The Steelers maintain credibility based on two brands: Their logo and the Rooney family. Simply being the Steelers is enough.
But now the Steelers are not serious people.
The Steelers wallow in mismanagement that isn’t acknowledged, let alone corrected. They’re clueless.
The current disappointment isn’t just a blip. It’s a harbinger of more (and worse) to come. It’s hiding in plain sight.
They have the smallest and cheapest coaching staff in the NFL. It lacks quality. Detroit’s Dan Campbell put together a bigger, better coaching tree inside of a week than Mike Tomlin has assembled in 18 seasons.
Proof of inferiority reflects in the Steelers’ frequent late-season collapses, including five straight losses to end this campaign.
The Steelers don’t improve as the year progresses. Don’t adjust. Other teams do. That’s coaching.
In 2018, they drafted Mason Rudolph in the third round but didn’t employ a quarterbacks coach that season. To work with a rookie. That’s nuts.
The Steelers went the entirety of the 2024 season without a No. 2 wide receiver. They traded Diontae Johnson without a Plan B, then never fixed it.
Lots of good receivers got traded during the season: Davante Adams, Amari Cooper and DeAndre Hopkins. None went for higher than a third-round pick.
Instead, the Steelers got Mike Williams from the New York Jets and barely used him. They suffered at that spot all year. GM Omar Khan struck out.
When Ben Roethlisberger retired after the 2021 season, it posed a problem for Tomlin. Not just because he was losing a Hall of Famer but because Tomlin had never replaced a quarterback before. Never drafted and developed one. He inherited Roethlisberger from Bill Cowher. (Tomlin inherited a lot from Cowher.)
Tomlin still hasn’t replaced Roethlisberger. He’s mangled the attempt, not least when he drafted Kenny Pickett in 2022’s first round. No other NFL team would have selected Pickett in the first round.
It’s football’s most important position, and Tomlin can’t get it right.
Congrats to Pickett for taking a knee to end the NFC Championship Game and leading Philadelphia to the Super Bowl. What a great achievement. It’s every kid’s dream to take a knee in the big game.
Pickett might get a ring. (They give one to the water boy, too.) Unless he refuses to dress as a backup at the Super Bowl.
The Steelers’ decline hasn’t happened overnight.
Tomlin let Cowher’s culture evaporate. Now it’s laissez-faire with little accountability. Better late than never, as George Pickens can confirm.
Tomlin got hurt when Cowher’s leaders left. Cam Heyward is no James Farrior, Troy Polamalu or Alan Faneca. He’s also one man.
The Steelers won’t change their prehistoric approach: Run the ball, control the clock, elite defense, physically dominate. But the Steelers can’t do any of those.
The NFL is about scoring more and faster. The Steelers can’t do that, either.
The Steelers’ disintegration has been obscured by Tomlin’s streak of never having a losing season. (It’s really Roethlisberger’s streak.) Which just got kept alive by perhaps the least impressive 10-7 mark ever. (10-8 including the playoff loss.)
When the Steelers finally post a losing record, it will be a blessing. That streak is an albatross around their neck, an artificial way to pretend they succeed even as they go eight seasons with no playoff wins. It dilutes introspection.
But the Steelers outperform the NFL mean, as a lesser Rooney said. Pittsburgh should be so proud. The Steelers are better than average!
Watching the conference championship games made it evident: The Steelers are nowhere close to that level.
Tomlin might be coaching his way out of the Hall of Fame. What if he goes the next five years without winning a playoff game? That would be 13 straight years and 19 seasons out of 23 in his career without a postseason victory. You’re going to put that resume in the Hall of Fame? (Yes, illogically.)
Things aren’t close to being corrected. There’s not even a perceived need to correct. Just run it back.
It’s going to be fun.