Have you ever been so confident in an opinion that you are willing to stake your entire reputation and legacy on it? Mike Tomlin is dipping his toes into those waters with some lofty comments he made about the potential of his 2025 defense. He said via 102.5 WDVE that the defense is capable of “historic things.” Some will take exception to that level of braggadocio before the season has even begun, but former NFL GM Doug Whaley sees it as a positive.
“I like it, especially if you’re talking about your head coach waxing poetically about the ceiling of the defense. The one thing I look at, and it’s great, he is basically assigning accountability to himself and his coaching staff,” Whaley said Wednesday via 93.7 The Fan’s Morning Show. “If I’m Teryl Austin, I’m on notice now that he’s basically saying, ‘We got the talent, now it’s up to us to make sure this defense reaches the levels that we think and everybody’s saying that it can.'”
It’s unusual for Tomlin to talk that way. He often avoids giving too much praise at this point in the process. He clearly has so much belief in the group that he’s willing to paint a big target on his back and the backs of his coaching staff.
They have the personnel with the highest-paid defense in the league. They have the pedigree with guys like T.J. Watt, Cameon Heyward, Jalen Ramsey, and Slay. Now it’s up to the coaches to make sure they have the proper scheme. Anything less than a top-five defense would be viewed as a failure.
And the “historic” defenses compete deep into the playoffs or even win Super Bowls. Anything less than a playoff win or two should be viewed as a catastrophic failure. The type of failure that would warrant large-scale changes in the coaching staff.
The most recent memory of this defense was it getting run on by the Baltimore Ravens for nearly 300 yards in another first-round playoff exit. People are rightfully skeptical about the grand claims of its potential. Tomlin doesn’t seem to mind steering the Steelers right into that uncomfortable territory where they have to prove themselves daily with a massive target on their back if they don’t.
