Mike Tomlin Is a Damn Good Coach

Mike Tomlin, or "Coach T", has players call him, is considered a players coach. What if he just is a damn good one instead?

First, a history lesson. Don’t you enjoy reading those?

Mike Tomlin sat in the Miami Dolphins’s facility and charmed every person in the room during the job interview. A coach with the enuciation of a preacher and the restraint of a politician, Tomlin went to the College of William & Mary and played receiver, studied at Virginia Military Institute under future University of West Virginia coach Bill Stewart, and was later hired by Tony Dungy to be his defensive backs coach with Tampa Bay. Furthermore, he’s a Dungy disciple completely; even when you see some of his concealed swagger, the emphasis on team culture comes from Dungy’s playbook. Dungy, who coached the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Indianapolis Colts, has always preached that coaching is teaching not screaming. Being demanding is not a synonym for trampling over people. 

Tomlin expressed all of these things during the interview. With his ability to connect with multiple people, his Virginia ties — a region ripe with football talent —, and his work as the defensive coordinator for the Vikings the year prior, Tomlin was ready to take over the Dolphins, or whatever team would have him. According to the former Miami Herald columnist Armando Salguero, Tomlin was considered “too hip-hop” for the Dolphins, who then hired Cam Cameron, who was fired unceremoniously after one season. (The term “too hip-hop” can’t even be considered a coded term. It’s flat out saying that someone is too black, a startlingly take for a team based in Miami. It is not like it is the Green Bay Packers). At the time, the move to hire Cameron seemed dubious. He was the offensive coordinator of the San Diego, now Los Angeles, Chargers but they had lost to the Patriots in the divisional round in an upset loss. They also had a player named LaDanian Tomlinson, a future hall of famer who was a multitasker, a MVP, the omega of superstars, at running back. Who in the Dolphins front office believed Cameron was the reason for the Chargers success? 

You know the rest of the story, or you at least should: The Steelers interviewed Ron Rivera as their “Rooney Rule” recipient, but then scheduled an interview with Tomlin, whom they heard was excellent with the Dolphins. (A common misconception is that Tomlin was hired through the rule, but he actually wasn’t. The interview with the Dolphins led to the interview with the Steelers). Tomlin blew the Steelers away in the interview and was hired over a few fan favorites like Rivera, Ken Whisenhunt, and Russ Grimm. A Super Bowl title would happen in his second season; he was on his way to the Steelers history books abnormally quickly. 

Now, bringing it forward to 2024, one might hear the phrase “players coach” uttered when discussing Mike Tomlin. Indeed, there are articles that exist, discussing whether Tomlin’s success can be attributed to his ability to relate to the players he is coaching. I certainly understand why folks might leap to that conclusion, especially when you see Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell attend and speak at Donald J. Trump rallies, or hear Ben Roethlisberger literally open his mouth to say any word or sentence, but there isn’t any evidence beyond those three men that suggest that Tomlin is a “players coach.” The only thing it seems people are going by is the fact that Tomlin is Black, and looks like some of the players on the team. In fact, judging by the lack of discipline the men showed when he left, it would be reasonable to suggest that Tomlin was quite stern with those men, especially Brown and Bell. Now, in a poll distributed by The Athletic, Tomlin was voted as the coach that the players — the 72 of them that participated in the poll — wanted to play for the most. Sure, Tomlin shows up in Instagram live videos with the Steelers’s players after a big game, sometimes patriarchally dancing with the players to booming hip-hop music. Sure, Tomlin uses idioms that the rapper Earl Sweatshirt might name his next album after (my favorite is, “if you blink, I’ll cut your eyelids off”). But, he’s also not cuddly with reporters, or particularly light-hearted throughout the week. I came of age during the 2010’s when Tomlin was ushering a new generation of Steeler talent, and Mike Wallace was a holdout in 2012 Training Camp. Tomlin seemed slightly annoyed, and Antonio Brown was given the edge over Wallace in camp, thus beginning a fruitful Steeler career. 

