Growing up in Pittsburgh during the early years of Tomlin’s career, I learned to discount a significant portion of his criticism as being offered in bad faith. However, Tomlin has never claimed that he isn’t a legitimate target in other contexts—he is an NFL coach. It is an uncomfortable drought for a team with six Super Bowl championships that he hasn’t won a playoff game in six years. He’s made some genuinely puzzling hiring choices, the most notorious of which still plagues the Steelers today. The cries for Tomlin to fire offensive coordinator Matt Canada—who in his three years on the job has failed to produce a 400-yard performance—have gotten so loud that FIRE CANADA signs can be seen at sports events that have nothing to do with football.

It’s hard to imagine that if the Steelers hired one of the many competent offensive coaches who occasionally have the ability to orchestrate an offensive explosion, they wouldn’t move the ball better and wouldn’t need to overcome yardage deficits to win every game.

The Steelers employ a collaborative roster-building approach, and Tomlin’s influence is evident throughout the team, to the point where his exceptional coaching is required. One of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL, Kenny Pickett is a second-year Pitt alum, and Tomlin played a part in the Steelers giving him the keys. Naturally, some of the credit for keeping the Steelers in games should go to Tomlin, who has made it possible for Pickett to become an oddball superstar in the fourth quarter of close games. Tomlin is the one who owns that the Steelers are not good in every way. He also acknowledges their propensity to wait until they are close enough to strike before striking.

Still, this is a really bad team that Tomlin helped assemble. The Steelers rank 27th on defense and 26th on offense in yards per play. Their plus-10 turnover margin, which ties them for the best in the league, is their savior. The Steelers have an additional edge in the automatic Chris Boswell, who has helped them win the majority of their games. Tomlin and the front office put together a group that ought to be quite adept at forcing turnovers. (One of the best sack-getters in league history, outside linebacker T.J. Watt, is the highest-paid player.) However, the fact remains that the Steelers, who have one ofthe worst defenses and offenses in the league, have been incredibly fortunate to win six of first nine.

Still, those victories matter. It is improbable that the Steelers will finish 11–6 or 12–5 and lose the yardage war in all 17 games. They’ll eventually have to play well in order to maintain their success. That might not be in them. However, Tomlin’s main point is that the Steelers will almost certainly be involved in the NFL playoffs until the very last week of the regular season, if not later. In Tomlin’s sixteen and a half years, the Steelers have only played one game while out of the playoff picture, and that was back in 2012. How the 2023 Steelers have achieved this seemingly inexplicable success is a fair question to pose. But a far better question in regards to Tomlin.