Tim Benz: For Mike Tomlin, the Steelers are about to become his team even more than they have been in the past

As Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin conducted his season-ending press conference, one thing struck me beyond all else.

Now more than ever, this franchise is squarely on Tomlin’s shoulders.

When Tomlin arrived in Pittsburgh, Ben Roethlisberger had already been the starting quarterback for three years, played in two AFC Championship games and won a Super Bowl. Kevin Colbert had already been the top personnel figure in the football operations department for seven years.

Now both are potentially retiring before the start of next season.

With the amount of authority team President Art Rooney II, his father and grandfather have given to their coaches, Tomlin has always been a central figure for the franchise and a public face of it.

Not just during practices and on gameday. Tomlin — like Bill Cowher and Chuck Noll before him — isn’t just the coach, but he is a compass for the direction of the team.

That’s in terms of player cultivation. That’s in terms of advancing the tradition of the logo. Tomlin has always been an authoritative speaker and strong messenger to spread the brand.

Related:

• Mike Tomlin 'optimistic' about what Matt Canada can do if given 2nd year as Steelers offensive coordinator
• Steelers notebook: If Kevin Colbert retires, Mike Tomlin plans to be 'easy person to work with' for next GM

But Roethlisberger was a franchise quarterback. In the NFL these days, that’s almost on the executive level of the masthead. He carried a big personality and hefty influence in the building.

Colbert rarely puts himself in the public eye, but the respect and weight given to him within the Steelers chain of command regarding team construction and depth chart management has always been massive.

By the time Tomlin coaches his next game, though, they might both be gone.

None of these words are to infer that anyone but Tomlin himself has authored his own legacy. But Colbert and Roethlisberger have been co-writers on every chapter. As Tomlin was for much of theirs.

Tomlin is unrelenting in his messaging that every decision within the walls of S. Water St. is a collaborative effort. Trades, signings, draft choices, game plans, coaching hires.

If you listen to Tomlin, no one ever makes an individual decision. Everything is always run through the filter of somebody else on the team. Another coach. Veteran players in leadership positions. Team executives. Scouts.

That way, no one ever gets 100% of the credit, but no one is saddled with all the blame.

With the likes of Colbert and Roethlisberger in the building, that was always believable. And probably smart practice, too.

Not to mention the resources of two veteran coordinators Tomlin was bequeathed from Cowher’s staff in Dick LeBeau and Bruce Arians. And a locker room stacked with booming voices and pervasive presences such as James Farrior, Hines Ward, Troy Polamalu, Larry Foote, Ryan Clark, Casey Hampton, Ike Taylor, Alan Faneca and Aaron Smith.

Soon, Tomlin will be the last man standing. And when it comes to rebuilding the Steelers in the post-Big Ben era, Tomlin is the undeniable admiral on the bridge.

If Matt Canada is kept or fired as offensive coordinator, it won’t be because of what Mason Rudolph wants. That’ll be Tomlin’s decision. If Keith Butler retires as defensive coordinator and Teryl Austin is promoted, it’ll be because Austin is Tomlin’s guy.

If the Steelers draft a mobile quarterback, it’ll be seen as Tomlin fulfilling his vision to finally have one. If the Steelers impulsively draft an irresistibly talented pass rusher or receiver instead of an offensive tackle or defensive end, Colbert won’t be there to say, “We just took the best guy available” and have the media spin that out on Twitter.

The explanation simply will be, “That’s the player Tomlin wanted.”

After the power struggle dynamic between Cowher and Tom Donohoe got so bad that a change needed to be made at the director of football operations position in 1999, you heard a lot of, “Well, Colbert works easily with Bill.”

As years went by, Colbert always seemed able to maintain that push and pull with Cowher, and eventually Tomlin. But over time, Colbert also became his own person in that chair.

Whoever replaces Colbert eventually will as well. But for the first few years, whose say-so do you think will count more when it comes to signing Player X and cutting Player Y? Drafting a wide receiver or an offensive tackle? Trading draft picks for a potential starter on defense from another team or signing someone in free agency as a backup?

Will it be the new guy’s call? Or Tomlin’s? Especially if the new G.M. is a first-timer in the position like current Steelers executives Brandon Hunt or Omar Khan.

Of course, it’ll be Tomlin.

Even if Tomlin doesn’t wield that power like a sledgehammer, the perception on the outside will be that he does.

If things go well for the Steelers, fans and media supporters of Tomlin, who bristle at how his successes have been marginalized by the “he only won with Cowher’s players” crew, will quickly say, “Who else are you going to credit now?”

But if things go badly, Tomlin’s supporters won’t be able to retreat to their usual rallying cries of, “Well, how ’bout some blame for Colbert? He’s the one that drafts the players! What about Ben? We all know it’s him that’s calling the plays and saying what receivers should be on the field!”

They won’t even be able to do what just about everybody in Pittsburgh does, and that’s “blame Canada.”

Defense is gassed. They have been out there all night. The offense doing nothing killed them both offensively and defensively. Blame Canada. He needs to be gone by tomorrow. #Steelers #Herewego pic.twitter.com/25jj1oEuRG

— Tom Bartins (@thepitt) January 17, 2022

After all, it was Tomlin who hired Canada as a quarterback coach before 2020, then promoted him to offensive coordinator before 2021, and appears ready to retain him in 2022 despite all the issues that have bogged down the offense.

It’s all on Tomlin now.

And maybe it always has been. And maybe we shouldn’t have so willingly believed Tomlin’s constant insistence of football democracy on the South Side. But then don’t blame us for buying what he has been selling.

The NFL franchise so frequently heralded for stability is finally going through change. The future Hall of Fame quarterback is retiring. The (should be) Hall of Fame general manager may be doing the same after this year’s draft.

Aside from Cameron Heyward, the Farrior/Polamalu type leaders are distant memories. Even the brash and talented attention grabbers like Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown have long since left.

But the Super Bowl-winning coach is still there. And the spotlight is fully on him. Tomlin will be the foundation of the reconstruction and the front-facing representative to answer for how it’s going.

Now more than ever … for better or worse.