Mike Tomlin despatched shockwaves by the NFL on Tuesday when he stepped away from the Pittsburgh Steelers. It ends his 19-year run with the franchise as head coach and places the Steelers ready the place they must rent simply their fourth head coach because the 1969 season.
From a big-picture perspective, Tomlin’s run with the Steelers was an enormous success. Nevertheless it was additionally time for each side to go in a unique course.
Playoff dropping streak should not outweigh general success for Mike Tomlin
The latest factor we noticed from the Tomlin-era Steelers was a fairly sustained run of mediocrity, which ended with one other thud on Monday night time in a 30-6 wild-card loss to the Houston Texans.
It prolonged the Steelers’ playoff dropping streak to 6 consecutive video games and leaves Tomlin and the franchise with no playoff win because the 2016 season. That’s a very long time, and the longest playoff drought in Steelers franchise historical past.
Given the usual the Steelers have established for themselves because the Seventies, it was not ok and an indication that issues had began to turn into stale.
They settled into an space the place they had been a constantly above-average soccer group however by no means ok to take the following step within the playoffs. Each season has seemed precisely the identical because the Steelers have rotated out quarterbacks, overhauled the roster and adjusted assistant coaches. They had been by no means a nasty group. They had been constantly successful 10 video games and making the playoffs. Then, they’d get blown out within the playoffs.
Tomlin was the one fixed by all of that.
The failings additionally remained the identical, particularly an offense that appeared too conservative and overly simplistic and a quarterback scenario they may by no means get proper.
All of it made it time for a change. Now, change is coming.
However that doesn’t make his complete tenure with the group a failure and even disappointing. Objectively talking, it was an enormous success, particularly as he needed to tackle the seemingly unattainable job of changing a Corridor-of-Fame coach in Invoice Cowher (who changed one other Corridor-of-Fame coach in Chuck Noll).
Given the usual set by Noll and Cowher, it might have been comprehensible if the Tomlin period didn’t match it. However he succeeded, and did so in a giant approach.
Because the begin of the 2007 season, Tomlin’s first with the group, the Steelers’ 193 wins are the third-most within the NFL, trailing solely the New England Patriots (209) and Inexperienced Bay Packers (195). In addition they appeared in three AFC Championship video games (2008, 2010 and 2015) and two Tremendous Bowls (2008 and 2010), successful certainly one of them (2008). They’re additionally the one franchise that had zero dropping seasons over that stretch, whereas additionally ending with at the very least 10 wins 11 completely different instances. The record of franchises with extra success over that point interval might be counted on one hand whereas nonetheless having fingers left over on the finish.
That’s success. It might not have been as profitable because the Steelers needed on the finish, however it’s onerous to ask for extra from a franchise over 19 seasons.
