Stop Bringing Up Mike Tomlin

Byline: Wilson Simons

    The Pittsburgh Steelers are 1-1 with one touchdown on 21 possessions, and already the timeline has settled on its favorite reply. “Bet you miss Tomlin now.”

    No, we don’t, and that reply misunderstands what Steelers fans were actually asking for back in January when the “fire Tomlin” chants were ringing throughout Acrisure Stadium.

    Mike McCarthy through only two games has been bad. He shuffled an offensive line that where shuffling it was the worst thing he could’ve done. Moved Troy Fautanu off a right tackle spot he played well in last season, and has now admitted the experiment was a mistake. 

    To be fair to McCarthy, he didn’t have much of a choice when the Steelers selected Max Ihanachor in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft. A player who has only played right tackle his entire career. Even then, Ihanachor was only picked because the Steelers actual selection, wide receiver Makai Lemon, was picked by the Philadelphia Eagles while Omar Khan was on the phone with him. 

    However, McCarthy making that mistake does not mean Tomlin should have stayed. Those are two separate claims, and the people conflating them are arguing against something nobody said.

    When fans wanted change, the ask wasn't vague. It was for a young, defensive-minded coach the kind Pittsburgh has historically hired and kept for a decade plus. Instead ownership hired a man who had been let go twice in eight years by two different franchises, and who was, by any honest read of the fanbase, the least wanted option in the city.

    That's not a failure of the argument for change. That's a failure of the people who executed it.

    The front office that hired McCarthy is the same front office that built this roster. General manager Omar Khan gave DK Metcalf $33 million a year for a receiver who isn't in the league's top thirty at the position. Of the 71 players targeted 10 or more times through Sunday of Week 2, Metcalf ranks 66th in targeted quarterback rating, 67th in success rate and 68th in catch rate, per Steelers Depot's Alex Kozora. He's still seeing ten and nine targets a game.

    Meanwhile Darnell Washington, arguably the best pass-catching tight end on the roster and recently paid like it, has three targets on the year. The run game isn't rescuing anyone either. Rico Dowdle has been ineffective, and Jaylen Warren is a quality second back being asked to carry a first back's load.

    That's not a problem you fix by rehiring a coach. That's a construction problem.

    Nothing about the Patriots loss suggests Tomlin would have produced a different result. Last season his Steelers beat New England 21-14 against a Patriots team that turned it over five times. A one-score win propped up by five giveaways is not evidence of a coach who was solving anything.

    The defense, for what it's worth, is holding up its end. Thirteen points allowed to Drake Maye is a good day at the office. The offense is the problem, and the offense was a problem before McCarthy ever took the podium.

    So bring the criticism. McCarthy has earned it. But aim it up the building as well. The failure here isn't that Pittsburgh moved on from Mike Tomlin. It's who they trusted to decide what came next.