Steelers extend Tomlin’s contract
The Pittsburgh Steelers have extended the contract of head coach Mike Tomlin. Coach Tomlin had one year remaining on his original contract, which was signed in 2007.
Terms of Tomlin’s new contract were not revealed. However, the new deal reportedly will keep Tomlin with the Steelers through 2014.
Typically, the Steelers would extend former coach Bill Cowher whenever he had two years remaining on his contract. When the Steelers didn’t do so with Tomlin, some wondered whether the Steelers were happy with Tomlin’s performance. As silly as it may sound, I have even heard Steelers fans say that Tomlin should be fired.
Many blame Tomlin for the Steelers’ failure to defend their Super Bowl title. Not only did the Steelers fail to defend, they didn’t even make the playoffs last season. Despite key injuries to Troy Polamalu, Aaron Smith, and Darnell Stapleton, some fans still felt that the blame rested clearly on Tomlin’s shoulders.
I’ve heard other Steelers fans argue that Tomlin is the reason that the Steelers have abandoned the team’s traditional “smash mouth” running game. They say that Offensive Coordinator Bruce Arians wouldn’t have Ben Roethlisberger throwing the ball all over the field if Tomlin didn’t allow him to. They say that Tomlin vowed to maintain the Steelers’ emphasis on the running game when he interviewed for the job, but then he failed to uphold that promise. To these fans, that is ample reason for Tomlin to lose his job.
Finally, I have heard fans argue that it was Tomlin’s fault that players like Santonio Holmes, Jeff Reed, and Ben Roethlisberger were getting into trouble off the field. They argued that Tomlin wasn’t as much of a disciplinarian as Bill Cowher was, and that Cowher never would have allowed those types of shenanigans to go on.
I have to disagree with all three of these arguments. In my opinion, Tomlin has done a good job, and he deserved to have his contract extended.
The injuries that the Steelers suffered last year clearly hurt the team. We all knew that Troy was important to the team, but last year made it very clear just how important he is. But despite the injuries, the team had a chance to win just about every game that they lost. In fact, most of their losses were by 7 points or less. Had a play or two gone differently, the team could have easily made the playoffs.
As far as the team’s wide open offense goes, I am a fan. There are not many teams in the NFL whose fans would complain about having a quarterback who passed for over 4,000 yards, two receivers who each had over 1,000 yards receiving, and a running back who had over 1,000 yards rushing. Yet, that is exactly what many Steelers fans did. They would have preferred for Roethlisberger to have 2,500 yards passing, and Rashard Mendenhall to have 1,600 yards rushing. To them, that would have been Steelers football. But the reality is that the NFL is now a passing league. Last year’s Super Bowl featured Drew Brees and Peyton Manning. Need I say more?
Finally, I disagree with those who say that Bill Cowher would have somehow kept the Steelers’ players from getting into trouble. Just how would he have done that? I seem to remember Joey Porter getting into trouble constantly under Cowher’s watch. Would Cowher have traveled with Big Ben as part of his posse? If not, how would he have prevented Ben from partying like a rock star? Newsflash: Ben partied like a rock star when Cowher was here. Is there anyone who actually believes that Santonio Holmes didn’t smoke his first blunt until AFTER Mike Tomlin became coach? I didn’t think so.
The truth of the matter is that Mike Tomlin has done a very similar job as Bill Cowher. In their first three seasons, their records are almost exactly the same. Cowher was 32-16, and Tomlin was 31-17. Only one win separates them. On the other hand, Chuck Noll was 12-30 in his first 3 seasons with the Steelers. I guess many of today’s fans would have fired Noll before he ever led the team to their first Super Bowl.
It’s true that the Steelers did go 9-7 last season, and failed to defend their Super Bowl title. But in Cowher’s last year, the team went 8-8, and also failed to defend their Super Bowl title.
The bottom line is that Mike Tomlin’s performance after 3 years is very similar to Bill Cowher’s. Moreover, he has already won a Super Bowl, something Cowher didn’t do until his 14th season with the team. Failing to extend Tomlin would have raised questions that I don’t think anyone in the Rooney family would have had a logical answer to. The Rooney’s have been successful by standing by their coaches. They know that continuity is a key component of success.
Congratulations on the contract extension Coach Tomlin. You deserve it.
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I agree that there is nothing wrong with Coach Tomlin to the point where you don’t consider him another contract. In my opinion, who cares about disciplinarian tactics. Tomlin is way more intelligent than Cowher. And I’ll take another pass happy offense any day. Lets just prevent last minute losses and improve our special teams. That’s what he do!!!
