Steelers Read & React: Mike Tomlin, necessary coaching changes and the George Pickens problem

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After a frustrating finish to the season, it’s time for some uncomfortable discussions. Are the Steelers ready to have them?

How are we feeling, everyone?

The Steelers’ season came to an unsatisfying end as the team left Baltimore with a whimper and another frustrating loss in the Wild Card round. For all the many changes the Steelers made in the offseason, the results were ultimately the same.

Read & React is going to take a break through the rest of the playoffs — barring any critical breaking news that pulls us back — but we first wanted to debrief on the season that was.

The Steelers are going to need to have some uncomfortable conversations in the coming months if they don’t want to be back in this same spot next year. This week, we look at Tomlin and what changes need to be made in Pittsburgh.

Mike Tomlin. That’s it. That’s the prompt.

Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images

RB: I’m so confident that the Steelers won’t move on from Mike Tomlin that I haven’t wasted much time forming a coherent opinion on the subject.

That being said, it feels like that conversation is still taboo in some NFL circles, and I don’t think that should be the case anymore. After eight years without a playoff win, it shouldn’t be controversial to say that some blame has to fall on the shoulders of the head coach.

Maybe Tomlin’s playoff woes are largely a symptom of underperforming rosters or poor coordinator hires, but at the end of the day, he has a lot of say in those departments. And after six straight playoff losses, it’s clearly no longer just an unlucky streak but an undeniable trend.

A lot has changed around Tomlin over the last eight years, making him the common denominator throughout the Steelers’ postseason struggles. If Pittsburgh wants to make changes to get out of that spiral, it makes sense to take a long look at how Tomlin has led the team over that time. Even this season, we’ve watched the Steelers completely fall apart in the most important stretch of the season, with bad play-calling, clock management, personnel choices, communication, discipline, and morale — all aspects of the game that point back to coaching.

From the outside, Tomlin’s role can be a bit nebulous. Everything is not his fault. But he’s also in charge and shouldn’t get a free pass. His Steelers are consistently good, but they haven’t been great in a while.

Pittsburgh moving on would be a shock and Tomlin would be a great get for another franchise. But after eight years of running in circles, the Steelers leaving the safe and impressive floor of Tomlin in chase of potentially greener grass is sounding more and more reasonable. Don’t get me wrong — it’s an absurdly huge risk. But how many more good seasons with one-and-dones in the playoffs will it take before it’s clearly time for something new? There has to be a limit at some point, right?

But you can’t leave Pittsburgh’s quarterback dilemma out of the discussion. The Steelers’ streak of playoff failure roughly aligns — I say “roughly” as 2017 was an undeniable collapse — with Ben Roethlisberger’s decline and eventual retirement. There are outliers, but NFL playoff success is generally built on the play of franchise quarterbacks, and the Steelers haven’t had one for a while. That’s every bit as big of a factor in the struggles of the last eight years as Tomlin.

It doesn’t absolve him, and if I were in charge of the Steelers, I’d be thinking long and hard about going in a new direction at head coach unless Tomlin agreed to legitimately substantial changes — more on that later — on his staff and roster. But I also genuinely believe that Tomlin could get back to his playoff-winning ways with an elite quarterback at his disposal.

However, it’s anyone’s guess how long it’ll take before one of those ends up in Pittsburgh. Ever since Big Ben retired, Tomlin’s Steelers have been teetering on the edge of a rebuild, and right now there’s no end in sight.

Let’s end this rant: Because the Steelers aren’t going to fire Tomlin, they need to make big changes elsewhere. If they don’t — and quite possibly even if they do — it becomes a waiting game for the next franchise quarterback. I’ll never believe Tomlin is a bad coach, but I’m not sure if he can take this team back to Super Bowl heights without the team modernizing around him.

RP: I think it’s important to acknowledge that any conversation about Tomlin’s job security is mostly a moot point. The contingent of Steelers fans calling for his firing is undoubtedly the largest it’s ever been, but that doesn’t compel the Rooney family to make a move. Firing Tomlin would be a significant shift from the way they’ve run the business historically and, as much as a frustrated fanbase might hate to hear it, the ownership’s actions have shown nothing but support for the NFL’s longest-tenured head coach.

