Hard disagree. First of all, he's in large part to blame for the QB situation because he is well involved in all personnel decisions and Pickett was a Tomlin guy. Also, last year, when Russ was on a winning streak, he dared to go out and sling the ball around to win a game. In response, he was schooled to obedience and to play the painfully out of date "Steelers football" that Tomlin pushes at all costs. We saw the results.
This is a matter of national versus local. National loves him because he's friends with a lot of people, gives a good sound bite, and hasn't had the losing season. And that's great in certain times--when you have Duck Hodges and manage a non-losing season, well done! But when you refuse to get rid of the rotting corpse of Ben Roethlisberger and then belatedly replace him with your hand-picked replacement who fantastically crashes and burns, that is a you problem.
Tomlin is a has been. No guts at all.
and it aint like he has a really tough division to compete in.
similar to Tom Brady being the goat...but for 20 years Miami, New Tork, and Buffalo were joke franchises..and as soon as they got good he moved to the south, where New Orleans, Carolina, and atlanta were jokes.
much easier to keep on winning games when you play against dysfunctional franchises a good portion of those games..easier to make the playoffs when nobody in your division can win 8 games too.
Tomlins only real divisional competition has mostly been Baltimore and they were pretty one dimensional for a long time...Cincy has Joe...but Joe doesnt have an O Line....and Cleveland never could get out of their own way.
Im with you on Tomlin...he preached that company tradition line all the way to a HC gig and some noteriety...but has been abstinent regarding shifting with the times to his detriment. He really needed to take one for the team a few years back and tank a season to get a top five pick. But that blue collar, nose to the grindstone, just get the job done old school pittsburgh mentality has him...it enamors him with the older fans but keeps him from doing what has to be done to raise the steelers back to former glory.
IMO, the best thing the steelers can do is hit Mike with the Peter Principal...promote him to assistant director of football operations or something,...then bring in a young coach to tank a season or two to rebuild the roster and get a QB.
it puts the team back in the thick of things while allowing Tomlin to maintain his ego on "never having a losing season"