Aaron Rodgers lamented what the questions about Mike Tomlin’s future reflect about society at large.
Cameron Heyward fell on the proverbial sword, blaming himself and his fellow Pittsburgh Steelers players for the questions about Tomlin.
The man himself? He skillfully evaded addressing the question head on.
“I’m not even in that mindset as I sit here tonight,” Tomlin said as midnight Monday neared, when asked how he approaches a decision about his future. “I’m more in the mindset of what transpired in this stadium and certainly what we did and didn’t do. Not a big-picture mentality as I sit here tonight.”
Tomlin was in no mood to look ahead, not in the aftermath of another playoff flameout for his Steelers. The 30-6 defeat to the Houston Texans was his seventh consecutive in the postseason, the sixth “one-and-done” under his watch since 2017.
Though the Steelers won the AFC North for the first time in five years, their 10-7 record was identical to last season’s.
And the season’s before.
Six of the past eight Steelers seasons have ended with exactly nine or 10 wins. One other ended at 8-8.
All finished without a playoff win.
It’s created “noise” from a vocal part of the fan base that Tomlin’s 19-year run leading the team should come to an end.
That noise Monday once again manifested itself into some audible “Fire Tomlin” chants during the fourth quarter as the game got away from the Steelers. Six weeks earlier, the chants were louder late in a loss to the Buffalo Bills.
After Monday’s game as the early Tuesday morning hours approached, Tomlin’s two most veteran current players had his back.
“I don’t care about that noise,” said Heyward, who at 15 seasons is tied with Ben Roethlisberger for most seasons played under Tomlin. “(Angry fans) don’t know what ‘Mike T’ puts into this. They don’t know how he goes out of his way to prepare every man.
“They don’t know about the countless nights that man is in there studying film. Coaches can only do so much. Players have to play better. In those critical moments, players have to step up.”
Monday’s defeat unraveled during Houston’s 23-point fourth quarter. The Steelers took an early 3-0 lead and trailed only 7-6 at the end of the third quarter.
Monday’s result drops the Steelers’ unofficial point differential for the season (counting playoffs) to minus-13, the fourth time in five seasons they finish “in the red.”
Still, the 53-year-old Tomlin has never had a losing season. And his resume includes a Super Bowl ring from his second season (2008) in addition to another Super Bowl appearance two years later.
That Tomlin’s job status is seemingly in question irks the 42-year-old Rodgers, who over his 16 combined seasons as a starter with the Green Bay Packers and Steelers has had only three head coaches. (Albeit, Rodgers had two over two seasons – 2023 and 2024 – with the New York Jets.)
“This league has changed a lot in my 21 years,” Rodgers said. “You know, when you hear conversation about the Mike Tomlins of the world, Matt LaFleurs of the world, those are just two that I’ve played for. When I first got in the league, there wouldn’t be conversation about whether those guys were on the hot seat.”
Rodgers’ second and final coach since he became a starter with Green Bay, LeFleur also seems to be on the proverbial hot seat despite six playoff appearances in seven seasons with the Packers. LaFleur has just one playoff win, though, since 2021.
“The way that the league is covered now and the way that there’s snap decisions and the validity given to the Twitter experts and all the experts on TV now who make it seem like they know what the hell they’re talking about, to me that’s an absolute joke,” Rodgers said. “For either of those two guys to be on the hot seat is really apropos of where we’re at as a society and as a league because obviously Matt has done a lot of great things in Green Bay, and we had a lot of success.
“’Mike T’ has had more success than damn near anybody in the league for the last (19) years. More than that, though, when you have the right guy and the culture is right, you don’t think about making a change. But there’s a lot of pressure that comes from the outside, and obviously that sways decisions from time to time. But that’s not how I would do things and not how the league used to be.”
Tomlin is expected to have a season-ending news conference in the coming days. On Tuesday, Steelers players will gather one last time for a brief team meeting and media availability at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex team headquarters on Pittsburgh’s South Side.