1I won’t continue to beat that pass less horse any more that it has been (we should pass less by the way), but any coach that wins a Super Bowl in my opinion deserves at least a 4 year extension at the conclusion of that season. I’m very glad he got the extension but he does need to live up to his promises a little better in regards to what is says in the media and during his interview process or other wise don’t make the comments. Other than that here’s to at least 3 more solid years Steelers football (whatever that is
).
2First, welcome back and I hope all of the website issues have been taken care of.
I would say I mostly agree. That is, I agree Tomlin has done enough to earn an extension and I am pleased he got it. I would add, however, a few proviso’s and corrections.
First, a minor point, Tomlin was essentially extended with 2 years left (or 1 year plus an option year). Two, the direct comparison with Cowher (while understandable) is misplaced. Cowher took over a team that had made the playoffs once in 7 years and proceeded to make the playoffs for 6 straight years. Tomlin took over a team that made the playoffs in 4 of 5 years including a SB victory. They are not comparable starting positions.
Two, there is a valid arguement to be made about the lack of a power running game in the offense. Not that 2,500 yards passing and 1,600 yards is preferable to 4,000 yards passing and 1,000 yards rushing – but that the steelers offense wasn’t able to put away games with the running game. That is, today’s NFL is a passing league and if you got the weapons you should definately use them. However, while some of their losses last year fall squarely on the defense (and their injuries), the offense didn’t seem to be able to run down the clock when they were ahead in the 4th quarter. Three, Tomlin is linked to his OC. He made the decision on the hire and has stuck by him. If they can’t solve their shortcomings (and poor playcalling), Tomlin and Arians deserve the criticism.
To end on a more positive note, I agree about the discipline issue. There were numerous instances in the Cowher era where players misbehaved. The Tomlin era isn’t any different. The current perception is due more from the high profile players involved and the fact they are coming to light around the same time.
3Benny,
I have to disagree with you on the Steelers needing to run more. I think that their new passing offense is fine. What I think they need to do is run more EFFECTIVELY. Rashard Mendenhall had over 1,000 yards rushing. They ran plenty. But they were unable to get short yardage far too frequently. IMO, 3rd and short should not cause fans to have heart attacks. But that’s just what happened last year. When the Steelers had 3rd and short, I was usually praying that they’d throw the ball, because I had no faith in their running game in that situation. The injury to Willie Colon probably isn’t going to help in that regard.
I hope they run it much more EFFECTIVELY this year. However, I don’t want to see the Steelers go back to running the ball 60% of the time.
I want to see what Mike Wallace can do if he gets MORE opportunities. I think it’s going to be exciting.
4John,
I agree with most of what you said. However, Tomlin took over a team that went 8-8 the previous season. Let’s not forget that.
When a new coach takes over, it is impossible to make direct comparisons. The schedule is different. The injury situation is different. The players are a year older. It is impossible to do a fair comparison. It is always apples and oranges.
As far as the running game goes, please see my comment to Benny. I think the team needs to run more effectively (particularly in short yardage situations), but I don’t want to see them running the ball 60% of the time.
As far as a “power running attack” goes, I’m not certain that we have the offensive line necessary to establish that. You need a powerful offensive line to have a power running game. In fact, the line is probably more important than having a big running back. Do you think that the New York Jets’ success at running the ball is due primarily to their running backs, or to their offensive line?
I think that Maurkice Pouncey was a great addition. But any benefits that we gained by drafted him have been neutralized due to the loss of Willie Colon.
It will be interesting to see which offensive linemen step up in training camp. Perhaps this will be the year that Kraig Urbick shows us why he was taken so high.
5I do agree that the steelers made the right choice in extending Tomlin. But Tomlin is PARTIALLY responsible for the Steelers missing the playoffs last year, but for different reasons. The biggest reason the steelers didn’t make the playoffs is because a lack of motivation/effort. They were able to beat the chargers w/out troy, Vikings w/out A. smith, bronco’s w/out a.smith & ryan clark, and Ravens and Packers w/out Troy and A.Smith but they weren’t able to beat the Raiders, Browns, or Chiefs. They’d show up for the difficult opponents but wouldn’t show up for the crappy ones (4 of our 7 losses were to teams who ended up under .500), the only explanation for that is a lack of motivation. I think it’s crap when some ppl argue that pro players don’t need to be motivated…they shouldn’t need to be but like any human being in any profession, on occasion a little motivation helps them. It all starts at the top and Tomlin never once benched a player for poor play or reamed out a player on a sideline for a lack of effort/bad play. He stuck to the leadership tactic of “they’re pro’s & I don’t need to motivate them” too long after it wasn’t working anymore. But he’s a young coach and still has some learning to do and I’ll think he’ll correct it in the future.
Glad to see you back too.
6Tim,
I see where you’re coming from. But I have two problems with your premise.
