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Ot: stillers: The End of an Era

Is Tomlin the guy you want spearheading a complete rebuild? I'd rather have a guy who is more keen on x's and o's (particularly on offense, as the genie is well out of the bottle in terms of that being the more important side of the ball in modern football) and can develop our soon-to-be next quarterback. You seem to think Tomlin being rehired is some sort of affirmation of his greatness. How is Gruden Part 2 working out in Las Vegas? I don't think Tomlin is horrible, but I also think he's better off running a team that can police itself to some degree.
You’ve ignored the more important -
Who’s on your short list ?
 
The Steelers would likely stick to the formula of hiring a young defensive coordinator, so whoever are the hot names there would get a look. Tomlin has been a good coach for 14 years. Nothing lasts forever. Punting from CLE’s 38 down 28-0 and then early in the fourth showed that maybe he is living in his fears as a coach and that isn’t good.

Give him permission to look around. The draft picks would come in handy. As Mike Florio just said on PFT minutes ago, there are minority owners with the Steelers who have been calling for Tomlin’s ouster for a few years. Last night was more ammunition for them, but Rooney won’t be fazed by their opinions.

My choice would be Bienemy or Matt Campbell.
 
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You’ve ignored the more important -
Who’s on your short list ?

Pay me a lump sum of Colbert's annual salary, and I'll have you a list by the end of the week.

I mean, this is a moot point, because Tomlin is going to be here until he either retires or the wheels fall completely off. I just don't believe he's the optimal coach for a rebuild.
 
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I mean you go do alot of post mortem on the game. But I don't think the Steelers scored an opening drive TD all year. They notoriously fell behind all year, started slowly.

And......their 15 plays are "scripted" by Randy Fichtner. What does that tell you?
 
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Ben had a great career, but he was a really hard guy to root for. The criminal incidents, reckless motorcycle accident/not wearing a helmet, seeming to never care for his body, having a reputation as kind of a lazy preparer, lots of local stories about jerkish behavior...

I wasn't alive for Bradshaw so I can't say which of the two was Pittsburgh's all time best QB. Ben is certainly up there. But all the other stuff always made me kind of conflicted rooting for him. Next year is going to be rough if he comes back.
Not me, I'd be ok with players who are out on work release from the Allegheny County Jail on Sundays as long as they kick ass on the field, I LOVE BEN, Favorite Steeler of all time to me, and when he goes finally, WELCOME TO 1988, Rooneys are TOO DUMB to make a huge move for a franchise QB, so here comes Bubby Rudolph and 5-11, maybe after 6-7 losing seasons, they might allow Tomlin to retire, give me winning seasons and great QB play with criminal incidents, reckless motorcycle accident/not wearing a helmet, seeming to never care for his body, having a reputation as kind of a lazy preparer, lots of local stories about jerkish behavior...over what the near future WILL BE, get in the time machine, 1988 HERE WE COME.
 
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I mean you go do alot of post mortem on the game. But I don't think the Steelers scored an opening drive TD all year. They notoriously fell behind all year, started slowly.

And......their 15 plays are "scripted" by Randy Fichtner. What does that tell you?

Starkey just said the last time they even scored in the first quarter was 8 games ago and I think he said that was on a Haden pick 6.
 
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And that’s fine
If the Rooney’s want to move on it’s their prerogative
Tomlin will have a new job before he hangs up the phone .

Who’s on your hc short list ?
Really Tomlin has been carried by Ben his whole career. Think of all the games that Tomlin's feeble game plans failed miserable and Ben had to save his ass with a last second drive. You'll see. No losing seasons? Wait until Bubby Rudolph is the starting QB. It's a situation like Brady leaving NE, take out the main piece and it falls apart.
 
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Arians got moved out because he was getting Ben killed.

Big facts. Arians system is high-risk/high-reward. Guys tend to have career highs in turnovers and sacks, particularly in their first year under Arians. For example:

2012: Andrew Luck - 18 INTs (career high) and 41 sacks (tied for career high)
2013: Carson Palmer - 22 INTs (career high) and 41 sacks (career high)
2019: Jameis Winston - 30 INTs (career high) and 47 sacks (career high)
2020: Tom Brady - 12 INTs (3rd highest) and 21 sacks (near average for him)

So Brady is the only outlier. Every other QB turns the ball over and gets pounded in their first year under Arians. I'm not a believer in his system for a franchise QB. If you have a late-career Carson Palmer or Ryan Fitzpatrick, maybe, but otherwise no thanks.
 