I can hear the drafts of angry replies already being typed into the comment section, but I don’t know what else to tell you. I’m not selling you that Tomlin is blameless for the Steelers’ woes, but I do think fans need to come to grips with the reality that Tomlin is not on his last chance with management.

Really, think about it. Tomlin’s contract was set to expire after the 2024 season. If Art Rooney II was even remotely considering a change, he could have let Tomlin play the year out and then made a judgment based on the results. Instead, Tomlin was extended through 2027. That suggests Tomlin’s job could be safe long enough for him to take a couple more swings at finding a franchise quarterback.

The clock should be ticking though. Tomlin used his end-of-season press conference to hint at big changes ahead. Reading between the lines, I’d wager that will come in the form of staff changes and the departure of several of the Steelers’ impending free agents. That alone, however, won’t be enough unless Tomlin and the organization take a real look in the mirror. It will require Tomlin and the Steelers to reexamine some of their football philosophies.

Tomlin needs to be honest with himself. Since the decline of Roethlisberger’s health, Tomlin has attempted to rebuild a bullyball style of offense. Without a franchise quarterback, this makes a lot of sense, and it’s a playstyle finding success elsewhere in the league.

This weekend watch how the Ravens, Chiefs, and Bills play offense. You’ll notice they do a lot of things the Steelers tried to do this year. Those three teams love to use multiple tight end formations. They like running the ball. Chewing up time of possession. Limiting turnovers. Throw a few turnovers in the defenses’ favor, and that’s a winning formula in the NFL. But, importantly, each of those teams has a quarterback. And I would argue those are three of the best coaching staffs in the NFL.

Tomlin has neither of those things right now. Perhaps most troubling is the way the Steelers have been losing. Players shouldn’t repeatedly demonstrate they don’t understand their assignments at this point in the season, yet the Steelers offense never nailed down their blocking assignments consistently and the defense suffered communication breakdowns in the second half of the season. Tomlin has also struggled with time management, sometimes burning timeouts too soon because players were visibly confused presnap, and other times failing to use them at all. His approach towards fourth downs is enigmatic, to put it lightly. But worst of all, I’ve never seen a Steelers team quit like this one did down the stretch. Tomlin is the culture guy. If guys aren’t buying the message, then what does he have left?

Deep down, I think a world still exists where Tomlin once again leads a team to playoff victories. I’m just not certain it will be with the Steelers.

What changes need to be made this offseason?

Photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images

RP: We’ve said it a million times, but the Steelers are a team in desperate need of a franchise quarterback. We’ll touch on that again a little later in the column.

Outside of that, the Steelers need some fresh voices in the room. Letting go of coaches is something Tomlin has been slow to do, so it’s hard to predict what changes, if any, he’ll oblige.

At the position coach level, I think most fans would agree it’s time to let Pat Meyer seek employment elsewhere. A coach’s performance is reflected by his players on the field. In Meyer’s time with the Steelers, the offensive line has struggled with miscommunications, slow starts to the season, and several instances of players’ development being handled in strange and possibly detrimental ways.

Elsewhere, the Steelers are predictable on both sides of the ball and other teams have noticed. A complete reboot with both coordinator roles shouldn’t be out of the question.

Teryl Austin’s defense rarely disguises coverage, instead relying on the old-school mentality that our players are simply going to outexecute opposing offenses. While the Steelers have enough talent to make that work against the bottom half of the league, it falls short against the real contenders. The NFL has reshaped its rules to stack the cards in the offense’s favor. Every team is loaded with talented players, so purposefully limiting yourself by always showing your hand just won’t cut it in today’s game.

Meanwhile, Arthur Smith might as well have been three Matt Canada’s stacked in a trenchcoat. His playcalling was so predictable that most fans watching at home could predict the sequence of plays they were about to see. I’d wager more than one Steelers fan is ready to throw hands with the next person they see running a halfback toss. He shouldn’t be back, but history tells us he probably will.