Do I find that he loves the players? I do, one of the more indelible Mike Tomlin moments is when he kissed Ike Taylor on the head after his career-ending injury; there is also the obvious glee he gets from a player making a play at exactly the right moment. (He exclaimed “got them!” when the Steelers beat the Commanders by drawing them offsides). I, however, don’t find that he coddles players, or that he caters to them. Tomlin does what normal, good, strong coaches do, however lengthy their tenure is: he coaches them, and understands that they’re men, so they ought to be treated like men. It can be easy to criticize Tomlin for his 8-10 postseason record, or wonder if the leadership he so clearly has is his one arsenal in his tote bag, but consider the fact that the Steelers have not had a decent quarterback since Ben Roethlisberger tore his elbow out. (He had the misfortune of not having a great defense when Roethlisberger, Bell, and Brown were at their peak). Perhaps the inability to lose can be annoying, because the Steelers could have tanked for specific prospects from the NFL Draft. That’s not Tomlin’s style, though, and I must agree: tanking is something that you wish happens as a kid; once you grow, we realize that we’re bound to win, bound to create something out of nothing every year. Teams owe fans that. Still, to me, his 180-102 record, and 7-2 record this season, is a testament to his ability to raise your floor; the man must dabble in dark magic because there’s no possible reason to expect the Steelers to shame themselves. He’s a coach that preaches self-regard.

What coach would bench Justin Fields for Russell Wilson? Tomlin did, despite the confusion at the idea when it was originally broached. A former first round pick from the Chicago Bears, Fields had been the scrappy newcomer, making Steelers fans wonder if he was finally a talented enough quarterback to plan for the future with. My theory: Fields was going to make plays under a mediocre offensive line, where Wilson’s eroding athleticism would be a problem since he needs a cleaner pocket to ultimately be successful. Wilson, an aging quarterback, was run out of Denver last year because of firstly, Broncos coach Sean Payton’s peculiar behavior and secondly, his large contract. Fields, a young player who is thought to have potential, started the season 4-2 for the Steelers, playing decent ball despite the fact that nobody was throwing the ball short of the first down more than Fields was. Wilson, however, has changed his ways: he is airing out for the Steelers, deploying his much respected deep ball in moments where the black and yellow has needed a touchdown. 

When the move was first announced, I wondered if Tomlin was catering to the veteran player, if the pressure to win was blinding him from what the future of the team should be. Wilson will almost surely be in the Hall of Fame when his career ends and he fully devotes his time to annoying the rapper Future with photos of him and his son, Wilson’s stepson. So, perhaps, it was Tomlin allowing his sense of tradition to cloud his judgement. It’s still early, and Wilson is still nowhere near the level he was at when he was in Seattle, but it appears that I was wrong about that; Wilson has given the Steelers a downfield attack and a professionalism — Fields has some arm talent but he knows how to make some boneheaded plays on top of that talent  — that has been missing at that position for the past couple of seasons. Name the coaches that would have had the intuitive stones to make the move to Wilson: Andy Reid, Sean McDermott, Jim Harbaugh, Kyle Shanahan, and maybe Kevin O’Connell? It’s a move by a coach who knew what his team needed. Maybe it is time we stop thinking of Tomlin as a players coach, and start thinking of him as a good one, because no coach with quarterbacks as average or below average as Tomlin has been saddled with, can imagine having the consistency and playoff appearances that Tomlin has had. Do they need to figure out how to find someone elite at that position to compete with Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen, though? They do, and hopefully General Manager Omar Khan is laser focused on delivering that for Tomlin and the fanbase. 

Is Tomlin a great coach? That’s a complicated answer, as I have seen elite coaches routinely beat the Steelers, even when I thought that they had a shot of defeating them. I would testify under oath that he is; Tomlin is worth at least two wins per season because of the commitment and mighty swagger that he coaches with, and undoubtedly shrewd moves that he makes. It remains to be seen if he can make it to a second round of the playoffs this season. The AFC is tough. They don’t have a top ten quarterback. Their offensive weapons are merely solid. The Steelers play Lamar Jackson’s Baltimore Ravens next week. The dark magic will be needed, more than it has been in recent weeks. Don’t miss the game; Tomlin’s teams are appointment viewing, even when the impression around the team is slightly under elite. His orders will be executed, but the valleys and peaks of the offense are in Wilson’s hands; expectations might still be cautious