The Steelers are bad.

Prehistoric offense. Rotten defense that costs $163 million. Old and getting older. Stars fading fast. Awful decisions piling up.

It’s time to form a narrative. That narrative is: It’s not Mike Tomlin’s fault.

That’s the vibe, especially on the national front.

There are several forks in that road: “The Steelers would do Tomlin a favor by letting him go.” “He’d get another job in five minutes.” “The Steelers never got him a quarterback.”

I’d love to see Tomlin get hired by, say, the New York Giants. He’d fail miserably, further expose himself as a fraud, and mangle Jaxson Dart, their promising young quarterback. Dart would turn into Duck.

It seems the narrative is affected greatly by hesitance to criticize the NFL’s preeminent Black coach.

But the truth is that nobody’s ever been more at fault for anything than Tomlin is at fault for everything that’s wrong with the Steelers.

Tomlin is the head coach. He’s the de facto defensive coordinator. He’s responsible for the whole Neanderthal rock-fight outlook that makes the Steelers entirely unwatchable.

He’s got final say on personnel decisions, including the draft. He’s responsible for taking quarterback Kenny Pickett in 2022’s first round, a move that set the Steelers back years.

He’s got the worst coaching staff in football because he won’t employ anyone who can challenge him. (See Arians, Bruce and LeBeau, Dick.)

I defy anyone to specify one thing wrong with the Steelers that isn’t Tomlin’s fault. Everything trickles back to him. Tomlin is a victim of nothing but his own incompetence.

But wait, there’s more:

Tomlin has never been a good coach.

Tomlin has coached 18 NFL seasons prior to this one. He’s won a playoff game in four of those.

He hasn’t won a playoff game in the last eight seasons.

He won a Super Bowl with Bill Cowher’s players, leaders and culture. That becomes more evident the further away the Steelers get.

Tomlin has assembled lesser teams.

He hasn’t developed new leaders.

The culture has disintegrated under his watch.

Tomlin hasn’t been able to create anything on his own besides mediocrity.

Tomlin isn’t just responsible for the Steelers’ current state.

He’s to blame for the organization’s entire decline.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. In this case, it also ruined absolutely.

Tomlin’s oft-cited saving grace is never having a losing season.

But that’s done more bad than good. It’s concealed fault and flaw. It’s provided a low bar to keep reaching.

That’s more Ben Roethlisberger’s streak, anyway. It actually started in Roethlisberger’s rookie season, three years before Tomlin took over.

We get told that Tomlin’s a great coach, the description coming in empty platitudes the man himself might author: “His players love him.” “You can’t ever count out a Tomlin team.” Any overachievement is credited to him, any stumble deflected. His defensive aptitude is often cited.

But these Steelers rank fifth from bottom in total defense.

Perhaps his players loving him isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Nobody ever quite defines what makes Tomlin a great coach. He’s great just because.

Meantime, the next late-season collapse or disheartening loss to an underdog is just around the corner.

The former is a latter-day Tomlin trademark: Started 10-3 last year, lost the last five games. 11-0 in 2020, lost five of six to finish. Started 8-5 in 2019, finished 8-8 and out of the playoffs. Were 7-2-1 in 2018, finished 9-6-1 and out of the playoffs.

But his players love him.

The Steelers are bad. It’s 100% Tomlin’s fault. He should be fired, but won’t be. The Steelers aren’t lucky to have him. He’s fortunate they didn’t fire him long ago. Any other NFL franchise would. The Steelers don’t because of tradition. They prefer stability to success.

Start speaking unpleasant truth.

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