Vance Joseph could be having the time of his life all over again.
The former Broncos coach, fired after presiding over the first back-to-back losing seasons in Denver since 1971-72, will interview with the Bengals this week, per multiple reports.
The reports indicate that Joseph will interview for the head-coaching position, and there’s no reason to think he won’t. The job he ultimately gets could be a different one.
Yes, the notion that Hue Jackson could get the head-coaching job continues to have legs, with Joseph potentially becoming the defensive coordinator.
I could see Brown going to an NFC team in need of a big time receiver. Detroit if they could find a way, San Francisco, maybe even Carolina. Teams with established QBs. Tomlin says Brown didn’t request a trade but that don’t mean shit.
Pearson ain't in the hall but he should be. I'm talking about in a passing era. I should of made that more clear. Those guys, of course, were great but you can't compare them to guys like Moss, T.O, AB, Julio, Megatron bcuz the game was different back then. Teams were not building teams around qb/wr combos. Swann never even had a 1000 yard season and Pearson only had 2, bcuz it was all about running and defense around the league. Why do you think guys like Swann, Stallworth & Hayes etc took forever to get in? I'm not shitting on the old schoolers, I'm just saying elite then vs elite now is totally different. BTW, John Stallworth & Harold Jackson>>>>>Swann & Pearson
Below are the incoherent ramblings of a frustrated, life-long Steelers fan. One that has conflicting views on Mike Tomlin as of the offseason of 2019. One that has done a lot of digging and reflection to try to clarify his views to his self.
In defense of Mike Tomlin:
Let’s start by stating the obvious, Mike Tomlin is a successful Coach. He sports a .654 winning percentage, which ranks 2nd among active coaches that qualify. Only Darth Hoodie ranks above him. He holds 6 division titles to his name in his 12 years of service as a head coach. The AFC North has been competitive for much of his career. Be it the Ravens or the Bengals, the AFC North has had at least 2 playoff participants in 7 of his 12 years at the helm. Twice have there been 3 playoff reps from the North. He has a Super Bowl ring while participating in another. Since Mike Tomlin has been the leading figure of the Steelers sideline only two teams have won more Super Bowls than his Steelers. Those two teams are the Giants and Patriots, each coming in with 2 wins. Only New England has more appearances.
Yes, Mike Tomlin walked into a terrific situation. That should be noted. He didn’t have to build his starting roster from the ground up. He inherited a lot of talent, but does that mean he should not be given credit for what he was able to do with it? If anyone has ever been in a leadership role, they know it is hard. Especially when you’re a 35-year-old head coach walking into a locker room that not only has future Hall of Famers in it, but guys so close to you played against in college (James Farrior). Mike Tomlin had to come in and establish himself as the head men with a group that went 35-14 with 2 AFC title game appearances and Lombardi Trophy over the three years before he arrived. That is not an easy task to do. Mike Tomlin also deserves credit for checking his ego at the door. He was an up and coming defensive coordinator who did a fine job at Minnesota in his one-year stint as the DC. A lot of individuals would allow their ego to try to "fix what wasn’t broken". Mike Tomlin did not. He allowed the ship to be ran by Dick LeBeau. Mike Tomlin has also had to rebuild a roster that participated in 3 Super Bowls in 6 seasons while winning 2 of them. During that stretch he has never posted a losing season. Mike Tomlin deserves credit for this. It is hard to win in the NFL. He does it as consistently as anyone who is not the evil wizard of the north east.
Mike Tomlin has consistently crafted and developed talented rosters year after year since this transition began. This is evident in his winning percentage against teams that finish the season 8-8 or better. Mike Tomlin sports a career 57.1 winning percentage against those teams. If we look at just his record in these instances since 2014, when this most recent window began, he is sporting a 61.5 winning percentage. How do these numbers stack up against his peers? Remarkably well. Mike McCarthy, a guy that many yinzers have been clamoring for, sports a career winning percentage of only 45.9% against 8-8 or better squads. John Harbaugh, another coach who gets praised by many in Steeler Nation, sports a 42.5 winning percentage. Pete Carroll comes in at 45.2%. Sean Payton at 50% on the dot. Darth Hoodie during his Patriot tenure comes in at 63.6%. I also decided to dive into Bill Cowher’s record in this instance since he is the standard many fans hold Tomlin to. He comes in at 50.7%. Below is a table that has all these numbers for you to see side by side:
Of this list, only Belichick is better than Tomlin. He also just happens to be the most successful head coach in the history of the SB era. What he has done is unprecedented and most likely isn’t going to happen again. The Steelers under Mike Tomlin have been among the most talented teams in the league on a consistent basis. He deserves credit for that and even when they aren’t as deep on talent his teams find ways to wins these games against winning teams around the league. An example of this can be found in 2016. The Steelers went 5-4 against teams that finished .500 or better that season. They did so starting guys like Sammie Coates, Cobi Hamilton, Anthony Chickillo/Bud Dupree, and 3 rookies on defense in which only one of these guys has developed at a rate the Steelers should be happy with. That group won two playoff games. One in one of the loudest stadiums in all of the NFL after they had a bye. Below is a chart showing Mike Tomlin’s record against teams that finished their seasons with .500 or better records.