We’ll assess the free agent pool and draft class in future columns, but with 24 players up for free agency, the Steelers will see plenty of change in personnel as well.

RB: I can be talked into giving Arthur Smith another year given how his offensive line imploded with injury before he really had a chance this season. Throw in two quarterbacks with limited processing (and a report he struggled working with Russell Wilson), no WR2, and other miscellaneous issues, and maybe the guy who took Ryan Tannehill to an AFC Championship deserves a bit more time — albeit on a very short leash. That’s unless some offensive wunderkind becomes available this offseason; as Ryan noted, the Steelers desperately need to get back on the cutting edge schematically.

As for the rest of the staff, from defensive coordinator Teryl Austin down to the positional coaches, I think a lot of turnover is justified.

The roster is another big issue, though. We’ll talk about quarterback in a later prompt, but I think wide receiver, cornerback, and interior defensive line are in desperate need of reinforcements this offseason. Those groups became deadly weaknesses late this season, and a starting-caliber free-agent pickup and/or high draft pick is paramount at all three positions.

Beyond that, I’d take a look at changing the team’s defense-heavy roster construction that clearly hasn’t resulted in a playoff win lately. I’d see if the trade market makes moving T.J. Watt or Minkah Fitzpatrick worth the loss (unlikely, but it’s time to look), cut ties with Preston Smith and Larry Ogunjobi, and evaluate the Cole Holcomb situation. I’d also not bring back the vast majority of the team’s 2025 free agent class.

In short: Overhaul the coaching staff, bring some youth in on defense, and spend big on offense.

Heading into a contract year, what are your thoughts on George Pickens?

Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

RB: Another tough, nuanced question that’s hard to definitively answer unless you’re in the Steelers’ building. The state of Pittsburgh’s offense means the Steelers would be foolish to get rid of a player of Pickens’ caliber at the moment. That being said, his continued inconsistency and personality question marks make him a bad fit for a rebuilding offense like Pittsburgh’s.

If I’m the Steelers, I’m doing my due diligence in both extension talks and the trade market regarding Pickens this offseason. I’m not sure what his relationship with the team is like behind closed doors, and he has the talent to be a top-10 player at his position. Explore all the options.

Based on what I’ve seen right now, I think the most likely path, and the smartest path, for the Steelers is to let Pickens play out his rookie contract in Pittsburgh and then sign a big contract with another franchise in 2026.

RP: If the Steelers weren’t so desperate for help at wide receiver, I truly believe Pickens would be added to the list of wideouts the Steelers have traded away before their contract expires. The Steelers shipped out Diontae Johnson because of character concerns — he was just released for the third time this season, by the way — and did so previously with players like Chase Claypool, Antonio Brown, Martavis Bryant, and Santonio Holmes.

I don’t tend to like debating and policing players’ attitudes and personalities. We don’t personally know these guys and often only get half the story. Pickens has always been a mercurial player, and that in and of itself isn’t necessarily a problem. But it reportedly is the reason why a player with the obvious athletic ability Pickens possesses fell to the late second round of the draft. There have been whispers all year that Pickens is frequently late and not always the hardest worker. Now there’s a report out that he was late to the stadium on Christmas Day against the Chiefs. Tomlin has repeatedly alluded to Pickens needing to grow up, and nowhere is that more clear than the over $90,000 in fines Pickens accumulated this season.

I don’t know that the Steelers can afford to get rid of Pickens. I’m not even sure if I want them to. I guess what I’m saying is at this point, nothing would surprise me.

Join in on Steelers Read & React by sharing your takes on this week’s topics. What are your takes on Mike Tomlin, George Pickens, and the Steelers’ offseason needs? How would you retool the Steelers for next season? Let us know in the comments! Feel free to pitch future questions in the comment section, on Twitter/X: tag @_Ryland_B or @RyanParishMedia, or via email at steelersreadnreact@gmail.com. Thanks, as always, for reading.