You can probably stop speculating on whether or not the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to fire, trade or replace head coach Mike Tomlin this offseason. According to a report from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac, the Steelers have no plans to actually make a head-coaching change and are expected to bring Tomlin back for a 19th season.
In Tomlin’s first 18 seasons, the Steelers have been one of the most successful regular-season teams in football. They have never had a losing season and have maintained a consistently competitive roster, even following the retirement of future Hall of Fame quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
Over the past two seasons, for example, they still won 10 games and made the playoffs each season despite entering them both with extremely low expectations from around the league.
Tomlin has also won a Super Bowl and coached in another during his time with the Steelers.
The problem for him and the Steelers is that for as competitive as they have been in the regular season, they have been completely uncompetitive in the playoffs.
Following Saturday’s 28-14 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, the Steelers have not won a playoff game since the 2016 season and have now lost five consecutive playoff games. Tomlin is now 8-11 overall in the playoffs.
What makes Saturday’s defeat even more frustrating for the Steelers, their players and their fans is that it resulted in a five-game losing streak to close the season after starting 10-3 and looking to be in full control of the AFC North. Instead of hosting a team like the Los Angeles Chargers, they had to go on the road to play their fiercest rival and one of the NFL’s best teams.
It is a really challenging spot for the Steelers.
As long as they are winning more games than they lose and consistently making the playoffs, there is a risk in making a change. The odds of finding a better coach are probably not great, especially given the success rate of other head-coaching hires around the NFL. But it is also pretty clear that the current situation is not getting them closer to a championship. They are a good team. That is their ceiling.
Part of that is due to the quarterback situation, and until that gets resolved, it is hard to see that ceiling rising anytime soon. Kenny Pickett was not the answer. They know Russell Wilson and Justin Fields are not the long-term answer. Even at the tail end of Roethlisberger’s career, he was not playing at a high level. It has probably been seven or eight years since the Steelers have truly had high-level quarterback play.
That is the biggest hurdle the Steelers and Tomlin have to clear.
It is not the only one, though. As inconsistent (and bad) as the quarterback play has been, the defense has also consistently failed them in playoff games. That is where the Steelers have built their team from and what they count on to win. It has not been there for them in the biggest games.
