Mike Tomlin, former head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, has stepped down after 19 years. Tomlin had an illustrious career in Pittsburgh, but after the Steelers’ 30-6 loss against the Houston Texans, he decided to step down from the head coaching job.
Throughout his 19 seasons, Tomlin never had a losing one, giving him the record of having the most consecutive winning seasons from the beginning of his career.
Tomlin’s career was also filled with incredible accomplishments including but not limited to his Super Bowl win in Super Bowl XLIII where his team toppled the Arizona Cardinals; he also had a Super Bowl appearance in Superbowl XLV where he was defeated by the Green Bay Packers. After these accomplishments, Tomlin went through a rough period, and while he always had a winning season, he found himself having playoff struggles. After his AFC championship loss in 2016 vs the New England Patriots Tomlin never got back to that spot in his career in fact since that run in 2016, he made it to the playoffs six times of those six he made it past the wild card round one time
His playoff struggles are what I believe is the reason he stepped down. Tomlin’s winning season streak is a double-edged sword. On one half you never were out of the playoff race on the other you never had a top 10 draft pick that you didn’t have to trade for. The last time the Steelers had a top 10 draft pick that they didn’t trade for was 1969 where they picked Mean Joe Greene. Draft struggles have plagued the Steelers for a long time now and a crazy fact is that only one of the last 12 Steelers first round draft picks have gotten extensions. Of course, there are some extreme factors like Ryan Shazier who was paralyzed and some recent picks who aren’t eligible, but the rest have been to put it lightly “busts”
There has been a major debate between NFL fans of did Tomlin actually resign or was he asked to step down. I personally feel that he did resign on his own and I feel that the facts support that as well. To know the fact, we must look back at the history of the ownership. We know that Art Rooney II the owner of the Steelers and the history of the ownership. throughout the Steelers history.
Since 1969 there have been three head coaches Chuck Noll, Bill Cower, and of course Mike Tomlin. This shows that the Steelers ownership wants their head coach to last a long time, and we saw this during Rooney’s press conference after the resignment where Rooney said “We’re gonna be an open book in terms of, you know, who we look for and the list that we build,” Rooney explained. “So, yeah, can I sign up for another Chuck Noll, or another Bill Cowher, or another Mike Tomlin? Sure. But, you know, somebody that, we feel, fits that mold would be great, but for now, we’re not gonna kind of narrow the box too much.”
I further believe that Rooney did not have an impact because Rooney said in that same press conference. “I was certainly willing to take another run at it next year with Mike, and that was what I was expecting to talk about yesterday, but it went in another direction.” Although these are all fact we don’t know fully what happened but we do know that Tomlin is no longer the head coach of the Steelers also if he wanted to coach again which he Rooney has come forward and said that Tomlin doesn’t plan on it for at least for a year which if he would want to he would have to be traded in order to coach elsewhere. Tomlin will forever go down as one of the most consistent coaches of all time and is most likely a hall of fame coach. Nevertheless, it’s an end of an era in Pittsburgh and the for the first time in 19 years there will be a new head coach in western Pennsyvania. 
