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The Pittsburgh Steelers are one-and-done in the NFL playoffs once again this year after falling to the Baltimore Ravens in the wild-card game at M&T Bank Stadium on Saturday night, 28-14. As a result, there will undoubtedly be calls for head coach Mike Tomlin to be fired.
The signs were all there that the Steelers would lose on Saturday night. After all, they ended the regular season on a four-game losing streak and looked like a shell of the team that once appeared to have a shot to contend for big things earlier in the campaign.
With the loss, the Steelers have now gone one-and-done in each of their last five playoff appearances, and the manner in which Pittsburgh closed out this season over the last five games was hideous and is yet another indictment on Tomlin.
Should Steelers fire Mike Tomlin?
As impressive as the Steelers’ streak of .500 or better finishes is, that simply isn’t enough for a franchise that expects to win Super Bowls. The Steelers continue to be a team that is barely good enough to contend for the playoffs, but not good enough to win it all.
Pittsburgh has been a team stuck in neutral for far too long now, and that definitely falls on the shoulders of Tomlin, who can no longer hide behind a Super Bowl victory that was another lifetime ago.
A lack of talent on offense overall and the failure to bring in a franchise signal-caller have certainly played a part in those struggles, but we can’t pretend that Tomlin hasn’t had a say in some of the failed decisions that have hindered Pittsburgh, whether that be through free agency or the draft.
Making matters worse, Tomlin’s offensive coordinator hires have been bad. Randy Fichtner and Matt Canada were disasters, and the wheels have come off for Arthur Smith, too. All three of those coordinators have run uninspiring offenses, which has only made Pittsburgh’s talent issues on offense more glaring.
This team badly needs a major philosophy change on the offensive side of the ball, and that isn’t likely to come as long as Tomlin is hiring the play-caller.
Tomlin’s in-game decision-making has been questionable over the years, also, with the Steelers head coach picking the wrong spots to be aggressive or conservative far too often. That just adds to the list of ills on Tomlin’s resume.
None of this is to say that Tomlin is a bad head coach, because he’s not. He is a fantastic motivator and communicator and he would be out of a job for two seconds if he were to be fired.
But every team gets to a point where it’s simply time to let go of a head coach, and the Steelers have hit that point with Tomlin. Both sides need a change, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
All that said, there has been nothing to suggest that the Steelers and Tomlin are heading for a divorce this offseason, so fans hoping to see a change are highly unlikely to get it.
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