Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is in his 19th season and in his first ever head coaching job and while he is well known for never having a team with a losing record and has a Super Bowl ring after leading the Steelers to a victory over the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII, his tenure on the sidelines could end in 2025.
Tomlin has come under scrutiny multiple times over the past few years and that’s mostly due to the fact that his team hasn’t won a playoff game since 2015. With six straight first-round losses, it’s understandable that Steelers fans are frustrated. Black and Gold fans are spoiled knowing that there were five other Super Bowl champions before Tomlin’s win in Tampa years ago.
So while Steelers Nation awaits a winner, Steelers owner Art Rooney II, general manager Omar Khan and Tomlin have committed to breaking the streak in 2025 by revamping the defense with proven veteran players, then getting the icing on the cake by bringing in future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Tomlin has said publicly that the defense has a chance to be “special” and that he is counting on Rodgers’ legacy to get Pittsburgh back to the playoffs and then win at least one game.
So far, the 2025 experiment is failing. Pittsburgh missed an opportunity to build on a 4-1 start to the season and take advantage of the Baltimore Ravens’ disastrous 1-5 start. If the Steelers fail to make the playoffs or if they do and lose another opener, the blame will fall squarely on Mike Tomlin. It would be bad to lose another playoff game and be eliminated a week after the season ends, but worse if the Steelers don’t make it at all.
The Steelers and their owners, the Rooney family, are respected for not firing their coaches. In fact, there have only been three head coaches since 1969, or just three men hired in 46 years. It’s incredible. While other NFL teams have hired and fired in some cases four or more times during that span, Pittsburgh has only had three. Chuck Noll was hired in 1969, Bill Cowher joined the team in 1992, then Tomlin in 2007. Noll won four Super Bowls. Bill Cowher has one and, as mentioned, Tomlin has one for a total of six Lombardis, the most in Super Bowl history, tied with the New England Patriots.
Chuck Noll retired on his own terms. Bill Cowher the same. Then it was a question of who would replace the “Chin”. Russ Grimm and Ken Whisenhunt were candidates, with Grimm being one of the greatest offensive linemen in history and having served as the Steelers assistant head coach. Whisenhunt was the offensive coordinator and then there was Tomlin who was the defensive coordinator at Minnesota. The Rooneys were impressed by Tomlin’s football acumen. Tomlin built a reputation as a defensive guru, and given his young age and knowledge of the game, he got the job.
Now, 19 years later and without ever having a losing season, the lack of playoff wins has Steelers fans exhausted and Art Rooney II seemed frustrated after last season’s quick exit from the playoffs. So let’s take a look at how both Noll and Cowher stayed on board for so long and never experienced any heat regarding their work.
Chuck Noll had the longest tenure of the three (unless Tomlin returned for four more seasons) with 23 years as head coach. Cowher was on the sidelines for 15 years. Not only was Chuck Noll the head coach of four NFL championship teams, but he also won the Greasy Neale Award in 1989, was a two-time Professional Football Writer’s Association Coach of the Year, and in 1972 was the United Press International Coach of the Year.
Looking solely at the careers of Cowher and Tomlin and specifically each’s last six playoff appearances since Tomlin’s team hasn’t won a single game in those last five, the statistics are telling. In 2017, the Steelers advanced after the first round only to lose to the New England Patriots. Since then, Tomlin has lost every playoff game his team has played.
Those six straight losses came to New England, Jacksonville, Cleveland, Kansas City, Buffalo and Baltimore. In those six losses, the Steelers were outscored in the first quarter alone 73-0. In total, the opponents scored 230 points to Pittsburgh’s 148, with the second quarter also being a disaster as the defense gave up 70 points and the offense was only able to score 47.
Pittsburgh outscored those teams in the third quarter, 57-47, and I outscored them in the fourth, 57-47, but that was due to desperation points. Of those six Tomlin losses, only the Jaguars game in January 2018 was close and it came down to a shootout as Pittsburgh lost 45-42. The Steelers have only lost by 11 to the Browns in 2021, but have given up 48 in the process. Kansas City scored 42 points, the Bills 31, and this Patriots team saw Pittsburgh’s defense allow 36 points.
On the other hand, we have Bill Cowher who, in his last six playoff appearances, has had the Steelers in 10 games, of which they have split with five wins and five losses. The scores for Cowher’s teams were very different from the results Tomlin had. During the first quarter of these 10 games, Pittsburgh was only outscored by eight points (59-47). The Steelers have been strong in the fourth quarter of those games, outscoring their opponents 85-35 and probably because they had to come from behind.
Not once in the last six seasons has Cowher seen her team get eliminated in the first game she played. If you go back to the last seven playoff appearances where a Cowher-coached team was in the postseason, Pittsburgh was coming off a Super Bowl loss in 1996, then advanced a season later after beating the Indianapolis Colts 42-14 only to lose to Cowher’s nemesis New England 28-3.
In Cowher’s last six playoff appearances, the Steelers were tied in points, with their opponents scoring 228 and giving up 228. Mike Tomlin has been to the Super Bowl twice and, like Cowher, won one and lost one. However, his only Super Bowl victory came shortly after taking over from Cowher and so he had most of the players that Bill Cowher was responsible for bringing to the team.
So after Chuck Noll won four Super Bowls in six seasons and Bill Cowher won another with both of these coaches consistently putting serious teams into playoff contention, everyone should be able to understand Steelers Nation’s current team frustration at not being able to win a playoff game and not since 2016 have they done so. We wonder how much longer this drought can last?
This season, there are three matches remaining; and last Monday night, the Steelers dominated the Miami Dolphins on national television to improve to an 8-6 record and give themselves some breathing room ahead of the second-place Baltimore Ravens, 7-7. I believe Tomlin will either have to win the division or sneak in as a wild card into the playoffs and then win that elusive opener. If he doesn’t succeed, it’s time for a change.
