherd on The Herd the other day. “Now the Steelers have not fired — remember, Chuck Noll retired, Bill Cowher retired. So they haven’t fired a coach since the ’60s.”
Cowherd has a point. Sure, Tomlin is a really good coach who is likely a Hall of Famer, but what makes him “unfireable?” He hasn’t won a playoff game since the 2016 season, and the Steelers seem years behind franchises like the San Francisco 49ers and Philadelphia Eagles, both in how the team is run and in game planning.
Tomlin isn’t solely to blame; Pittsburgh’s core organizational philosophy is passed down from owner Art Rooney II. Still, Tomlin has a major role in roster construction and game planning. Yet, when facing teams like the 49ers, Eagles, or even the Indianapolis Colts under head coach Shane Steichen, Tomlin and the Steelers often look completely overmatched.
Although Cowherd took exception to Clark calling Tomlin “unfireable,” he did agree with Clark that the Steelers and Tomlin should part ways.
“I agree, I just think it’s time,” said Cowherd. “If it takes you seven to eight years to fix the offensive line and you still can’t get it right, and Pittsburgh still can’t, and McVay and Andy Reid and Kevin O’Connell can do it in an offseason, you’re outdated.”
While Pittsburgh’s offensive line has struggled since 2019, placing the majority of the blame on Tomlin is unfair. Tomlin bears responsibility for certain decisions, such as offensive line coach hires and waiting too long to address the issue seriously, but other factors, like individual player performance and evaluation, aren’t solely on him.
Since 2023, the Steelers have used first-round picks to bolster the offensive line, selecting tackles Broderick Jones and Troy Fautanu. The jury is still out on them, and it isn’t Tomlin’s fault they haven’t solidified the offensive line yet (especially considering Fautanu missed almost his entire rookie season with injury).
Cowherd often criticizes the Steelers for neglecting offense in the modern NFL. His comments about Tomlin and the team’s inability to build a good offensive line are part of that critique, but in this segment, he went further, using the Steelers’ outdated offensive philosophy to predict yet another season without a playoff win.
“I think it’ll be the ninth season without winning a playoff game,” said Cowherd. “The gold standard is the mold standard. We call them the Pittsburgh Stalers, it’s just an outdated offense.. I’ve always found it weird, I don’t think they would fire Mike Tomlin, but the idea that he couldn’t be fired, we’re firing Andy Reid and Bill Belichick, so, Tom Landry got fired.
“But Pittsburgh just doesn’t do that.”
Those are harsh words from Cowherd, but they’re fair. Since 2019, the Steelers have only finished higher than 15th in points per game once (2020) and have not been in the top 10 at all. In recent years, watching the Steelers’ offense has been a slog, aside from a few isolated games.
Tomlin has shown a willingness to open up the offense when he has his quarterback, as he did with QB Ben Roethlisberger. But since Roethlisberger’s retirement, Tomlin and the Steelers have run an offense so conservative that it’s hard to imagine it winning a Super Bowl. Until Tomlin gets a franchise quarterback, the Steelers will continue running an offense that doesn’t win championships in the modern NFL.
Is that a fireable offense? Right now, probably not. But Tomlin certainly shouldn’t be “unfireable.” As Cowherd pointed out, other great coaches have been fired — and Tomlin shouldn’t be an exception.
