While being hit with adversity, Mike Tomlin has elevated the Steelers to a 7-5 record, keeping his team’s playoff hopes alive.
Mike Tomlin deserves to be a head coach of the year candidate in the NFL. He has been faced with numerous challenges to overcome this season. The Steelers are sitting pretty good at 7-5, currently in wildcard contention. The road to get to this record has been rocky, to say the least. Mike Tomlin has shown this season why he is one of the best head coaches in the league and why Pittsburgh fans should be more than happy to have him.
Just a few seasons ago, this Steelers team was considered to be a powerhouse. They had a thriving “killer B’s” trio in Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, and Le’Veon Bell. Unquestionably the best trio in the NFL statistically, and primed to keep the Steelers as contenders for the near future.
Then it all very suddenly fell apart. Bell’s holdout for a new contract started the breakup. Still, Tomlin carried on coaching, and James Conner came in and showed he can be the man in Pittsburgh. Now Bell is on the struggling New York Jets. Then followed the antics of Antonio Brown. Brown’s disagreements with Ben and Tomlin led to him being traded to Oakland in the offseason, but after more antics, Brown has found himself without a job.
Coming into the 2019 season, the Steelers had questions. Many people were excited to see if Juju Smith-Schuster would live up to the expectations of being a number 1 receiver. With an injury early in the season to end Ben Roethlisberger’s season, Steelers fans were not able to get a great representation of Juju.
He has had some big plays this season, but has been unable to consistently make an impact throughout the season with the changes at quarterback. Tomlin has also had to deal with the inconsistent play of Mason Rudolph throughout the season. Somehow, Mike Tomlin has the Steelers at a winning record with inconsistency at the most important position in all of football.
With injuries to Ben Roethlisberger, James Connor, Juju Smith-Schuster, a suspension to center Maurkice Pouncey, and an undrafted QB in Devlin Hodges as the starter, Mike Tomlin has continued to keep his Steelers team afloat in the AFC. He will look to continue his success this Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals. Tomlin deserves some recognition as a candidate for coach of the year in 2019.