I think it's the opposite. You'd be hard-pressed to find a team that hasn't sustained at least three big injuries.
Injuries are always part of the game , but losing two key players at Lbs which your defense is built around and your best corner is too much . Losing Bush was bad , but once Dupree , who was becoming a a super star , went down they weren’t the same .

If Dupree leaves , which is likely , unless Highsmith really steps up the defense won’t be the same even with Bush back next yr .

The teams that go deep into the playoffs tend to be the healthiest. The 70’s Steelers best team went to Oakland without Franco and Rocky and lost . Luck does play a part in this .
 
Art Rooney Sr., The Chief, ran the program for 40 years and never produced a championship. It was painfully obvious he knew very little about the business of football. His expertise was running a race track. When he turned it over to his son Dan, who knew the business of football, things changed immediately. When Dan turned it over to the current team leader, also named Art, it went down hill quickly. It's hard to identify any real long term planning in recent years. Like grandfather, like grandson. The three divisional opponents all have young Heisman winners at QB who will be around for at least a decade. Browns and Ravens have a solid running game. Expect the Bengals to give priority to drafting a RB. Settle in it might be a while until they recover.
 
Not me, I'd be ok with players who are out on work release from the Allegheny County Jail on Sundays as long as they kick ass on the field, I LOVE BEN, Favorite Steeler of all time to me, and when he goes finally, WELCOME TO 1988, Rooneys are TOO DUMB to make a huge move for a franchise QB, so here comes Bubby Rudolph and 5-11, maybe after 6-7 losing seasons, they might allow Tomlin to retire, give me winning seasons and great QB play with criminal incidents, reckless motorcycle accident/not wearing a helmet, seeming to never care for his body, having a reputation as kind of a lazy preparer, lots of local stories about jerkish behavior...over what the near future WILL BE, get in the time machine, 1988 HERE WE COME.

I get rooting for Ben, but he's favorite Steeler of all time, really? I think there are many others to choose from, several of whom had just as much success as Ben did.

I don't hate the guy. It was a good ride and I knew who he was even as I rooted for him, but I wanted the Steelers to win most of all. He's absolutely nowhere near my favorite player, though.
 
Injuries are always part of the game , but losing two key players at Lbs which your defense is built around and your best corner is too much . Losing Bush was bad , but once Dupree , who was becoming a a super star , went down they weren’t the same .

If Dupree leaves , which is likely , unless Highsmith really steps up the defense won’t be the same even with Bush back next yr .

The teams that go deep into the playoffs tend to be the healthiest. The 70’s Steelers best team went to Oakland without Franco and Rocky and lost . Luck does play a part in this .

No doubt luck matters. I guess all I'm saying is that Cleveland was also playing without one of the best corners in the league, its nickel corner, OBJ, I believe a starting guard, and who knows who else? I just have a hard time finding excuses for the Steelers, though I do agree that Dupree was a huge loss.
 
Really Tomlin has been carried by Ben his whole career. Think of all the games that Tomlin's feeble game plans failed miserable and Ben had to save his ass with a last second drive. You'll see. No losing seasons? Wait until Bubby Rudolph is the starting QB. It's a situation like Brady leaving NE, take out the main piece and it falls apart.
Like last season ?
 
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After LeBeau resigned and Arians “retired”, Tomlin hired Porter, Fitchner and Hayley and the bum at DC whose name escapes me. The lack of an NFL-Calber coaching staff is a big part of this train wreck.
You forget that people in this town wanted LeBeau gone.
 
I get rooting for Ben, but he's favorite Steeler of all time, really? I think there are many others to choose from, several of whom had just as much success as Ben did.

I don't hate the guy. It was a good ride and I knew who he was even as I rooted for him, but I wanted the Steelers to win most of all. He's absolutely nowhere near my favorite player, though.
1st, I don't care about off field behavior or character- it's JUST A TV SHOW I judge only by my level f TV ENJOYMENT, 2nd to me, Ben is the only real modern franchise QB this team has ever had, and really that is what I value most. IMO it's the top piece for any team, and the Steelers spent 26 years going bargain basement QB stupidly thinking that running the ball and playing D wins championships, in 1975 maybe, not today, it's going to be sad watching the Steelers with no QB on the roster. My favorite Steeler, up there with Mean Joe for me. Probably like 70s Super Bowl Era #75, 00s Super Bowl Era #7.
 
