Leave it to former Pittsburgh Steelers’ safety and current ESPN analyst Ryan Clark to create another storyline surrounding his former head coach in Mike Tomlin.
When he’s not making the plea for Tomlin to go to a new team and have his Andy Reid moment, Clark is now apparently questioning Tomlin’s credentials, stating on ESPN Tuesday that Tomlin has underachieved in his career.
Clark’s comments have sparked a debate, which carried over onto ESPN’s Get Up Wednesday morning with the likes of former NFL GM Mike Tannenbaum, longtime analyst Louis Riddick and NFL insider Dan Graziano. None of those three believe Tomlin has done anything close to underachieve in his career.
Especially Graziano.
“Yeah, I get what RC [Ryan Clark] saying, like that night [Super Bowl XLV] you would’ve thought, ‘Oh, we’re gonna have this Super Bowl again over and over and over again.’ It made sense. But it’s hard to get to one Super Bowl, let alone go to multiple. This is one of those things; [Tom] Brady wrecked it for everybody. Which recent Steeler team should have been in the Super Bowl based on its roster?” Graziano said, according to video via ESPN. “By that I mean, I think Mike Tomlin gets the absolute most he can out of every single team he coaches. And if you want to criticize him for whatever role he has in building those rosters, I think that’s fair.
“But once he gets to coaching it, I don’t think there’s anybody that could do more with what he’s got than Mike Tomlin.”
Graziano raises a good point. Outside of the 2016 and maybe the 2017 Steelers, which teams that Tomlin has led to the playoffs in recent memory should have reached the Super Bowl? You’d be hard-pressed to name one.
While the criticism regarding the lack of recent playoff success under Tomlin is entirely fair, as is the frustration with the way the roster has been built over the years, it’s incredibly hard to make it to the Super Bowl once, let alone multiple times. Championships are the standard in the Steel City though, and the Steelers have fallen painfully short of that standard in recent years.
Despite coming up short of reaching those standards, the Steelers do deserve some credit for being competitive and being in the playoff picture year after year despite flawed rosters. Tomlin knows how to win in the regular season and keep his team relevant late into the year.
Just getting into the dance is a feat in its own right. Anything can happen there in single-elimination formats. Unfortunately for the Steelers, what’s been happening is one-and-done trips, leading to plenty of frustration and questions about Tomlin’s future in the Steel City.
The Steelers are very clearly in a transition period right now though. They are still trying to find their way at quarterback, all while turning over the roster, bringing in new faces on the coaching staff, and even in the front office, too. These things take time, and the Steelers are still retooling.
They believe they’re a much better team this year, and there’s a lot of hope with this year’s team with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback under Tomlin. Will it pay off with success in the playoffs? That remains to be seen.
But one thing is clear: Tomlin is going to get quite a bit out of this roster, even if there are some flaws and questions unanswered.
