Mike Tomlin left the Pittsburgh Steelers the same way he arrived – unheralded and unanticipated.
When Bill Cowher called it a day after the Steelers 2006 season, everyone knew either Russ Grimm or Ken Whisenhunt would get the job. Art Rooney II admitted that he didn’t expect to hire yet Mike Tomlin when he walked in the door, but Tomlin knocked his and Dan Rooney’s socks off.
By the same token, Art Rooney wasn’t expecting Mike Tomlin to step away following the loss to the Texans. But step away he has. Here we review Mike Tomlin’s full legacy as Pittsburgh Steelers head coach, balancing his accomplishments and shortcomings, all framed within their historical context.
Mike Tomlin wearing a Franco Harris jersey. Photo Credit: Fred Vuich, AP via St. Albert Gazette
2007 – 2010: Cementing the Franchise Legacy
Few NFL coaches get handed the keys to a Super Bowl team.
If you think that winning is “simple” for them then please Google Phil Bengtson, Ray Handley and Richie Petitbon. A coach who takes the reins of a Super Bowl-caliber team must do much more than “not mess up.”
As Willie Colon explains, “It’s hard to grab the keys to the Porsche and not crash it.”
In his first season, Mike Tomlin took an underperforming team that had gone 8-8 in 2006 and led them to a 10-6 record and an AFC North Championship.
- Yet his signature moment from 2007 arguably cost him his first playoff loss to the Jaguars.
With just over 10 minutes remaining, Ben Roethlisberger connected with Heath Miller to bring the Steelers within 5 points. Mike Tomlin went for two. Roethlisberger hit Hines Ward bringing narrowing the difference to three.
Except Sean Mahan got flagged for holding. Tomlin didn’t bat an eye and went for two again. But this time, Roethlisberger couldn’t connect.
- The Steelers did score again. But so did the Jaguars who won the game 31 to 29.
The move was controversial at the time, but with social media in its infancy the fan rage muted by 2026 standards.
But by doubling down in going for 2, Mike Tomlin established his legacy as a head coach who would put games in the hands of his players and trust them to deliver with the game on the line.
- That philosophy served him well a year later in Super Bowl XLIII.
With the Arizona Cardinals threatening to take the lead as the first half closed, James Harrison, granted the freedom to freelance by Tomlin and Dick LeBeau, audibled out of his pass rush assignment and dropped into coverage. 100 yards later Harrison authored the longest run in Super Bowl history, putting the Steelers up 17 to 7.
James Harrison’s dramatic interception in Super Bowl XLIII
By the time more points were needed to put Pittsburgh back in the lead, the culture of trust and confidence in one another Tomlin had built proved to be the difference maker, as observed at the time:
the Steelers poise and camaraderie were consistent for four quarters. The men in Black and Gold never lost their belief in themselves nor their faith in one another. When faced with adversity, they persevered, they remained determined. And they did it together. That’s been the case all season.
And that’s what made them Super Bowl champions.
The Steelers 2009 season will and should be remembered for the Super Bowl hangover Tomlin tried and failed to avoid.
- But 2009 revealed something important about Tomlin: His ability to rally a down team.
Memories have faded, but Tomlin’s Steelers never looked worse than they did during 2009’s 5-game losing streak. Yet, Tomlin rallied them for 3 straight wins.
In 2010, the Steelers suffered one of their worst off seasons ever as the word “Midgeville” entered the vernacular. Willie Colon was lost for the season in June. With Ben Roethlisberger suspended for 4 games, Tomlin brought Byron Leftwich back to Pittsburgh. Leftwich broke his leg in preseason.
By week, 2 Mike Tomlin was playing Charlie Batch, effectively his 4th string quarterback, and traveling to Tennessee, starting UDFA Steve McLeodon over Casey Hampton and authoring arguably the greatest defensive performance in franchise history.
- By the time 2010 ended, the Steelers were in their 3 Super Bowl in 6 years.
Super Bowl XLV ended with a loss , but that didn’t change the fact that as new decade began, it was no longer a question of 4 Super Bowls for Chuck Noll and 1 for Bill Cowher, it was 6 Super Bowls for the Pittsburgh Steelers, as Kevin Colbert observed.
