Just how well is Mike Tomlin viewed by former players he coached? According to NFL insider Aditi Kinkhabwala, the reviews might be more mixed for the Pittsburgh Steelers coach than you might think.
Kinkhabwala says many players in the past have ‘bitten their tongues’ about what playing under Tomlin was really like, and there seem to be more negative views than most would think for the future Hall of Fame coach.
“I’ll just say this without violating anybody’s trust. There are many, many former players that I have spoken to that have bitten their tongues about their experience with Mike (Tomlin),” Kinkhabwala said on 93.7 the Fan. “There’s a huge disconnect, right? Because the national media is in love with Mike Tomlin and the national media never brings up the playoff drought.”
This offseason is the first year that Tomlin has seen sharper criticism in the national sphere. One of his former players, Ryan Clark, has led the charge to question if Tomlin’s voice with the Steelers is ‘stale.’
“I believe Mike Tomlin should coach in another organization,” Clark said in May. “Mike Tomlin should be the fresh voice somewhere else. I believe, as great as a coach as he is, and he’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer, I believe his voice has run stale there. I believe he’s allowed that team to reach the highest of heights they are going to reach unless they get a top-tier quarterback.”
The Steelers are in the midst of an eight year playoff win drought. Tomlin has been the overseer of the team in that time, and he has already entered some dangerous territory in regards to postseason success.
He has now lost six in a row in the postseason, which is a Steelers franchise record and the longest active streak in Tomlin’s tenure.
With that, Tomlin joins four other coaches in the pantheon of NFL history as coaches who have lost six or more straight playoff games in their career. Jim Mora, Marvin Lewis, Marty Schottenheimer, and Shane Owen are the only other coaches to reach that mark. Lewis holds the record with seven straight playoff losses.
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