Art Rooney Sr., The Chief, ran the program for 40 years and never produced a championship. It was painfully obvious he knew very little about the business of football. His expertise was running a race track. When he turned it over to his son Dan, who knew the business of football, things changed immediately. When Dan turned it over to the current team leader, also named Art, it went down hill quickly. It's hard to identify any real long term planning in recent years. Like grandfather, like grandson. The three divisional opponents all have young Heisman winners at QB who will be around for at least a decade. Browns and Ravens have a solid running game. Expect the Bengals to give priority to drafting a RB. Settle in it might be a while until they recover.
When it was turned over to Art the Steelers made three Super Bowls in six years. The Steelers also got involved in the trading game, unlike with Dan sans the 1978 offseason. The last 10 years with Art have been total underachievement. The minority owners who don’t like Tomlin will be in Art’s ears aggressively this offseason I think.

I expect a staff overhaul but also won’t hold my breath that it happens.
 
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Art Rooney Sr., The Chief, ran the program for 40 years and never produced a championship. It was painfully obvious he knew very little about the business of football. His expertise was running a race track. When he turned it over to his son Dan, who knew the business of football, things changed immediately. When Dan turned it over to the current team leader, also named Art, it went down hill quickly. It's hard to identify any real long term planning in recent years. Like grandfather, like grandson. The three divisional opponents all have young Heisman winners at QB who will be around for at least a decade. Browns and Ravens have a solid running game. Expect the Bengals to give priority to drafting a RB. Settle in it might be a while until they recover.
Yeah. I have been saying this. Everyone loved "the Chief", but he was an incompetent boob as the owner. The Steelers rise coincided with the promotion to Dan Rooney as primary leader of the franchise. When he died, it now goes to his son Art II who seems more like Grandpa over Dad.
 
Really Tomlin has been carried by Ben his whole career. Think of all the games that Tomlin's feeble game plans failed miserable and Ben had to save his ass with a last second drive. You'll see. No losing seasons? Wait until Bubby Rudolph is the starting QB. It's a situation like Brady leaving NE, take out the main piece and it falls apart.
It's like last year never happened, when Ben started 2 games and went 0-2 in those games then Tomlin managed to go 8-6 with Rudolph and Hodges. When he was a shoe-in for coach of the year until the wheels came off in the final 3 games.
 
It's like last year never happened, when Ben started 2 games and went 0-2 in those games then Tomlin managed to go 8-6 with Rudolph and Hodges. When he was a shoe-in for coach of the year until the wheels came off in the final 3 games.

Just like they did the year before that, going 2-4 down the stretch. Just like they did this year, going 1-5 down the stretch. I believe this all points to just how old we are as a team.

There's a misconception about Tomlin's teams imploding down the stretch, because of that year he claimed they were going to raise hell and didn't. But it's starting to become a harsh reality these days.
 

Yeah, I just don't see enough young building blocks to avoid it. We have too many guys who are merely average NFL starters... not nearly enough young impact players (other than Watt and Fitzpatrick). We would have to strike gold in these next few drafts to avoid another dark ages period.
 
It's like last year never happened, when Ben started 2 games and went 0-2 in those games then Tomlin managed to go 8-6 with Rudolph and Hodges. When he was a shoe-in for coach of the year until the wheels came off in the final 3 games.
2-14
5-11
5-11
7-9
9-7
2-14
6-10
5-11
 
But when we the last time the Steelers played to their potential or pieced together a complete game in the playoffs? It's happened one time since the last Super Bowl run in 2011, and even the playoff games that year were not complete games (they dug themselves in a deep hole all three times, as I recall). This goes well beyond a few bad plays. Tomlin's teams have simply not performed well in the playoffs. We lost to a team that was missing its freaking coach and had barely practiced all week last night. We lost, again at home, to a Bortles-led Jaguars team that couldn't even throw the ball downfield... somehow they managed to drop 45 on us. We lost to an 8-8 team that had Tebow as its quarterback, for crying out loud. Hell, two of the games we won were absolute gifts (the Cincy game much more so, but there was also a bad holding call in that KC game).
I don't buy the Cincy game. The Steelers were dominating them, leading by 2 touchdowns until Burfict drove Ben into the turf, knocking him out of the game.
 
let's trade Lamps for Tomlin
Do you see the comparison? Lampard is my favorite Chelsea legend of all time. He’s great in a news conference and I think he’s likely good in that locker room. Just like Tomlin. But he is outmatched tactically by other Managers. It’s painful to watch. Just like Tomlin. Both are good men that I admire in many ways.
And to address Soufs comment about Arians? Yeah he’s technically a part of the Tomlin tree...but might be the only example and not a real good one. He’s been around a lot of head coaches. And isn’t much of a product of Tomlin.
 
