Mike Tomlin Gets One-Year Extension

[Supersteeler]

Well said, and good points, but Tomlin is the one running this defense that constantly gives up huge plays, it's not one of his assistants, it's him. Tomlin is the one throwing the red flags, he's the one constantly trotting out 2DL, even on short yardage situations, using an ILB to cover WR's, calling a toss to the short side of the field on 4th and short in a playoff game.
He's made some horrible in game decisions that have a direct result in us losing games.

Agreed. He has made some suspect in game decisions and challenges. I still think it's silly how upset people get about Tomlin still being the coach when those mistakes have a minuscule effect on wins and losses as compared to the players and coordinators. Now if he decides he's overruling the DC and calling the defensive plays, then the accountability is on him when the defensive calls are bad. But it's not like he's been calling the defense throughout his coaching tenure. I think he's gotten frustrated with the DC's at times and taken over for a period. When that happens he has the sole responsibility for scheming errors. He still doesn't bear the blame for players ******* up and blowing coverages/missing tackles. That stuff is the reason for losses a vast majority of the time when defenses blow a game rather than a scheme error.

 

[Vader]

Agreed. He has made some suspect in game decisions and challenges. I still think it's silly how upset people get about Tomlin still being the coach when those mistakes have a minuscule effect on wins and losses as compared to the players and coordinators. Now if he decides he's overruling the DC and calling the defensive plays, then the accountability is on him when the defensive calls are bad. But it's not like he's been calling the defense throughout his coaching tenure. I think he's gotten frustrated with the DC's at times and taken over for a period. When that happens he has the sole responsibility for scheming errors. He still doesn't bear the blame for players ******* up and blowing coverages/missing tackles. That stuff is the reason for losses a vast majority of the time when defenses blow a game rather than a scheme error.

I'm not sure I can disagree more. Minuscule? Tomlin runs the defense. It's his defense. Hell he put the DC coaching the LBs. And again I know no one will answer this but... why ever fire a coach? He isn't responsible for players and how they play on the field. They aren't responsible for outcomes of games. Then WTF is the reasoning to ever fire a coach? How about 3 playoff wins in 8 years with a HOF QB and a defense littered with 1st and 2nd round picks that he was involved in drafting? Seriously WTF does this guy have to do to show he isn't the guy for the job? Start playing 1 DL on goal line situations? How about cover a WR with a DL? Maybe trotting out a kicker who has a ripped hamstring?

 

[SojournerSteel]

Jim Wexell wrote after the Jags playoff debacle that "Tomlin won't fire Butler..because he would be firing himself." I'm not sure how to read that other than Tomlin was responsible. Nothing since suggests that Shades has taken any less of a role in the defense.

Players come and go, but many of the same issues have persisted over time. People have used that same argument to question Ben's play/warts vs who the OC is.

Shades has struggled with game and clock management going all the way back to year 1 and going for 2 from the 12. The refrain then was, "he's learning."

Is he? Or is he getting more set in his ways? Art just had to force some changes on him at the end of the year to provide some remedial help.

 

[SojournerSteel]

I'm not sure I can disagree more. Minuscule? Tomlin runs the defense. It's his defense. Hell he put the DC coaching the LBs. And again I know no one will answer this but... why ever fire a coach? He isn't responsible for players and how they play on the field. They aren't responsible for outcomes of games. Then WTF is the reasoning to ever fire a coach? How about 3 playoff wins in 8 years with a HOF QB and a defense littered with 1st and 2nd round picks that he was involved in drafting? Seriously WTF does this guy have to do to show he isn't the guy for the job? Start playing 1 DL on goal line situations? How about cover a WR with a DL? Maybe trotting out a kicker who has a ripped hamstring?

It's weird isn't it? I mean, short of crimes against humanity should a coach ever be fired?

 

[bermudasteel]

Messing up my vibe...

<iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/1BXa2alBjrCXC" width="480" height="480" frameBorder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/1BXa2alBjrCXC">via GIPHY</a></p>

 

[Punxsutawney]

It's just funny how there are numerous examples of teams drastically improving from on year to the next largely by changing coaches, yet some people insist they have little impact on team performance.

The coach directs and leads the team. It's like saying a CEO has little impact on a company's performance, as the employees are the ones doing the work after all.

