Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has enjoyed a ton of regular season wins, but he seems to have hit his ceiling with the team. Should the two sides part ways? Tomlin was hired back in 2006 to replace Bill Cowher, and by his second season as a head coach with the team, he had won a Super Bowl.
And by year four, he had appeared in another. The coach quickly established himself as one of the best in football. However, even with Tomlin never having a losing season, his teams seem to have hit their ceiling in recent years. In fact, under Tomlin, the Steelers haven't won a playoff game since 2016 and Tomlin has an 8-9 playoff record with the team.
In the regular season, the Steelers have gone 170-98-2 with Mike Tomlin at the helm. He's a future Hall of Fame coach, and never having a losing season thus far is simply outstanding. He's won double-digit games nine times during his career. You'd think that Tomlin would have never had people calling for his job, but that's been the case in recent years. The Pittsburgh Steelers have had a pretty inept offense in recent years and have not yet been able to put a QB plan in place since the retirement of Ben Roethlisberger.
Kenny Pickett is atrocious, and Tomlin seemed to hold onto former offensive coordinator Matt Canada for way too long. The Steelers seem to continually be in every game and are mostly always competitive, but that's it. I think at some point, the powers that be in Pittsburgh need to have a hard conversation with themselves. Is Mike Tomlin the type of coach at this point to lead the Steelers to a Super Bowl?
Or is Tomlin more of a "reset the culture" type of coach with a lower ceiling. I liken Tomlin to Sean McDermott in Buffalo. Both Tomlin and McDermott are good coaches, but both the Steelers and Bills feel like they have each hit their respective peak with these men at the helm. And to make matters worse for the Pittsburgh Steelers, they don't have a franchise QB and some of their best players are getting old.
TJ Watt turns 30 in 2024 and Cam Heyward turns 35 in May. I do think it's fair to wonder if the Steelers would think about a "mutual parting of ways" with Mike Tomlin at the end of the season, barring a playoff run.