As you can see in only 2 of Mike Tomlin’s seasons has his group posted a losing record against teams that finish at or above .500. Those two seasons are also years the Steelers failed to qualify for the playoffs. If we compared this to the other coaches already discussed it is very favorable and Mike Tomlin deserves credit for this. His teams consistently win games against teams competing for playoff spots.
We’ve looked at the defense of Mike Tomlin. Now let’s look at the case against him. Just like every other human in the world he is flawed. It has become an established fact that Mike Tomlin’s teams "play down" to competition. Sometimes these numbers get skewed to paint a narrative that isn’t always the whole picture. People latch on to certain records even though they may not be indictive of a teams body of work. So, if the Steelers drop a game to a 1-3 bunch early in the year people hold that against Tomlin’s record against sub .500 ball clubs. But what if that club finished 8-8, 9-7, 10-6, or whatever? Did they lose to a team that was a just down right ball club? Or did they lose to a team that started off slow and then found their footing enough to go compete for a playoff spot? Due to this all the numbers I use are like above. I am using the final record opposing teams posted. Mike Tomlin comes in with a 73.9 winning percentage against teams that finish the season sub .500. Of the same group of coaches he comes it at the lowest. Mike McCarthy’s entire career is built on beating the losing teams of the NFL. He comes in at an 80.9%. John Harbaugh has posted a win percentage of 78.3. Pete Carroll has posted a 76.6% against sub .500 clubs. Sean Payton is at 75%. Belichick at an unreal 86.7% and Cowher at 74.2%. Table below:
As stated above, Tomlin comes in with the lowest win percentage against sub .500 groups of this list. Looking at the raw numbers one can infer that even though he is at the lowest he isn’t far off from the others on the list. This is where things get frustrating. Mike Tomlin has never posted a losing season. McCarthy, Harbaugh, Carroll, Payton, and Cowher have. Also, remember we are only using Belichick’s Pats tenure for this study.
All but John Harbaugh posted multiple losing seasons. Ready for frustrating news? Even during these seasons these coaches found success vs teams that finished sub .500 like them. They posted losing seasons because they just simply weren’t good football teams as shown by their poor records vs winning teams. For example, Pete Carroll’s 1994 Jets finished 6-10. They 3-1 against teams that finished sub .500. That means they went 3-9 against teams that finished .500 or better. In Bill Cowher’s 6-10 seasons they finished 4-2 against sub .500 clubs in 1999 and 4-3 in 2003. Meaning they went 2-8 and 2-7 against .500 or better clubs respectfully. Mike McCarthy went 7-9 in 2017. He was 5-0 vs teams that finished that year under .500. Meaning his team went 4-9 against the rest of the field. Even without his starting QB his club was still able to go undefeated against the dregs of the league. From 2014-2016 Sean Payton posted 3 straight 7-9 seasons. His records against teams that finished sub .500 is as follows: 5-4, 4-4, 5-1. These Saints teams just simply weren’t good enough as they posted losing records vs .500 or better clubs. Now when these coaches have good teams the records look different. They continue to take care of business against the losing teams of the league being more competitive against the teams that are competing for playoff glory.
That is what makes Mike Tomlin coached teams frustrating. He more consistently has the talent to compete with the other winning teams of the league as evident of his record against those teams compared to the peers, he is most associated with. Yet, his winning percentage against the lesser teams of the league is lower than all of them. That is an important fact. One that can be analyzed even deeper. One of the biggest keys to post season success is seeding. Getting those important byes. Those important homes games. Getting healthy. Most important, playing one less game. The more games you play in the NFL the closer you are to your next loss. We can go through Tomlin’s seasons and see this play out. One thing I found in my research is that it is not uncommon for teams around the league to drop a game or two to these lesser teams. Even the Patriots have lapses. This year they finished the regular season at 6-3 against sub .500 clubs. Luckily for them it was a year where the rest of the AFC did not take advantage of it. This is important to keep in mind when trying to be fair in evaluate these winning percentages. Some may think it lessens the heat that should be put on Tomlin for these types of lapses. I disagree. It happens more frequently with his team while having more talent than most peers on a consistent basis. Since 2014, The Steelers have lost 10 games and tied another to teams that finished sub .500. In just about every year it has cost the Steelers in seeding. In 2012, The steelers were 4-4 against sub .500 teams. The same record they posted against teams that finished at .500 or better. In 2014, The Steelers were 5-4 against sub .500 clubs. Two of those losses were to the 2-14 Buccaneers at home and the washed-up Vick led Jets. If they win those games the Steelers are 12-3 entering week 17. They are right in the mix for a bye. That is one less game you must play if you get it. Or if everything else stays equal it is not a must win game. Le’Veon Bell is not playing in that game. He is available for the post season. You’re not rolling in that game with Ben Tate. Most recently the Steelers failed to win 3 games against teams that finished under .500. The Steelers missed the playoffs by half a game.