2011 – 2017: The Under Appreciated Rebuild
Mike Tomlin isn’t the only coach to take over a Super Bowl team and win another Lombardi. But continuing to win for more a couple-of-three seasons is much more challenging.
- Just ask Barry Switzer or Mike Martz.
Yet, despite the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement leaving the Steelers in Salary Cap purgatory, Mike Tomlin and Kevin Colbert managed .500 seasons in 2012 and again in 2013 – after a 2-4 start no less. The 2012 season stands out for one simple reason – it contains the only Mike Tomlin-coached game where the Steelers were eliminated from playoff contention.
- By 2014 the Steelers returned to the playoffs, as they did in 2015 and 2016.
As observed elsewhere on this site, the Steelers Killer Bees were too true to their name. Ben Roethlisberger, Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown only played 3 of a possible 7 playoff games together.
The Steelers Killer Bees were too true to their name. Photo Credit: pegitboard.com
(Rhetorical question “How might Chuck Noll have fared had Bradshaw, Franco, Swann and Stallworth been similarly unavailable for his playoff runs?”)
Injuries aside, by the time the Steelers reached the 2016 AFC Championship game, the only three players who remained from the 2008 Super Bowl squad were James Harrison, Ben Roethlisberger and long snapper Greg Warren.
Yes, Tom Brady seared the Steelers that night in New England, but the fact that Mike Tomlin got his team there with three rookies defensive starters, without Cam Heyward in the lineup and with Robert Golden logging 36% of the defensive snaps speaks volumes about his coaching acumen.
Javon Hargrave sacks Tom Brady early in the ’16 AFC Championship. Photo Credit: Charles Krupa, AP via Mercury News.
As badly as another AFC Championship loss to the Patriots stung, the Steelers seemed to be back.
Alas, tragedy would close the Super Bowl window that Mike Tomlin and Kevin Colbert had re-opened 12 games later, when Ryan Shazier fell to the turf paralyzed from the waist down at Paul Brown Stadium.
From there on out, Mike Tomlin would be forced to do more with less.
Interlude: Tomlin’s Warts — Assistant Coaches and Talent Evaluation
And there’s a reason why Tomlin had to do more with less. As Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher did before him, Mike Tomlin had his flaws.
The infamous post-penalty 2-point conversion foreshadowed one of them. Sean Mahan was called for holding, and he’d been hand-picked by Mike Tomlin from Tampa Bay. Mahan traded away at a fire-sale price next September.
- That raised the question on why Tomlin chose to bring Mahan to Pittsburgh in the first place.
Yes, Mike Tomlin managed to pluck Cam Heyward and T.J. Watt at the bottom of the first round. He and his scouts found gems like Antonio Brown and Kelvin Beachum in the 6th and 7th rounds.
But as the Steelers struggled to Re-Load for Ben Roethlisberger, they swung and missed badly as any sober evaluation of their 2018, 2019, and 2020 draft classes reveals. 2021 wasn’t much better, but Salary Cap Armageddon, combined with injuries and surprise retirements, forced them to reach to fill needs.
D.K. Metcalf burns Terrell Edmunds for a touchdown. Photo Credit: Yahoo.com
This isn’t the sole responsibility of Mike Tomlin, but his voice was at the ver least, the first among equals in the draft war room.
- In contrast, Mike Tomlin did have a free hand in picking assistant coaches.
Let’s be objective and acknowledge Mike Munchak, Danny Smith, Karl Dunbar, Richard Mann, Al Everest and, arguably, Todd Haley as good hires.
But those were balanced out by the Bob Ligasheskys, Amos Joness, Carnell Lakes and Joey Porter Sr’s (anyone notice how Bud Dupree blossomed when Keith Butler returned to the linebackers room?) Tomlin changed offensive line coaches not named Munchak the way everyone else changes underwear.
His signature attempt to cultivate an innovative coaching talent was Matt Canada. Canada holds the infamous distinction of being the only Steelers coordinator to be fired mid-season in the modern era.
Selecting assistant coaches wasn’t Tomin’s strength, and this weakness weighed him down.
