The Pittsburgh Steelers’ secret weapon isn’t much of a secret, after all. [American sports’ longest-tenured head coach](https://steelersdepot.com/2025/05/mike-tomlin-just-became-longest-tenured-head-coach-in-american-pro-sports/) is Mike Tomlin, who has kept his team in the playoff picture virtually every year of his now-19 season career. Despite the team having long odds and low expectations to compete in a difficult AFC, NFL Network’s Colleen Wolfe believes he’s the secret sauce.
In a recent segment [on the NFL Daily podcast,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfzKiCABaXg) Wolfe gave the nod to the Steelers’ head coach.
“The Steelers, their secret weapon is the First Church of Tomlintology,” Wolfe told host Gregg Rosenthal. “This man handles the toughest of characters, and all the time, and he does it with some type of divine intervention. Because there’s no other way that you could see how he’s able to handle such big personalities and keep everything kind of so smooth and under the radar. He’s strong, he’s direct.”
Clearly, her answer is a little tongue-in-cheek, but the segment was analytical and overall, sincere. As the national media loves to tout and the fanbase has learned to loathe, Tomlin has never suffered a losing season while coaching the Steelers. Similarly, but arguably even more impressively, Pittsburgh has played just one meaningless game, a contest in which the team was eliminated from playoff contention before kickoff. That came in 2012’s finale against the Cleveland Browns.
Still, and as Wolfe later acknowledged, Tomlin and the Steelers have recently fallen short of expectations.
“If I was listening to me, I’d roll my eyes about no losing season,” she said. “What has he done in the playoffs? How do they get over the hump? Now they’re just sitting here waiting on Aaron Rodgers. And somehow, someway, I know that they’ll figure out someway to not have a losing record. Which is unbelievable.”
She also added that the Steelers’ consistently strong defense has played a significant role in sustaining success. Over the last six seasons, Pittsburgh has finished top ten in points allowed five times.
Around the AFC North, the Cleveland Browns’ “secret weapon” was having low expectations. For the Cincinnati Bengals, it was other teams having messy contract situations, similar to the ones the Bengals are experiencing with DE Trey Hendrickson, while the Baltimore Ravens’ choice was TE Mark Andrews embarking on a 2025 redemption tour.
It’s Tomlin’s and the Steelers’ blessing and curse. Always in the hunt but unable to push past the playoffs first round. The Cleveland Browns, Houston Texans, and New York Giants have all won postseason games more recently than the Pittsburgh Steelers.