Is Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin in the hot seat in Pittsburgh?

Even among casual football fans, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is known throughout league. In his early years, he developed a reputation as a young coach who was never phased by big moments and never let his emotions show.

In recent years, however, that persona of Tomlin has gradually been changing.

Tomlin took over for the great Bill Cowher as the Steelers head coach in 2007. During his tenure in Pittsburgh, Coach Tomlin has 8 seasons of 10 or more wins and zero seasons with a losing record.

So how is Mike Tomlin in the hot seat?

The Rooney family and Steelers Nation alike pride themselves of being one of the nation’s best football franchises. Winning is part of the culture in Pittsburgh, and the Steelers have done it as much as any team in the league.

Lately, however, things haven’t been going according to plan.

The Steelers fell apart last season. Where at one point Pittsburgh seemed like a lock to make the playoffs, they crumbled in the second half of the season. It started by the Steelers losing three consecutive games to the Broncos, the Chargers, and (of all teams) the Raiders. When the Steelers lost a close game against the Saints two weeks later, they ultimately relied on a win a against the Bengals and a Browns win against the Ravens to get them into the playoffs. Of course, we all know how that turned out.

Fans have been getting more and more frustrated with Mike Tomlin’s inability to control the game against bad opponents. The Steelers tied the Browns in week one dropped a must-win game to the Raiders that would have ultimately put them in the playoffs.

There were also major concerns surrounding Mike Tomlin in how he handles the locker room. For the past two years, the Steelers locker room has been in shambles, and their players have constantly been in the news for all the wrong reasons.

Mike Tomlin gave Antonio Brown a simple slap on the wrist for the Facebook Live incident, and allowed behaviors to spiral out of control. Great football players like Brown and Le’Veon Bell started becoming cancerous to the team, and caused division in the locker room. More and more incidents began to stack up, and Tomlin failed to put an end to it.

There’s no doubt the Rooney family prides themselves of being the only NFL franchise to have just three head coaches since 1969, but Tomlin is beginning to put them in a difficult situation.

Honestly, I think there is very little chance that Mike Tomlin gets the boot. However, he will need to tighten up the reigns by controlling the locker room and closing out games if he wants to continue coaching in Pittsburgh.