The first problem that I have is that I’m not sure which player I would have benched during that losing streak. Who would you have blamed it on? Did one player stand out as being responsible? Or did the entire team seem to play badly? I’m just curious about which player(s) you would have chosen to make an example of had you been the coach.
The second concern that I have is when fans think that coaches need to get in players’ faces and yell at them in order to be effective. There is no data that shows that this style of leadership is effective. In fact, the military is probably the only place where this style of leadership is even encouraged.
Think about it. How would you feel if your boss cussed you out in front of all of your colleagues at work? Would that motivate you? Or would it make you lose your job due to punching him in the face?
I spent many years working in the athletic footwear industry. I signed hundreds of athletes to endorsement contracts. I cab tell you from firsthand experience that the average professional athlete has an ego that is ten times the size of yours. So if you wouldn’t like being yelled at in front of your peers, how do you think a spoiled athlete would respond? Personally, I think that approach is far less motivational than you seem to think it is.
7I agree mike is one great coach and i am glad his contract was extended till 2014, what has made the steelers so great is not only on the outstanding players they have,!or get! its also on the coaches,many teams change coaches like thy change underwear, the steelers are not about that,thats why they are so good,good leadership,comunication, execution,so they did not win the superbowl last year,because of that some people say lets get rid of tomlin, get real people we are six time superbowl champions, we will get there again thats what makes the game of football so entertaining,suck it up glad to have you back tomlin.
8go back to steelers history and see how many individual have had their share of problems go back as far as the early 70s,and then talk to me.
9I think you’re taking my point to the extreme. I don’t expect nor think yelling at players all the time is the way to go. I agree, except in extreme circumstances, there is no place for yelling in the business world. But there raw emotion and physical contact with strenuous activity isn’t found in a norm business setting either. There are times, though, when a when a lil stern talking to can get ppl back on track in a business setting. Yelling is a form of punishment, but so is benching. On occasion it has it’s place. Yes, athletes have ego’s and they should be respected from a coaches standpoint, but their ego’s shouldn’t be catered too and used as an excuse when that athlete is for you working & answers to you.
I also agree last year’s poor play was more of a team effort. But sometimes you can make an example of a player that has an impact on the entire group. During one of those atrocious defensive outings, what if Tomlin had benched Taylor for one series after his half-assed attempt to tackle Louis Murphey on his long TD reception? Wouldn’t benching the #1 CB on the team have sent a message to the rest of the team? In fact, Tomlin threatened “changes” in player personal due to general poor play and he never did anything. Cowher definitely used motivational tactics on occasion and he was a good coach.
I do feel that Tomlin’s overall demeanor on the sidelines is the right one to take. But I remembered the year the steelers won the super bowl and more than once Tomlin showed his emotion on the sidelines (like swinging his headphones around after Townsend’s pick 6 against the Cowboys). It may have only been that I was frustrated with the season, but it faaaar too often it seemed Tomlin was stoically standing on the sidelines with no emotion as our 4th quarter lead slipped away. That’s fine most of the time, but if that leadership style isn’t working you HAVE to try something new. You can’t keep trying the exact same thing during a 5 game losing streak and expect the result to change. It all starts at the top and just like I credit him with our super bowl, I give him a large amount of credit for us not making the playoffs. That being said, I’m glad he’ll continue being our coach for many more years. He’s still young and I’m sure this past year was a learning process. I just hope he learned one leadership style doesn’t fit every occasion. Sorry about the length of my response.
10Tim,
I see where you’re coming from. I thought you meant that a coach had to be like Bill Cowher. Personally, I never liked seeing him yelling and spitting in players’ faces. I remember how Joey Porter used to laugh at him when he’d do that.
I do think there is a time to be stern, but screaming in their faces isn’t necessary in my opinion.
I think there is a time to bench players. I understand your idea of benching Ike to send a signal. The only problem is that would have made Joe Burnett a starter. Yikes!
11i also see where you are coming from. my belief on tomlin is he’s a rookie or was now he is a veteran, lets see how he handles himself this year, and then we can make judgement on him,he has some work to do willie colon as you know may be out for the season, and training camp is here, pre-season is just around the corner, iam looking forward to aug. steeler fan always and forever.
12thank you John for saying what you did. I don’t have to type so much
I wonder if Benny would have given Barry Switzer a four year extension after SB XXX…hmm..
Finally, Donald, point well taken about Tomlin taking a team that was 8-8. But if we do that then we need to bring up the fact that he was one ridiculously incredible catch by Holmes away from being 8-8 after SB too. The Steelers were definately in the ditch when Cowher took over and were solid and still slightly on the rise as a whole when Tomlin took over.
Just admit it
(I agree with the extension though)
13