by Earlier this month, Mike Tomlin was asked what he learned about his receivers when the group’s star George Pickens was sidelined with an injury. It wasn’t the first time Tomlin’s team was questioned this season, and it likely won’t be the last. However, as always, the Pittsburgh Steelers head coach expressed his confidence in his players. “We believe in our group. I have said this repeatedly and maybe you will start to believe me,” he replied.
Related: Why can’t NFL players hold on to the ball before scoring touchdowns?
“We have a lot of people who want to be the reason for our success,” the 52-year-old continued. The message pointed out that trust is a key pillar of his coaching style, as Tomlin might as well have been speaking in preseason when asked about the dangers of a perceived battle between Russell Wilson and Justin Fields for the right to be the Steelers’ starting quarterback to be. The uplifting power of Tomlin’s confidence remains the same, whether for a backup wideout or for Fields in a crucial fourth-and-short moment. If you join the Steelers, you’ll get better. It’s that simple truth that helped earn another trip to the postseason while continuing Tomlin’s historic streak of never having a losing season in nearly 20 years as the Steelers’ head coach.
Pittsburgh is back in the playoffs after Miami and Indianapolis quietly exited the race on Sunday, despite doubts about Wilson and Fields, despite a lack of stars at offensive skill positions and despite a tight schedule. Given his immense production, Tomlin’s plan at quarterback could have been trusted from the start, even when Fields, the preseason loser, started Week 1 in place of the injured Wilson.
Ultimately, trust in Tomlin usually pays off. Keith Butler, the Steelers’ defensive coordinator from 2015 to 2022, explains both his career-changing experiences working with a newly minted 24-year-old college assistant who is 16 years his junior. “My history with Mike goes way back before the Steelers,” Butler says, taking the opportunity to share his story with his great friend. “When I left the Seahawks, I didn’t want to travel all over the country with my family to train. That’s why I thought about spending my career at the University of Memphis. There were people who had just graduated and helped the coaching staff get into the business as graduate assistants. Mike did that with us and even as [graduate assistant] I thought he did a good job learning from the staff. He was willing to learn.”
From his first steps as a coach, Tomlin distinguished himself as a leader. The pair then reunited, with Butler coaching the linebackers when Pittsburgh selected Tomlin as head coach in 2007. In his second season, their journey reached an unparalleled peak by winning Super Bowl XLIII.
Heath Miller, who won his second ring with the Steelers in this game, explains how Tomlin keeps his heart and mind in check in the locker room.
“Coach Tomlin has that level of confidence,” the former tight end says, “and that carries over to everyone on the roster.” When you know the coach has trust and belief in you, that’s a huge success.
“He is open and honest about what he expects from his players. He always finds ways to motivate people. And it’s different every year. This varies from person to person. He’s a really good people person, so he can get to know people and know what buttons might work on this guy and what buttons he needs to push on another guy to motivate him, keep him hungry, and keep him on his toes. “It’s not easy.”
Things were certainly different in Pittsburgh this year. Several seasons of soul-searching in the post-Ben Roethlisberger era led to Tomlin returning to his defensive roots. With a placeholder in Kenny Pickett at quarterback, he turned to TJ Watt and a methodically rebuilt defensive force to get by. The offense was all but mothballed and since then, Tomlin’s typically explosive Steelers have reverted to the more conservative ideology that won Bill Cowher in the 2005 season and Tomlin the Super Bowl three years later.
Pittsburgh simply needed a capable quarterback to put the offense in position to win games instead of treading water. The cynicism was understandable considering Tomlin hadn’t played quarterback whisperer in his first 15 seasons. Then came Pickett. It’s a minor miracle that the current Eagles backup threw 13 touchdowns and 13 interceptions with a dismal QB rating of 78.7 while also producing six fourth-quarter comeback wins while posting a 14-10 record in Pittsburgh set up. These strange figures suggest that Pickett has incredible confidence despite his significantly limited ability to throw the ball.
The man who helped inspire that belief and extract every drop of Pickett’s talent was certainly Tomlin. The idea that he could do the same for Wilson, a faded Super Bowl-winning quarterback who still has tons of throwing power, becomes less strange when viewed through the lens of Pickett’s often technically dismal game on occasion also achieved incredible fame.
You could say Tomlin restored a fair amount of Wilson’s confidence. That’s an essential foundation for the Steelers as they not only look to make up the January numbers where they’ve failed so often lately – their last postseason win came against the Chiefs in 2017 when Alex Smith was still the quarterback of Kansas City, and Pittsburgh have since lost five straight postseason games. Tomlin’s soft defense-first reset and the return of Pickens to correct recent scoring woes will be crucial as they try to clinch the AFC North title on Saturday. A win over Baltimore would boost confidence even further as the team is, as Miller puts it, “battle tested and ready” for the postseason.
