Tim Benz: Hits and misses from James Harrison's newest anti-Mike Tomlin take

Disgruntled ex-Steelers linebacker James Harrison is on his anti-Mike Tomlin kick again.

Watch FS1's "Undisputed" clip below. Then we'll see where he's right and where he's wrong.

"I wouldn't put Mike Tomlin as great because I feel like a great coach
takes good players and does great things with them." — @jharrison9292 pic.twitter.com/wtT2QPHRD9

— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) January 15, 2019

• Regarding Tomlin's relationship with Antonio Brown: Harrison is right when he says Tomlin is too lax when it comes to disciplining players. His take on "certain" guys getting away with too much seems appropriate. So does his reference to "a guy gets an inch and takes a foot." Pointing out Tomlin's "I treat everyone fairly, but not the same" credo is accurate, too.

Heck, Tomlin has admitted as much.

I just wish Harrison showed the guts to say Brown's name out loud, since, you know, that's who Skip Bayless asked him about in the first place.

And since Tomlin let Brown skate on missing meetings this year and the Facebook Live thing, social media content, chewing out teammates and other infractions in years past.

However, Harrison is Brown's media mouthpiece. Harrison has become the Sean Spicer of the South Side. So, he doesn't have the courage to do that. Hence, he just let Shannon Sharpe blurt out "Ben (Roethlisberger)" and let it sit there.

That's not to say I'm naive enough to assume Roethlisberger doesn't get special treatment, as well. I just find it funny Harrison wouldn't at least acknowledge Brown by name despite the fact that Brown was the topic du jour.

• Regarding Le'Veon Bell's skipped walk through before the Jacksonville playoff game: I don't know if Harrison is right or not.

Because I don't know what he meant.

Harrison says "they" made a big deal about that incident, and "they" only made Bell look bad because he was going through his contractual situation.

Who is the "they," James? Do you mean "the media" as "they" in this scenario? Or is the organization "they" here?

Because if you are saying the media only reported the story because it's Bell and we wanted him to look bad, you're wrong.

We reported it because it's newsworthy. And Bell doesn't need any help making himself look bad. He and his agent do a fine job of that without our help.

Now then, if it's the organization Harrison meant, maybe he's onto something.

But if Harrison is so opposed to special treatment, why is he burying the name of the bench player who also allegedly skipped a meeting while he's willing to air out so much other dirty laundry?

• Regarding Tomlin underachieving with a talented roster: Harrison said Tomlin is a good head coach. Not great, because he has great players and hasn't done enough with them.

Can't disagree with Harrison there.

When Harrison expanded and said that the more control that Tomlin gets, "the further they get away from the goal of a Super Bowl," that was direct judgment.

It's frightening for Steelers fans. But I fear he's on point with this one.

• On why the defense isn't better under Tomlin: Let's hold up on that for one second. First, let's point out how funny it is Sharpe referred to himself in the third person during this interview, but he couldn't remember the name of Hall of Famer Dick LeBeau.

OK. Back to Harrison's point on this matter.

Harrison is both right and wrong on this topic. He's right that Tomlin got more involved in the defense once Dick LeBeau left. That's been known for a while now.

But Harrison is suggesting that the defense's stagnation since LeBeau left is a Tomlin-only problem, and that Keith Butler is defensive coordinator in "title only."

That's bogus to me. It absolves Butler too much.

I mean, what's Harrison saying? Is he saying that Tomlin is exclusively responsible for changes such as dropping the outside linebackers more, failing to scheme around Ryan Shazier's absence, going with extra safeties on the field, switching Bud Dupree and T.J. Watt, relying on the down linemen for more of a pass rush, trying to mix zone and man schemes more often?

Butler isn't on board with any of that, James? Some of that worked, some of it didn't. So, I guess the bad stuff is on Tomlin and the good stuff is on Butler.

Also, I wish Harrison would've told us what he thinks Butler would've improved. Would he have just stayed with LeBeau's old schemes which were outdated and failing anyway? Or what specifically would he have done differently from both LeBeau and Tomlin?

As usual, when James Harrison and the FS1 crew speak, I'm left with more questions than answers.

One thing the segment did make clear for me, though, is that this is all Roethlisberger's fault. Thanks for clearing that up, y'all.

Although I do know this: If it was Big Ben throwing the furniture off A.B.'s balcony in Miami, it would have had a better chance of landing in the pool as intended. I remember Brown trying to throw that wide receiver option in Denver.

Not pretty.