In an offseason that saw the Pittsburgh Steelers swing big and add a number of big names with plenty of NFL experience, their goal is to compete for a Super Bowl in a narrow window.
That puts a great deal of pressure on longtime head coach Mike Tomlin, especially after the Steelers went one-and-done in the playoffs once again in 2024. The loss to the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Wild Card extended the Steelers’ playoff failures to nearly a full decade under Tomlin.
Now, with a handful of big names on the roster, shoring up some key areas of the team, Pittsburgh has to get over the hump. If not, changes might need to be made — again.
For ESPN analysts Michelle Smallmon and Chris Canty, Tomlin finds himself on the hot seat entering the 2025 season. In a segment on Unsportsmanlike on ESPN Radio, Smallmon and Canty highlighted Tomlin and believe that something will have to change if it’s the same story again for the Steelers.
“Here’s the thing, I don’t know that the term hot seat applies to Mike Tomlin just because if the Pittsburgh Steelers were to move on from him, it would be couched as a mutual parting of ways,” Canty said, according to audio via ESPN Radio. “Is he on the hot seat? I guess in terms of him not being the coach the following season, sure. But I think it’s a little bit different. It’s Mike Tomlin being on notice that something in Pittsburgh has to change in terms of what happens once they qualify for the postseason, ’cause I don’t know how many coaches are gonna be given the runway that he has to have eight years where you don’t have any playoff success.
“That’s a lot of seasons to have no playoff wins. It’s a lot of seasons just saying five straight one and dones in the postseason. That’s not the Pittsburgh Steeler way.”
The five straight one and dones in the postseason certainly is not the Steeler way. With that loss to the Ravens in January, Tomlin also cracked the top 10 of most playoff losses for a head coach in NFL history. Not exactly company you want to keep.
After that embarrassing blowout loss to the Ravens in the Wild Card, Pittsburgh has made significant changes.
The quarterback room is entirely new again, led by Aaron Rodgers. DK Metcalf is the WR1 and George Pickens now plays in Dallas. Najee Harris is in Los Angeles and a rookie running back in Kaleb Johnson could be RB1 by the end of the season. Darius Slay and Jalen Ramsey headline a reshaped secondary and Minkah Fitzpatrick was traded to Miami.
Even the coaching staff has new faces with Scott McCurley as linebackers coach and Gerald Alexander as the secondary coach. The Steelers have made changes and are turning over every stone possible looking for answers.
They’ve done all that in an effort to compete this season in this narrow window, all while making sure their future is secure in 2026 with a boatload of draft capital.
But all eyes are on the 2025 season. The Steelers were aggressive and swung big this offseason. They aim to compete, and with the pieces in place they could make a surprise run in the playoffs. Just winning a game in the postseason would be deemed a success.
“In 18 seasons, as the head coach of the Steelers, Mike Tomlin has never finished below .500. He’s won 10-plus games in 11 of his 18 seasons, including last year and the year prior,” Smallmon said. “He’s had success and he’s been to the playoffs for the past five years. But none of that matters if it doesn’t translate to postseason success.
“And the Steelers are currently riding a six-game playoff losing streak, having not won a playoff game since, check it, 2016.”
Getting into the playoffs and losing in the first game again though? That would be disastrous and would put Tomlin firmly in critics’ crosshairs again. Could that lead to a change? That probably isn’t the case with Tomlin’s extension locking him in Pittsburgh through the 2027 season.
Crazier things have happened though.
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