One can also be frustrated with in game decisions made by Coach Tomlin. His stubbornness to change some of his ways has become tiresome for some fans. He refuses to add staff to help with challenges and clock stuff when it has become the norm around the league. Mike Tomlin is 32/71 on challenges in his career. He has not won a challenge in the last two seasons. Some of them being head scratching to begin with. For example, there was a challenge against NE that made zero sense. Everyone who had access to the replay could tell that neither of the NE special teamers who helped down the punt inside the 2ish yard line had stepped on the goal line. Mike Tomlin even had a TV timeout to his advantage to sort this out. Then against New Orleans he fails to challenge what would have been a catch and fumble by the catch rule we currently abide by. In the same game there was the odd fake punt call. It was odd for multiple reasons. The idea of going for the first down can be argued as a sound one, but why the fake punt? You needed 5 yards. You are giving the ball to the offensive skill player who touches the ball least out of all of them. You are asking two defensive players who do not practice run blocking on a regular basis to make key blocks. All while having a top 5 offense that was rolling with their future HOF QB at the helm and the best WR tandem in the league. Of the three options Mike Tomlin could have picked, two of them could be argued as sound and the correct decision. He chose to pick the incorrect one.
Mike Tomlin preaches that his teams respect their opponents regardless of who they are. This cannot be further from the truth. We already know what his record is. I do not need to go further into that. What we can do is see this in practice in his gameday decisions. Think back to week 10 of the 2015 seasons. The Steelers are playing the Browns. The team decides that Ben Roethlisberger is healthy enough to participates. Instead Mike Tomlin starts Landry Jones. Why? Because it is the Browns? What if Landry Jones doesn’t get hurt, but struggles? Does Tomlin leave him in until he has no choice to go to Ben, who was already deemed healthy enough to play? The New England stuff last season. This season in Oakland, Ben is healthy enough to return to the game. Tomlin’s reasoning for leaving Dobbs in the game was because they were "rolling". Dobbs was struggling mightily and threw an interception. Tomlin puts Ben back in the game after they fall behind. His mindset is clear in his actions. It is "just" the Raiders. This time it bit him. It’s instance like this that make Coach T such a frustrating figure head at times.
They say great coaches are measured by playoff success. How do we measure Tomlin? He has a Super Bowl ring and guided the Steelers to another. But, since 2011 he has advanced beyond the Divisional round just once. One person they compare his play off record to is Bill Cowher. Tomlin sits at 8-7 giving him a 53.3 winning percentage. Bill Cowher retire with a 12-9 record with a 57.1 winning percentage. They each have the same amount of Super Bowl wins and appearances. So, pretty similar right? Well, let’s look deeper. Cowher’s teams lost post season games to teams who helmed the likes of Frank Reich, Joe Montana, Stan Humphries, Troy Aikman, Drew Bledsoe, John Elway, Tom Brady, and Steve McNair. at QB Of that cast only Reich and Humphries, though still stringing together stints of solid paly, failed to register a pro bowl nod while also sporting 4 HOFers and another who won a share of the league MVP one season. A closer look at Tomlin’s gives us the following: Gerard, Rodgers, Tebow, Flacco, Dead Arm Peyton Manning, Brady, and Bortles.
Mike Tomlin has had a very successful coaching career and deserves all the credit due for that. He is also a flawed coach who deserves criticism for those flaws. He has great success against the competitive teams in the league. Bill Cowher made the comment last Sunday that you must push buttons harder to motivate your teams against the lower achieving teams in the league. Tomlin has proved after 12 seasons that he lacks in this department and it starts with the message he inadvertently sends his team. His locker room has been a soap opera gone wrong this season. The locker room can claim all they want that none of it was a distraction, but it is hard to win the NFL. Especially when you have the media and behind the scenes circus that has taken place this season. I thought about digging deeper into his role in rebuilding and calling of the defense during this article but feel I cannot accurately assess that without more information on who is calling what. Based on what we do know it is safe to say that it is not as "clean" as it could or should be. Mike Tomlin will not be fired by the Steelers this offseason. He will be here for at least 2019 and maybe that is the right decision. Maybe that is the wrong decision. Very sound arguments can be made for both. As for me, I know he has his merits. I know of his successful track record, but I have also become extremely frustrated with his short-comings that don’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. What I can say is that the next young successful coach is always out there. Other wise the game of NFL football would not have survived beyond the Mt. Rushmore of coaches. Good coaches come and go. I personally don’t believe that either keeping Tomlin or dismissing him is inherently the wrong decision. Sometimes a new voice is just needed. If Tomlin were to be dismissed, he would land on his feet quickly. He would probably find success quick. He is a good coach. Is he the right coach for this group? I don’t know anymore. 2019 will be a big season for Coach T. Self-reflection is needed this offseason. He needs to show the growth he is always preaching to his players. He needs to stop being stubborn and start showing said growth through his actions and not Tomlinisms.
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