Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has been the team’s head coach since 2007.
At 48 years of age, this is the only NFL head coaching position Tomlin has ever held.
He is one of only 16 head coaches the franchise has had in its nearly 90 year storied history.
Though he’s been with the team for so long and is held at high esteem around the NFL, is he overrated?
The answer is yes, and here are 3 reasons why.
1. He Won Only One Championship In 2008.
Tomlin’s Super Bowl Championship came in his second season as the Steelers head coach.
Mike Tomlin is the most overrated coach in the NFL. Here's the proof: pic.twitter.com/ktbWk9aYpu
— Bills Mafia (@CrazyBillsFan) January 11, 2021
Some would argue that Tomlin was managing his predecessor Coach Bill Cowher‘s team.
In fact, Tomlin retained some of Cowher’s staff most notably defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau.
The Steelers were very close to losing this game but held on to win 27-23.
2. He Should Have Won More Championships.
Some disagree and claim that the Steelers and Tomlin’s success were hampered by the New England Patriots’ dynasty.
While that may be true, the Steelers had a lot of quality players on those teams so it is still a mystery why they didn’t win more titles.
Mike #Tomlin an overrated coach lol #nfl 3-17, 1:04 left #Steelers have 3 time-outs and he lets 40 seconds burn of clock. Terrible coaching pic.twitter.com/y5DNss3Ja5
— Jay (@jaybink25) December 27, 2020
A certain first ballot Hall-of-Famer, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, has only two Super Bowl rings and one is under Coach Cowher.
In 2020, the Steelers raced out to an 11-0 start only to lose during wildcard weekend.
They made a host of sloppy errors against the Cleveland Browns during that game starting with the opening offensive snap.
How did Tomlin prepare them for that game?
3. He Doesn’t Manage The Locker Room Well.
From all appearances, you would think he would command the attention and respect of his players in the locker room.
High profile incidents with unhappy players like Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown can make you think otherwise.
Why were these players so eager to leave Pittsburgh?
Bell even sat out an entire season to avoid playing for the Steelers.
Fast forward to 2020, and the antics of JuJu Smith-Schuster were front and center.
Why on earth would Mike Tomlin allow him to do TikTok dances on opposing teams’ home field logos in pregame warmups?
JuJu Smith-Schuster says he will stop doing TikTok dances on other teams’ logos https://t.co/NtGguJ1EaE pic.twitter.com/GbT4u9SwJ4
— WPXI (@WPXI) December 23, 2020
That went on for weeks before Smith-Schuster suddenly realized this was a distraction (which means Tomlin finally shut it down).
Smith-Schuster also gave the Cleveland Browns even more incentive to knock off the Steelers by pretty much saying they weren’t a formidable opponent.
Steelers WR JuJu Smith-Schuster: "I think they’re still the same Browns teams I play every year. … The Browns is the Browns"https://t.co/zbO66yi5NM pic.twitter.com/Uk2TOMM8ha
— Around The NFL (@AroundTheNFL) January 8, 2021
It really doesn’t matter if Tomlin is overrated.
He works for an organization that does not fire head coaches.
The Rooney family hasn’t fired a head coach in over 50 years so Tomlin’s job security is not in question.
It will most likely be up to him to walk away when he feels it is time.
Could that be after the 2021 season?
His contract expires then along with Roethlisberger’s.
If so, he would leave Pittsburgh at 49 years of age after coaching the team for 15 years.
That is uncanny when you consider his predecessor Bill Cowher was the same age and had the same tenure with the Steelers when he left.
I don’t think he has a good football mind at all. He makes a lot of bad decisions. But for Rooney he would have gone a long time ago.