Steelers Spin
Steelers Spin
Well…this is strange. Isn’t it?
Throughout thirteen years of scribing the Spin, Coach Mike Tomlin has always been the center of this mostly fictional drama. He’s skillfully played the role of hero and…at times…villain in just about every episode.
Regardless of where you are on the opinion scale of his coaching prowess, there is no denying the power of his personality. It’s no shock to anyone that he went straight from coaching the Pittsburgh Steelers…without passing go or collecting $200…to a star-studded role as a lead studio analyst for Football Night in America on NBC.
When NBC discovered Tomlin was available, they shoved his longtime mentor, Tony Dungy, to the curb with less grace than Aaron Rodgers speaking about his ex-girlfriends.
Players all over the NFL loved being coached by Tomlin. The Steelers organization was enraptured by his ability to bring calm and character to the team.
This will be missed, even if his ability to throw the red challenge flag with care and precision won’t.
Now, as we launch into the Mike McCarthy era, we have to approach everything in a whole new light.
He’s a most unorthodox Steelers hire. Rather than getting their usual 30-something coaching upstart to lead the team, President Art Rooney II chose an unemployed, highly weathered coach in Mike McCarthy.
McCarthy has been in coaching so long that he had the opportunity to coach Joe Montana during the legend’s last-gasp stint with the Kansas City Chiefs in the early 90s.
Personally, I love the hire. If you read up on McCarthy’s bio, he’s about as blue-collar of a Super Bowl-winning head coach you’ll ever find. Who in Pittsburgh can’t root for a guy who earned money as a kid cleaning his dad’s bar?
What can I say? As a novelist, I love a good plot, and the story of him fulfilling a lifelong goal by head coaching in the city he grew up in is one rich in dramatic possibilities.
He won’t betray the city by forgetting we love our defense, but he’ll infuse some genius into the offensive scheme while he’s protecting the franchise’s crown jewels.
Heck…we’ve already seen more passes to the middle of the field in pre-season games than we have in the past twenty years.
How will this saga play out for Mike McCarthy? Let’s give it a Spin.
Raging Against The Machine
From the first column I published in this esteemed online publication back in 2013, the primary fuel has been angst.
The establishment was letting me down, and I needed to vent. I needed to rage against the machine.
That was about the time when the great Coach Dick LeBeau was forcibly retired and swapped out for a bad acid trip of Tampa Two. We were told that Casey Hampton and run-stopping in general were considered obsolete, and that guys like James Harrison weren’t really needed anymore.
That’s when I began to sour on this newfangled pathway to modernity.
Admittedly, I was still bitter that we allowed Rod Woodson to wear purple and surrendered the chief bully brand to the Baltimore Ravens. I’m still suffering from recurring nightmares that this pencil-legged guy named Tom Brady kept taking the air out of our football dreams.
I was never a fan of our “Young Money” era and was horrified we mortgaged our defense for years in pursuit of our “Killer B’s” pipe dream.
I always believed that quarterbacks…even of Hall of Fame stature…should stick to throwing the ball and shouldn’t be allowed to serve concurrently as General Manager.
We kept making “This is Big Ben’s last year” decisions for half a decade to our detriment, and our incompetence at coming up with a succession plan has made us just a shade above mediocre for years.
I admit it. I wrote hot. I wrote angry.
What am I going to do with myself now? I’m not miserable anymore. I’m even experiencing this new emotion…I believe they call it hope.
I feel like we have a fresh start. Yeah, we’ve still got an old transient throwing the ball, but we’ve finally got some real potential in the bullpen. This Drew Allar kid? I think he could be the one.
So…somehow, I’ll have to pen the Spin without quills dipping into ink buckets full of frustration.
Be patient. It will be a new experience for all of us.
The Elephant In The Room
There are some who believe that now that Mike Tomlin has moved on to his next mountain of millions in network television, his name shouldn’t be whispered around here anymore. Let the man be, they argue.
