Mike Tomlin to Steelers fans questioning his job: ‘I understand their frustration… I share it’

Mike Tomlin beamed with the self-assuredness of a man who will presumably put on a gold jacket one day as a Hall of Fame NFL head coach.

Three days after another dispiriting playoff loss ended another underwhelming Pittsburgh Steelers season, Tomlin during his season wrap-up news conference Tuesday was asked about his ability to carry the burden of the franchise’s recent postseason futility.

Building off the metaphor he’s used a week earlier — he “happily totes that baggage” — Tomlin said, “I’ve got big shoulders.”

Moments earlier, late during a half-hour meeting with reporters at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, Tomlin similarly exuded self-confidence when asked what his message would be to other teams that might come calling inquiring about a trade for Tomlin.

“Save your time,” Tomlin said.

But then there was the moment when it was mentioned to Tomlin that there is a not-insignificant portion of his own team’s fan base that believes that after 18 seasons Tomlin is no longer the right man to coach the Steelers. At that point, Tomlin wasn’t quite as cocksure.

“I have no response to that,” Tomlin said, three days after the Steelers lost a fifth consecutive game to close out their season. “I understand the nature of what it is that we do, the attention and criticism that comes with it. As a matter of fact, I embrace it, to be quite honest with you. I enjoy the urgency that comes with what I do and what we do. I don’t make excuses for failure. I own it, but I also feel like I’m capable.”

Mike Tomlin: “There’s football justice. We’re here (at the end of a season), and we’re here for a very tangible reason.” pic.twitter.com/p0saJ7J1Zr

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) January 14, 2025

The offseason less than 72 hours old at that point, Tomlin emphasized that no hard-and-fast decisions had been made about the Steelers’ future, let alone 2025.

In addition to conducting a full-squad team meeting, Tomlin on Monday also met with team president Art Rooney II and general manager Omar Khan. He began exit meetings with individual players Tuesday.

All were part of a quest for answers as to why a season that at one point showed great promise soured so quickly and so starkly. The Steelers fell from 10-3 and in first place to 10-7 and a 28-14 wild-card playoff loss to the team that zoomed past them in the AFC North: their biggest rival, the Baltimore Ravens.

“In this business and game, there’s football justice,” Tomlin said. “You get what you deserve, and so we’re here (at a season wrap-up), and we’re here for really tangible reasons, man. We didn’t evolve in the right ways. We didn’t strike the right chords at the right time, particularly down the stretch, and so we’ve been eliminated from the single-elimination tournament. And so for us, it’s about assessing the reasons why, doing assessment of every component of what it is we do here, and the manner in which we do it.”

Mike Tomlin on if there will be changes to the Steelers coaching staff pic.twitter.com/Ggp3wQXswZ

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) January 14, 2025

It was the eighth consecutive Steelers season that ended without a playoff win and the fourth consecutive that finished with nine or 10 wins. Four of the past five seasons have ended with a loss in a wild-card playoff game, the past three of which on the road.

It was enough for a reporter to ask Tomlin if he felt the organization was “stuck” in a malaise.

“‘Stuck’ is kind of a helpless feeling,” he said, “and I don’t know that I feel helpless.

“I don’t know that I’m ready to be overly optimistic or sell optimism to you, either. I’m just acknowledging what transpired and what has to happen and what is beginning to happen and acknowledging the complexity and the amount of work that’s ahead of us. Certainly feel capable, but definitely doesn’t feel in the mood for optimism or the selling of optimism. I don’t know that that’s appropriate.”

Mike Tomlin on the meeting he had yesterday with Steelers president Art Rooney II pic.twitter.com/ov9KbCs6GD

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) January 14, 2025

Only four of Tomlin’s 18 seasons as Steelers coach have featured a playoff win, and he has only three such wins since a loss in Super Bowl XLV. The Steelers haven’t won a division title since 2020.

From his assistants to the starting quarterback and even in addressing starting players who are about to embark on free agency, Tomlin was characteristically short on specifics and largely complimentary to those with which he is working.

But he didn’t rule out changes, either.

“We have had similar results. Rest assured that we’re not doing the same things hoping for a different result,” Tomlin said. “We have adapted. We have altered our approach, and we will continue because we’re not getting what we seek and that’s the ‘confetti game.’ It’s to be world champs.

“Our goals are really clear. It’s also really clear that we’re falling short of it and falling short of it in a consistent way.”