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It’s one thing to not have to go through major rebuilds because your divisional opponents suck. It’s another thing when your divisional opponents are passing you by with talented offensive coaches and QB’s thus making a patch job just wasting time.

own the facts and the harsh reality that the Steelers are in a major rebuild with offensive line and QB and running back. Own the entire idea that they will suck for a couple of years while the Browns, Ravens and Bengals prosper and contend for championships.
 
Is a rebuild needed if the Steelers move on from Ben? I wonder what the solution is? If they move on from Ben can they keep the core together on defense? Obviously his dead money will impact things next year and prohibit them from filling all their holes. And that OL needs completely rebuilt. But that defense, if healthy, can keep them in games next year while a new OL and a Rudolph (or FA QB) develop and keep them in the playoffs picture for a while. Then maybe it’s not a complete rebuild and the following year could bring some expectations.
 
Yeah, I just don't see enough young building blocks to avoid it. We have too many guys who are merely average NFL starters... not nearly enough young impact players (other than Watt and Fitzpatrick). We would have to strike gold in these next few drafts to avoid another dark ages period.

I don’t know that it is inevitable. Watt, Tuitt Bush and Fitzpatrick are good blocks on D, and Highsmith looks very promising. On offense, obviously they have talent at WR and Dotson looks like a good one. They need to focus on the OL and getting DBs (easier said that done I know). If a QB falls to them this year go for it. More than likely they have to make the best of it with the guys they have. If Ben retires this year or next maybe they can go the Indy route and bring in a vet to compete. That probably isn’t an option this fall, so you see what Rudolph gives you. If he sucks, then you are likely positioned to take a QB next year.
 
You don’t fire Mike Tomlin. But you do trade him to another team if the return is good. There are teams looking for a coach and he has a good resume.
 
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I'm not a cap expert, but they have 2 must signs, Watt,and Hilton. Highsmith isn't Dupree, but he looks to be a solid starter. If Ben retires, you have to see what's available in free agency. You cannot go into a season with just Rudolph, and Dobbs as your qbs. In the draft, if you don't sign a QB, I think you have to take Mac Jones if he's there at 24. If not, if one of the elite tackles is there, you take him. If the elite tackles are gone, and Najee Harris is there, you have to take him. If you get your tackle in the first round, you take Trask in the second if he's there. If not, you take your running back. Third round take a center. After that, take the best player available that fills a need. Am I a bad guy if I hope Trey Sermon gets bruised ribs or something early in the game so that he might last into the third round for the Steelers, as they badly need a top level running back. If the Steelers do decide to wait a year before drafting a QB, which potential free agent QB would be your preference?
 
Is Tomlin the guy you want spearheading a complete rebuild? I'd rather have a guy who is more keen on x's and o's (particularly on offense, as the genie is well out of the bottle in terms of that being the more important side of the ball in modern football) and can develop our soon-to-be next quarterback. You seem to think Tomlin being rehired is some sort of affirmation of his greatness. How is Gruden Part 2 working out in Las Vegas? I don't think Tomlin is horrible, but I also think he's better off running a team that can police itself to some degree.

i don't see it as a rebuild. the team just went 12-4. the defense has 2 young legit stars. the problem is they neglected the OL for so long. i don't know what happened to pouncey and decastro this year but it looks as if the wheels fell off for both guys. al is not NFL caliber at this point.

Really Tomlin has been carried by Ben his whole career. Think of all the games that Tomlin's feeble game plans failed miserable and Ben had to save his ass with a last second drive. You'll see. No losing seasons? Wait until Bubby Rudolph is the starting QB. It's a situation like Brady leaving NE, take out the main piece and it falls apart.

he went 8-8 last year with putrid qb play. i'm not saying i love tomlin at this point but that was pretty good, considering how bad mason and duck were.
 
Those first two games last season cannot be forgotten. A 33-3 loss to the Patriots and holding a lead versus Seattle, facing 3rd and 16 and the defense allowed Wilson to run a draw up the middle for 15 yards. Ran it on fourth, Victory Formation, ball game.
 
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