Any hopes that you may have had that Mike Tomlin was going to announce his resignation as Head Coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers ended the moment he said, “Good afternoon.” And quite frankly you should have known better. Tomlin gave his end of the year press conference today and admitted that what the team has been doing isn’t working and that change is needed. The question we all have is “what will that look like?”
Tomlin says he's open to adapting and changing his approach to his job.
— Amanda Godsey (@AmandaFGodsey) January 14, 2025
Admitting you have a problem is typically the first step in addressing it and let’s give Tomlin credit for that much. He admitted that he had already sat down with both Art Rooney II and General Manager Omar Khan and stated that the team had a final meeting yesterday before releasing them into the off-season.
We won’t know what the contents of those meetings were – especially the ones with ARII and Khan – although we can certainly make some assumptions. The assumption I’ll make is that the word ‘change’ was used a lot and Tomlin must be willing to work with it. Otherwise he wouldn’t be the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers anymore.
Tomlin said that Arthur Smith and Russell Wilson had a good working relationship. Yeet
— Mark Kaboly (@MarkKaboly) January 14, 2025
You take the above tweet any way you’d like to but I’ll go ahead and suggest that if Arthur Smith is back (leaving for a head coach job seems to be the only way he wouldn’t be) then Russell Wilson likely will be too. But then there’s this…
Mike Tomlin says that Justin Fields has 'certainly' shown him enough to be the starter for the Steelers next year.
He calls Fields a 'legitimate thought' and says that Fields took the steps in several areas.
— Nick Farabaugh (@FarabaughFB) January 14, 2025
What Tomlin is doing here is simple. With both Wilson and Fields free agents, the last thing he wants to do is alienate one. Therefore he said nice things about both and is there by leaving the door open for one or both to return.
When he was asked about the fans calling for his job he replied in the best way possible. I mean, what else was he going to say?
“I embrace it, to be quite honest with you. I enjoy the urgency that comes with what we do. … I own it. But I also feel like I ‘m capable. … I understand their frustrations and probably more importantly than that, I share it.” (Quote courtesy Alan Saunders)
At the end of the day we all knew Tomlin wasn’t going to reveal much. He admitted they need to address their overall health and find out why they are struggling with so many soft tissue injuries… He admitted there is a lot of work to do with George Pickens… And he admitted that other teams looking to trade for him should “save their time.”
A lot was covered today by Coach Tomlin but we won’t see what he’s really getting at until things in the front office start happening. I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you.
