by The fan base of Pittsburgh Steelers largely falls into one of the two camps. You have one group that believes that head coach Mike Tomlin is one of the best head coaches in the NFL. Then the other group believes that Tomlin is the most important factor in why the Steelers have not won a play -off game since 2016 and have not been to a super bowl since 2008.
Pro Football Focus arranged the 10 best returning head coaches in the NFL and they fall into the first camp when they rank Tomlin No. 5 in the entire competition. This is what they had to say about Tomlin:
Despite recent criticism of a lack of play -off success, Mike Tomlin still finds a way to squeeze every Greint execution from his teams. He still has to go through a losing campaign in 18 seasons as head coach of Pittsburgh, although there have certainly been close phone calls. Making the late season in 2024 despite a turbulent Quarterback situation is an impressive performance.
However, the identity of the Steelers is their defense, which again played at an elite level in 2024. They are in fourth place in pff-defensive quality and the first in Pff Passrush degree, led by Future Hall of Famers TJ Watt and Cameron Heyward. However, they could occasionally use insulting problems because they went 8-0 when allowing 18 points or less and 2-8 when they allowed 19 or more.
The problem with making an argument for Tomlin is the degree of power he has in this team. You cannot deny the drought after the season that this team stood. But if you are going to say that Tomlin is great, because he gets so much out of the selection, you implies that the players in the team are not great. But it is quite known that there are not many boys who end up on the stalkers who did not want Tomlin. So if the players do not meet expectations, Tomlin is not to blame anyone except himself.