2018 – 2025 – Doing More with Less
The post-Shazier/playoff drought phase of Tomlin tenure will remain a lightning rod for generations. So be it.
- Here the focus is on what Mike Tomlin achieved as instead of what he failed to achieve.
Three examples highlight Tomlin’s skill as both a leader and as a football tactician: Quarterbacks, the 2021 season and the 2025 season.
Quarterbacks
The Steelers franchise deserves all the criticism it gets for bungling the post-Roethlisberger transition. I can’t prove it, but I suspect Mike Tomlin wanted to draft Lamar Jackson but got beaten to the punch.
Be that as it may, following Roethlisberger’s injury in 2019, Mason Rudolph, Devlin Hodges, Mitch Trubisky, Kenny Pickett, Justin Fields, Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers all started for the Steelers.
Mitch Trubisky, Kenny Pickett and Mason Rudolph. Photo Credit: Brandon Sloter / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images and The Athletic.)
Do Coach-quarterback records say more about the coach or the QB? Who knows? Either way they yield valuable insights such as:
- Don Shula reached a Super Bowl with David Woodley – Score one for Shula.
- Bill Belichick’s record without Tom Brady is piss poor – draw your own conclusions.
- Joe Gibbs won three Super Bowls with three different QBs – Yeah Joe is underrated.
- Noll & Malone beat Walsh & Montana. Twice – Score one for The Emperor.
Rudolph, Hodges, Tribusiky, Pickett, Fields along with an aging Wilson and an even older Rodgers offer a wide spectrum in terms of talent and pedigree.
- The only one with a losing record in Pittsburgh was Trubisky.
The rest have losing records in their post-Steelers lives, and Hodges, who was .500 as a Steelers starter, couldn’t even secure a spot on another team’s practice squad.
Enough said.
The 2021 Season
We remember Ben Roethlisberger going out with a bang in 2021 after seven 4th quarter comebacks. He gets he lion’s share of the credit for the 9-7-1 finish.
But what we forget ’21 Steelers had an offensive line held together with spit, duct tape and bubble gum and a defensive line that had Cameron Heyward playing alongside career backups and practice squanders.
Few credit Mike Tomlin for keeping that team together. But they should.
The 2025 Season
Mike Tomlin’s Yin and Yang was on full display 2025.
During the off season, Mike Tomlin and Omar Khan took several calculated personnel risks.
One was that the trio of Jalen Ramsey, Darius Slay and Joey Porter Jr. backed by safety Juan Tornhill could deliver the shutdown secondary necessary to combat Joe Burrow’s video game-like passing attack. On offense, they gambled that Roman Wilson would grow into a legit WR No 2.
- Burrow didn’t get a chance to test them, but Joe Flacco did and exposed them.
- Roman Wilson flashed (well, flickered) early on but finished the year inactive.
By season’s end, Mike Tomlin had brought in 3 new defensive backs and moved the pieces around so that only secondary starter was playing in his opening day position. He did something similar at wide receiver adding not one but two cast offs.
Jalen Ramsey sacks Tua Tagovailoa. Photo Credit: Alysia Rubin, Steelers.com
The changes resulted in a team that lost 5 of 7 games to close November at 6-6, to one went 4-1 down the stretch and won the AFC Championship.
Sweet Steelers Symmetry
Early in his tenure, a reader asked Ed Bouchette in a Post-Gazette chat to compare Tomlin to his predecessors. Bouchette opined that Tomlin struck him as a cross between Noll and Cowher.
So there’s something poetic about Mike Tomlin finishing with 193 regular season wins, just as Chuck Noll did. And its fitting that Tomin’s Super Bowl record of 1-1 match’s Bill Cowher’s.
Bill Cowher interviews Mike Tomlin. Photo Credit: Steelers.com
Noll and Cowher boast better post-season percentages, yet Tomlin’s regular season squads never swooned to the depths his predecessors touched.
Thank you Mike Tomlin for 1 Super Bowl, 2 AFC Championships, 8 AFC North Titles, 14 playoff experiences and 193 wins.
Thank you for giving us 19 years of a “winning era.”
