Despite playing a game of musical chairs at the quarterback position all year, the Pittsburgh Steelers were surprisingly competitive in 2023. However, their season came to a decisive end on Monday.
Mike Tomlin abruptly leaves press conference after Steelers’ Wild Card loss to Bills
Mike Tomlin shows more urgency in his postgame presser than his team did against the Bills
The team’s 31-17 wild card loss to the Buffalo Bills brought even more playoff heartbreak for the Steelers. It also sparked questions about the future of head coach Mike Tomlin, who is set to enter the final year of his contract with the organization.
In fact, when the topic came up at his postgame presser, the 51-year-old had only one answer.
He left.
While Tomlin did not address his future after the loss in Buffalo, one of his players did. Veteran defensive tackle Cameron Heyward, who spent his entire 13-year career in Pittsburgh, said that “I don’t want to play for any other coach.”
The longest-tenured head coach in the NFL after the Patriots and Bill Belichick announced their mutual parting of the ways last week, Tomlin has enjoyed plenty of success in his 17 seasons in Pittsburgh. With him at the helm, the Steelers won a Super Bowl, seven division titles, and qualified for the playoffs 11 times.
They also never finished a single regular season below .500, something. Not even the aforementioned Belichick accomplished a feat like that during his legendary run in New England.
The playoffs, however, are a different story for Tomlin.
Following their defeat in snowy Buffalo, his Steelers have now lost each of their last five postseason contests and have not celebrated a win in the tournament in seven straight years. Their last W came in the 2016 divisional round, when they outlasted the Chiefs 18-16 to set up an unsuccessful trip to the AFC Championship.
Since then, it’s been playoff disappointment throughout for the storied organization. Not all of the blame for that falls directly on the head coach, but he is still the one constant and ultimately responsible.
His job status coming into question is only a natural consequence of that. Just don’t expect him to make any comments on the matter.
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