Tim Benz: If Mike Tomlin is annoyed by media questions, here's 1 we'd gladly stop asking

Mike Tomlin told media members that he was annoyed by some of our questions during his weekly press conference on Monday.

Eh, why should this week be any different?

I’m not sure if any of my questions contributed to Tomlin’s level of agitation. If so, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time.

'You guys were annoying me today' - Mike Tomlin pic.twitter.com/ucKkvhLwdw

— Cassidy Wood (@CassidyWoodTV) October 13, 2025

That said, Tomlin didn’t seem to be put off when I asked him about the state of the Steelers’ passing game, and whether it is meeting his level of expectation when the franchise decided to sign Aaron Rodgers this summer.

In fact, he was downright philosophical about it.

“I certainly had an overall vision of what it could look like, but it wasn’t so detailed that I could compare it to our present state,” Tomlin said. “I think sometimes when you’re inflexible from a planning perspective, you’re not adaptable enough to be what you need to be. A lot of ideas that we had about what it would look like have been confirmed, but you really don’t know what you’ve got until you get it.”

Tomlin said part of his analysis has been learning more about Rodgers individually.

“Being around him day to day and that component of it, his experience, what’s natural and fluid for him, the relationships that he’s able to develop with others, all of that’s a component of the equation that could alter the vision,” Tomlin continued. “I’m never too married to a vision. It’s certainly moving in the general direction that I anticipated it doing, but it’s also reasonable to expect that to continue as we push forward.”

When Tomlin mentioned adaptability and flexibility, I followed up by asking what that meant in terms of where the ball should go if DK Metcalf is covered and Calvin Austin is still unavailable because of injury.

“To open people,” Tomlin replied.

Oh. OK. Maybe that was one of the questions that annoyed him.

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To be fair, I think a lot of us in the Pittsburgh media are annoyed that we keep having to ask about a No. 2 wide receiver as well.

However, when you play 60 minutes of football against last-place Cleveland and wide receivers not named “DK Metcalf” total one catch for 12 yards (thanks for that, Roman Wilson), it seems to be a legitimate question.

The Steelers don’t seem to think so. Tomlin, Rodgers, general manager Omar Khan, offensive coordinator Arthur Smith and pretty much any player who has offered a comment since minicamp have insisted the Steelers’ current receiver depth chart is just fine.

Maybe it is — unless Metcalf gets hurt like George Pickens did last year.

Maybe it is — until they start playing teams that are above .500 again, as they will starting after Thursday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Because if Austin isn’t 100% by the time the club plays Green Bay, Indianapolis and the Los Angeles Chargers (with a combined record of 12-4-1), the Steelers are going to need to score a little bit. Metcalf can’t be Rodgers’ only receiving threat down the field outside the numbers.

To the point of the original question, when the Steelers pursued Rodgers in the first place, they couldn’t possibly have done so with the intent of Rodgers averaging an NFL-low 5.4 intended air yards five weeks into the season.

Is that because of a lack of options when Metcalf is covered? Or because the coaches don’t trust the pass protection? Or because they’ve been deploying Darnell Washington and Spencer Anderson in jumbo looks so often?

Yeah, it’s probably all that.

Again, though, the conversation about bolstering receiving options isn’t always reduced to critical commentary about Austin’s ability to be a “true No. 2” or Wilson’s continued inability to emerge at all five games into his second season or faith that Scotty Miller and Ben Skowronek can be anything more than good special teamers.

It’s not always negative.

The conversation is about how much better this offense can potentially be. The conversation is about how this offense can function when it faces better teams if Metcalf is ever absent.

The conversation should be more about who the Steelers can add from the outside now that they are 4-1 and the rest of the division appears to be crippled.

Eye levels should be changing. Hoarding picks in hopes of landing a quarterback in an increasingly less attractive draft class, for a franchise that now could be drafting later than expected, should be less of a priority.

If asking about such topics is annoying, I apologize.

But I’d also imagine that trying to win by throwing the ball just 5.4 yards through the air at a time would be annoying too.

LISTEN: Tim Benz and Joe Rutter discuss what Mike Tomlin had to say during his Monday press conference.