When Mike Tomlin was hired by the Pittsburgh Steelers to replace Bill Cowher following the 2006 season, he inherited a team with a dominating defense and a franchise Quarterback that was one year removed from winning it's fifth Super Bowl title and became just the third person to be named the head coach of the Steelers since 1970. Tomlin's first season saw the Steelers return to the post season before losing to the Jacksonville Jaguars, a loss that was attributed to the team being worn out because of how hard the team was worked during the year beginning with a training camp that was a lot more physical than the players had become accustomed to. Heading into his second season, Tomlin made adjustments to his Camp schedule to help preserve his players health and availability throughout the season, and thus, Camp Cupcake kicked off a 2008 season that saw the Steelers play the toughest schedule in the last 25 years and finish it by bringing the franchise's 6th Lombardi Trophy back to Pittsburgh.
Soon after the Steelers win over Arizona in Super Bowl XLIII, some fans began saying that Mike Tomlin, the youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl, didn't really deserve much credit for the teams sixth Championship because he won it with Bill Cowher's players. While it is true that he won the Super Bowl with Cowher's players, it was only his second year, he still had to show up and coach. To discredit what Tomlin did is to forget that Cowher, A, didn't repeat or even make the playoffs in 2006 and B, only won one title with his players, Tomlin still had to guide that roster to the title. To judge Tomlin's merits as a head coach, it is only fair to see how he holds up as the roster gets filled with more of his own draft picks as Cowher's players retire or get released. Let's compare the starting lineups both of the Steelers Super Bowl Teams under Tomlin to see how much turnover took place between Super Bowl XLIII and Super Bowl XLV.
Starting Lineup for Super Bowl XLIII:
2008 12-4 QB Roethlisberger OFFENSIVE LINE DEFENSIVE LINE LINEBACKERS SECONDARY SPECIAL TEAMS
RB W. Parker LT Starks LDE A. Smith LOLB Woodley LCB Taylor K Reed
WR H. Ward LG Kemoeatu NT C. Hampton LILB Farrior RCB McFadden P Berger
WR S. Holmes C Hartwig RDE B. Keisel RILB Timmons SS Polamalu PR Holmes
TE H. Miller RG Stapleton ROLB Harrison FS Clark KR Russell
TE M. Spaeth RT Colon
Starting Lineup for Super Bowl XLV
YEAR RECORD SKILL POSITION OFFENSIVE LINE DEFENSIVE LINE LINEBACKERS SECONDARY SPECIAL TEAMS
2010 12-4 QB Roethlisberger LT Scott LDE Hood LOLB Woodley LCB McFadden K Reed
RB Mendenhall LG Kemoeatu NT Hampton LILB Farrior RCB Taylor P Kapinos
WR Wallace C Legursky RDE Keisel RILB Timmons SS Polamalu PR Brown
WR Ward RG Foster ROLB Harrison FS Clark KR Sanders
TE Miller RT Adams
TE Spaeth
The starting lineup of the Super Bowl XLIII was predominately made up of Cowher's players, with only 4 players, Timmon, Woodley, Berger and Russell being brought in by Tomlin, but by Super Bowl XLV, the number of Tomlin players who started in that game, including special teams, had jumped to ten. The Steelers lost Super Bowl XLV, could those people who said Tomlin won because of Cowher's players be right? There are only 11 Cowher players left on the 53 man roster, and with the very real possibility of 3 of them not being back next year this is definitely Tomlin's team, and his future success is going to be based on his ability to draft.
In Tomlin's first three drafts, he and Kevin Colbert drafted 24 players and only six of them remain on the roster as of today, with the very real possibility that two of them are probably not going to be back next year leaving only four left from the first three drafts. Half of those players are his first two picks, LaMarr Woodley and Lawerence Timmons, while the other two are Ziggy Hood and Keenan Lewis. That kind of a performance is simply unacceptable when the draft is the way you choose to go about building your team. In Tomlin's last three drafts, he's had more success if you base it on players left on the roster. In those drafts he has selected 26 players with 19 of those players still on the roster including 13 out of the 16 players picked in the '11-'12 drafts.
Tomlin is no longer riding Bill Cowher's coattails, he was left a roster that was stacked with talent because Cowher was good at drafting and signing young undrafted talent and that helped get Tomlin off to a good start, but those players are mostly gone now. This is now Tomlin's team and he is going to have to draft better and more efficiently to get this team back on track. He can't afford to have the kind of failures he had his first three years of the draft. The other thing that he has to have success in is getting contributions from players drafted in rounds 4 through 7 where he has, overall, been terrible. These are the rounds where Super Bowl teams are built and other than Antonio Brown, he has gotten nothing out of the late rounds.
In addition to improving his performance in the draft, Mike Tomlin needs to improve his in game decision making and adjustments based on the talent he has on the field. This is your team Coach Tomlin, you have to know your talent and trust it. When it is fourth and one, you don't attempt a 53 yard field goal when your kicker's range is 50-51 yards or when you ran the ball down the field at 4.4 yards a carry that half. You either go for it at that point or punt, and please, no more fake field goals when you're lining up inside the five. Oh, when your quarterback has cracked ribs and can't throw the ball, you have to pull him out. This is your team Coach Tomlin, but if you keep doing things like this, it may not be your team for too long.