 

[Vader]

It's just funny how there are numerous examples of teams drastically improving from on year to the next largely by changing coaches, yet some people insist they have little impact on team performance.

The coach directs and leads the team. It's like saying a CEO has little impact on a company's performance, as the employees are the ones doing the work after all.

People are invested into Tomlin and wouldn't want him fired for any reason. Which is why you see people talking about getting another coach to tutor him, giving excuses for horrible game plans, and basically cloaking him from any responsibility at all. Either he is in charge or he isn't.

 

[Stryker]

No, I would not have pulled Ben because Ben has won Super Bowls. Ben has the capital to be granted leeway. He's high-beta. I don't care as much whether or not Tomlin benched Grimble after the Leon Lett impersonation, I'm concerned that Grimble wasn't coached up better on the front end.

Situational football.

Grimble's fumbled did not happen in isolation. You may disagree, but let me connect the dots. Grimble's fumble, and Nix's infamous mic drop in NO grew out of the Young Money Culture that Shades aided and abetted in the '10's. The mic drops, the preening, the look-at-me, the FB-live, tweeting about the Pats, losing to dregs, etc.

Cowherd called it "not buttoned up" a couple of years ago. That 3-word phrase encapsulated the Gilded Age with Shades.

Xman went hard at the goalline, because Vance destroyed a DB for the highlight of the year. Xavier wanted that glory, and looked to make a big hit at the goaline to score. And if he blew up that DB, this board would have yucked it up, and stated how tough he is, and how Steeler football is smash mouth, but not one person would have mentioned Tomlin, because nothing bad happened...

 

[Stryker]

It's just funny how there are numerous examples of teams drastically improving from on year to the next largely by changing coaches, yet some people insist they have little impact on team performance.

The coach directs and leads the team. It's like saying a CEO has little impact on a company's performance, as the employees are the ones doing the work after all.

Cleveland is in complete agreement...

 

[CharlesDavenport]

Xman went hard at the goalline, because Vance destroyed a DB for the highlight of the year. Xavier wanted that glory, and looked to make a big hit at the goaline to score. And if he blew up that DB, this board would have yucked it up, and stated how tough he is, and how Steeler football is smash mouth, but not one person would have mentioned Tomlin, because nothing bad happened...

I agree.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

I'm not sure I can disagree more. Minuscule? Tomlin runs the defense. It's his defense. Hell he put the DC coaching the LBs. And again I know no one will answer this but... why ever fire a coach? He isn't responsible for players and how they play on the field. They aren't responsible for outcomes of games. Then WTF is the reasoning to ever fire a coach? How about 3 playoff wins in 8 years with a HOF QB and a defense littered with 1st and 2nd round picks that he was involved in drafting? Seriously WTF does this guy have to do to show he isn't the guy for the job? Start playing 1 DL on goal line situations? How about cover a WR with a DL? Maybe trotting out a kicker who has a ripped hamstring?

And don't forget one of those three playoff wins was handed to them on a silver platter by the Bungles.

 

[Drink IRON City]

The HEAD COACH influences the Identity of the team. Presented right, a hard nose coach inspires a hard nosed team and the flip side is a lackidazical coach doesn't have to work hard at all to inspire a lackidazical team. How Tomlin can so freelancily travel between the two and hold a job, is confounding.




Salute the nation

 

[SojournerSteel]

Xman went hard at the goalline, because Vance destroyed a DB for the highlight of the year. Xavier wanted that glory, and looked to make a big hit at the goaline to score. And if he blew up that DB, this board would have yucked it up, and stated how tough he is, and how Steeler football is smash mouth, but not one person would have mentioned Tomlin, because nothing bad happened...

What do they say about the NBA? "It's a make or miss League."

(and coaches get fired in the NBA, too.)

 

[Coach]

Agreed. He has made some suspect in game decisions and challenges. I still think it's silly how upset people get about Tomlin still being the coach when those mistakes have a minuscule effect on wins and losses as compared to the players and coordinators. Now if he decides he's overruling the DC and calling the defensive plays, then the accountability is on him when the defensive calls are bad. But it's not like he's been calling the defense throughout his coaching tenure. I think he's gotten frustrated with the DC's at times and taken over for a period. When that happens he has the sole responsibility for scheming errors. He still doesn't bear the blame for players ******* up and blowing coverages/missing tackles. That stuff is the reason for losses a vast majority of the time when defenses blow a game rather than a scheme error.

