Three days after another dispiriting playoff loss ended another underwhelming Pittsburgh Steelers season, coach Mike Tomlin didn’t attempt to sugarcoat or justify the results.
“There’s football justice,” Tomlin said during his season wrap-up news conference at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. “We’re here (at the end of a season), and we’re here for a very tangible reason.”
A five-game losing streak — including a dominating playoff loss to their biggest rivals — soured a season that at point showed great promise. The Steelers fell from 10-3 and in first place to 10-7 and a 28-14 wild-card playoff loss to the team that zoomed past them in the AFC North, the Baltimore Ravens.
It was the eighth consecutive Steelers season that ended without a playoff win and the fourth consecutive that finished with exactly nine or 10 wins. Four of the past five seasons have ended with a loss in a wild-card playoff game, the past three on the road.
It was enough for a reporter to ask Tomlin if he felt the organization was “stuck” in a malaise.
“‘Stuck’ is a helpless feeling. I don’t feel helpless,” Tomlin said. “I don’t know if I want to sell you an overly optimistic (tone) either.
“We certainly feel capable, but I’m not in the mood to sell optimism. That wouldn’t be appropriate.”
An increasing number of fans and media wondered aloud if it is appropriate to question Tomlin’s job security. Only four of Tomlin’s 18 seasons as Steelers coach have featured a playoff win, and he has only three such wins since a loss in Super Bowl XLV some 14 years ago. The Steelers haven’t won a division title since 2020.
“I certainly understand the frustrations, and more important than that, I share it,” Tomlin said.
“That’s how I’m wired. I’m not a big-time comfort seeker … nor am I a comfort provider.”
In Tomlin parlance, “seeking comfort” might involve complacency. In what will be his final remarks with media at large until spring, Tomlin acknowledged the likelihood of changes on his coaching staff — albeit, he was scant on details.
“We’ve had similar results,” he said, “rest assured that we’re not doing the same things hoping for a different result. We have adapted. We have altered our approach.”
Tomlin did not commit to the makeup of his quarterback position room for 2025. All three on the roster — Russell Wilson, Justin Fields and Kyle Allen — are set for free agency. The farthest level of detail Tomlin went into was that Fields, 26, “certainly” showed he could be a starter in the NFL and it is “a legitimate thought” that he could be so for the Steelers this coming season.
Tomlin said he met with team president Art Rooney II and general manager Omar Khan yesterday to discuss the state of the organization.
“Although we have some ills and certainly some areas to address,” Tomlin said, “it is important to note the (positive) foundational things that we do have.”
Tomlin at one point said he had believed these 2024 Steelers were different enough to break the proverbial mold the franchise has found itself in. But he also did not downplay that they lost so decisively to Baltimore.
“They were the better team Saturday night,” Tomlin said. “That is not comfortable for me to say but it’s true. … So that leads to sober conversations to have and assessing the ‘why.’”
In the lead-up to the playoff game, Tomlin remarked that the Steelers’ recent run of futility in the playoffs wasn’t a reflection on the current players because the vast majority share only in a fraction of the string of defeats. Tomlin at that point said he “happily totes that baggage” himself.
Tuesday, it was remarked that baggage just got heavier in the wake of another disappointing postseason. Can he continue to tote that baggage on his own?
“I’ve got big shoulders,” he said.