Is Tomlin accountable for this team? Yes. And he should be evaluated just like any one else in his position.
But the article just plain sucks and it’s clickbait hyperbole.
The winning with Cowher’s players line is the one that I find the most irritating. Yes, he succeeded with a Super Bowl caliber team, what do you want him to do? Fail? Would that make you happy?
Why didn’t anyone complain with Penguins that Mike Sullivan won with Dan Bylsma’s core with Malkin/Crosby or Scotty Bowman won with Badger Bob’s guys?
How did it work out for Mike Marty or Jim Caldwell when they took over the Rams/Colts?
To another point—this “writer” tries to make the case that the Steelers defense didn’t fall to shambles when Joe Greene was hurt (let’s shelve them fact Greene missed 6 games the entire decade—and by then he was playing with 4 other future Hall of Famers, to say nothing about All Pros, Pro Bowlers and DPOY.
Listen, we suck right now. Years of drafting late & poor drafts (what’s with the fetish of drafting a WR with 2nd pick for 7 years in a row?) all being masked by having a top 15 QB to ever play the game is being caught up with.
It happened to Noll too.
Guess what, the solution is not to point blame and fire everyone. It’s to evaluate the direction and hold accountable. Tomlin’s biggest failures IMO have been lousy hires of assistants. Promoting guys before they are ready—and it hurts both the assistants career as well as the team.
Sent out a brinks truck to bring Munchack back. He probably would have insisted they address the OL and had the influence to pull it off. Why don’t we look at former HCs to be an OC instead of Canada or Finchtner (who were both promoted after 1 year as QB coach)
Why didn’t they interview Ken Whisenhunt to come back? At least have discussion. Nope, let’s go with a guy that has no track record to go against Ben vs. influence & work with him. Whiz won damn SB with him, credibly was there.
Tomlin has no coaching tree because he hasn’t had good assistants and he’s horrible at analytics. It’s not a fatal flaw, Andy Reid is phenomenal at them yet 1 Super Bowl with all the talent he’s has shown there’s more than one way.
They must make tougher decisions as the rubber meets the road. In the meantime, chill out. It’s not the end of the world that the team is going through a period of not being good.
And maybe some of you’s will appreciate winning again more at that point instead of a constant cry fest