A good head coach is supposed to prepare his team to play and put them in position to win with strategy and game time adjustments. He should keep the trouble makers to a level of quiet, and develop the younger players. Going into his 13 years, Tomlin still can't do this to the standard of the better coaches.


All I see is Colbert giving him a pretty good team, and Tomlin hiring coaches, then firing them for their failures.


3-6 in the last nine playoff games, an epic and historical collapse previous season, and Art gives him another year? I can't see many teams putting up with this.

 

[SojournerSteel]

Cleveland is in complete agreement...

That's more of an organizational and metaphysical-type failure/outlier. The issues run way deeper than the HC -- or even the team itself.

There are other examples where good but grown-stale coaches were replaced and fortunes changed for the better.

Noll and Cowher were both stale by 1991 and 2006. Tomlin is stale now with the direction the league has moved toward offense. He's still stuck in a Tampa 2 Time warp with the ghost of Dick Lebeau hovering over him.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

All I see is Colbert giving him a pretty good team, and Tomlin hiring coaches, then firing them for their failures.

I think Cower fired or ran off a lot more coaches than Shades has. Mostly I think because Shades can't tell the difference between a good assistant coach and a bad one. He only got rid of Porter on defense and the special teams staff returns intact. Then too, Cowher hired Ray Sherman and Kevin Gilbride, so there is that,

 

[Vader]

I think Cower fired or ran off a lot more coaches than Shades has. Mostly I think because Shades can't tell the difference between a good assistant coach and a bad one. He only got rid of Porter on defense and the special teams staff returns intact. Then too, Cowher hired Ray Sherman and Kevin Gilbride, so there is that,

To be fair Tomlin was given a loaded staff and a loaded team. He also had a HOF DC. So I can't blame the guy for not firing many people early on.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

To be fair Tomlin was given a loaded staff and a loaded team. He also had a HOF DC. So I can't blame the guy for not firing many people early on.

At the time there was no reason but later on the FO had to fire The Bruce for him. Shades thought everything was hunky dory.

 

[steel dino]

It aligns with Ben's expected tenure with the team....

I really dont have a problem with it....

Just means the Rooneys/minority owners are on the hook if they dismiss him prior to the contract running out...

Symbolic gesture from the top down to the rest of the organization is how I see it.

 

[Punxsutawney]

Cleveland is in complete agreement...

The Browns turned things around last season after firing Jackson, but that was just a coincidence, I'm sure.

 

[Punxsutawney]

And don't forget one of those three playoff wins was handed to them on a silver platter by the Bungles.

Tomlin was that close to having playoff losses by teams QB'd by Tim Tebow, Blake Bortles AND AJ McCarron. Let that sink in.

My biggest frustration with the extension is that it implies the Steelers standards are not as high as we'd like to think.

How anyone can look at how the Steelers followed up the Jaguars playoff loss with that dumpster fire of a 2018 and think this extension was an even remotely good idea is beyond me.

 

[SojournerSteel]

I think Cower fired or ran off a lot more coaches than Shades has. Mostly I think because Shades can't tell the difference between a good assistant coach and a bad one. He only got rid of Porter on defense and the special teams staff returns intact. Then too, Cowher hired Ray Sherman and Kevin Gilbride, so there is that,

Many have argued that Tomlin's sterility with the Coaching Tree is much ado about nothing; however, Cowher had 8 assistants get HC jobs.

Taken in the context of everything else, it's a horrible indicator for Shades.

 

[SteelerFan448]

I think Cower fired or ran off a lot more coaches than Shades has. Mostly I think because Shades can't tell the difference between a good assistant coach and a bad one. He only got rid of Porter on defense and the special teams staff returns intact. Then too, Cowher hired Ray Sherman and Kevin Gilbride, so there is that,

When's the last time the Steelers actually fired a coach, not let their contract run out or have a coach "retire"?

 

[ZonaBurgh]

When's the last time the Steelers actually fired a coach, not let their contract run out or have a coach "retire"?

Bill Austin, 1968

Heh, I was in high school

 

[Spike]

Looks like Ben and Tomlin will be retiring together.

Exactly, none of the rest of this thread even matters