That’s a generous thought, and understandable if you’re operating as a member of his public relations department. But the truth is that after 19 years of heading up what all of us in this glorious echo chamber believe to be the most important franchise in the National Football League, you’re going to be a topic of discussion and comparison for a long time.
This may shock some, but I still think of Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher all the time. Mike Tomlin has long earned the right to be in the conversation…and for as long as I’m writing.
Apples To Apples-Ish
Speaking of comparisons, this season the real competition will be between the two Mikes…Tomlin and McCarthy.
There is no other way any reasoning individual would theme out this 2026-2027 year for the Steelers.
What’s interesting is that I believe the playing field is fairly level for this vibrant competition.
Yes, it’s true that Tomlin and the front office are passing the baggage of having the oldest roster in the league to McCarthy. The flipside is he can’t complain about the level of wisdom and experience in his locker room and on the field.
I think that Omar Khan and the scouting squad did an excellent job with the draft this year, and there have been some significant free agent acquisitions as well on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
There is a decent argument that McCarthy is starting off with a better September hand in 2026 than Tomlin had at the start of the 2025 season.
All of this to say, neither of the two horses is carrying weight in this race. Last year, Tomlin led the team to a 10-7 record and earned Pittsburgh the AFC North title. He merited a participation trophy in the Wild Card playoff game, where, of course, they were blown out by a score of 6-30 to the Houston Texans.
That’s the standard. That’s the bar.
McCarthy is no rookie. He’s coming in with as much experience as a head coach as Tomlin boasted. He knows Pittsburgh; he even knows the old quarterback.
Tomlin laid down his cards. It’s up to McCarthy to win, lose, or draw.
Return On Investment
I said I was happy, but that doesn’t mean I’m fully content.
Let me start by saying I love our running backs this year. Jaylen Warren is the most Steeler-ish player we have on the roster. Despite being undrafted, he’s never given up the fight, and no one works harder with the ball in his hand. You’ve got to love a guy who doesn’t take his helmet off even when he’s on the sideline.
Yet, Rico Dowdle is potentially a blue-chipper. He’s a diamond…and he’s rough. In fits and starts last season, he was flashing as the best running back in the National Football League. As an undrafted footballer himself, he’s basically everything Warren is; however, he has the burst to break out plays like we haven’t enjoyed in years.
The Steelers got a steal in Dowdle, and don’t be surprised if he ends up being the team’s MVP by season’s end.
That is, if Pittsburgh finally gets a return on its investment in the offensive line. Three of their past four first-round picks have been spent on offensive tackles, and several other high picks have been cashed in to strengthen the interior of the line. In addition, the offensive line has reaped the benefits of some key free agency acquisitions as well.
Thankfully, we recouped some of that draft expenditure by trading away Broderick Jones. There wasn’t a single play (possible mild hyperbole) this preseason where he wasn’t either giving someone an illegal bear hug or chasing someone from behind as they pressurized our quarterbacks like coyotes in a chicken coop.
I expected our offensive line to showcase their emerging brilliance this preseason, but they did not.
The Steelers haven’t had a well-functioning offensive line since Mike Munchak departed for the Mile High City many years ago. And he had much less talent to fashion artwork from clay.
We’re all done waiting for this offensive line to be all it can be. If they can play this year as they should, the Office of Warren and Dowdle will lay down the law this season.
Birds Of Prey
Everyone is sleeping on the Atlanta Falcons, and it will be important that the Steelers don’t get caught in their pajamas on Sunday.
No, the Falcons weren’t a strong team, ending the year with a record of 8-9. But they did win their last four games of the season, including a surprising upset victory against the Los Angeles Rams.
Reports say the Falcons have lost more than they have gained on defense in the offseason, and they were merely mid-pack last year.
The Steelers must establish their offense in this critical season opener. Pittsburgh’s defense must also not allow Bijan Robinson…to be Bijan.
I believe that T.J. Watt will be T.J. again this season, and with the other talent at the edge and on the defensive line, the Pittsburgh Steelers have a chance to be the Steelers once again.
Mike McCarthy. Let’s see what you got.