The Pittsburgh Steelers have a rough offseason ahead of them in 2025. The franchise had one of its worst ends to the season in recent memory as the team lost its last four games of the regular season, and then suffered another embarrassing loss in the first round of the postseason. The constant postseason struggles and late-season collapses from the Steelers have the fan base extremely frustrated, and a lot of that frustration has been directed at Head Coach Mike Tomlin. Tomlin's coaching philosophies seem to be outdated, and it shows every time the Steelers go up against a top team in the league.
Tomlin seems stubborn and stuck in his ways, which is why it is hard to remain optimistic about the future of the franchise if he is at the helm. The Steelers don't seem to adjust much during games, and they are constantly picked on by others around the league for refusing to change schematically. Most recently, former New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman spoke about the Steelers refusing to change on his podcast, which explains a lot when it comes to how those games usually went against New England.
Steelers legend Ben Roethlisberger addressed these comments from Edelman on the most recent episode of his podcast, Footbahlin With Ben Roethlisberger. The former quarterback seemed to agree with a lot of what Edelman said, and he even shared a revealing conversation he once had with Tomlin while discussing the offense.
"At some point, you have to decide that you're going to throw some different wrinkles at teams," Roethlisberger said. "I mentioned this at one point when we were doing offensive stuff. 'Hey Coach, what if they do this?'" Roethlisberger asked. "'They won't,'" Tomlin replied. "'I'm sorry, what if they do?' So yeah, I just think that's something that the Steelers, they gotta get away from."
Most Steelers fans have known that the Steelers don't often change what they do, especially on the defensive side of the football. That fell apart for them at the end of the 2024 season, as the defense seemed to fall off a cliff. The Steelers have coordinators for each side of the ball, but Tomlin has his hand in the cookie jar when it comes to how the two units play. He loves the run-first philosophy, while relying on the defense to get takeaways. This just isn't a winning formula in today's NFL.
After the collapse at the end of the year in 2024, hopefully Tomlin finally realizes it is time to make some changes. Both coordinators on offense and defense are returning despite them each being under fire at certain points, but Tomlin needs to take a step back and let his coaching staff do their own jobs. His ideology about what winning football is is years behind the rest of the NFL, which has been an issue that has plagued the Steelers for several seasons.
Steelers' Mike Tomlin Doesn't Fit The Mold Of Current NFL Coaches
Many coaches in the league are gurus either on the offensive or defensive side of the football. Tomlin has never fit that mold. His background is on the defensive side of the ball, but he has never been a coach that relies heavily on his own knowledge of the X's and O's of the game. This is why his hiring process has often been criticized.
Tomlin is a motivator and a players coach, which does work, but he needs to bring in higher quality coaches on his own coaching staff that are able to make those crucial adjustments in the middle of a game.
Until the Steelers and Tomlin make some serious adjustments, the team will have trouble when it comes to competing with the better teams in the NFL.
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