When Chuck Noll retired following the 1991 season the Pittsburgh Steelers replaced him with a little-known coach who was only 34 years old. Bill Cowher was only the second Steelers head coach since the merger in 1970 and he held the head coaching job in Pittsburgh for the next 15 years.
In 2005, Cowher led the Steelers to their second Super Bowl under his tenure and their first Super Bowl win since the 1970′s. A year later the Steelers struggled and Cowher retired from coaching. Once again the Steelers replaced their former-coach with a young coach, who wasn’t well-known.
During Tomlin’s first two seasons the Steelers finished first in the AFC North division and they went to the Super Bowl in Tomlin’s second season as head coach. After beating the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl 43 Tomlin became the youngest head coach to ever win a Super Bowl. (Bill Cowher, who led the Steelers to the Super Bowl in 1995, would have held that record, and still would, if the Steelers had won that game.)
In 2009 the Steelers finished third in the division with a 9-7 record, but a year later they were back on top of the division and were back in the Super Bowl. The Steelers lost that Super Bowl to the Green Bay Packers, however, and haven’t won a playoff game since.
Last season, the 2012 NFL season, the Steelers finished 8-8. That is the first non-winning season the Steelers have had under Tomlin as head coach. If the Steelers struggle again in 2013 many are wondering whether or not Tomlin would find himself in danger of losing his job next off-season, but it’s unlikely it would come to that.
The Steelers have had continued success because they don’t make rash decisions. Pittsburgh’s consistency mirrors the consistency of their head coaching. For example; the Cleveland Browns have struggled since returning to the league in 1999. The Brown’s franchise didn’t even exist for three seasons since 1990, but they have had three times the amount of coaches in that span that the Steelers have had since 1970.
One of the reason’s the Steelers remain competitive is that they don’t make rash decisions and firing a coach that has been to two Super Bowls in five years because of one or two seasons would be just that.
After the Steelers lost to the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship in 1997 the Steelers went 22-26 over the next three seasons with two losing seasons and no playoff appearances. They could have fired Cowher then and moved on, but they stayed with him and went to three AFC Championship games over the next five years and won the Super Bowl in 2005.
In fact, during Cowher’s 15 years as Steelers head coach the Steelers finished with a non-winning, or losing, record four times. During Tomlin’s first five years that has happened only once. So, technically, he is on a better pace in terms of having fewer non-winning seasons than Cowher.
Many believe that Tomlin’s early success was based solely on the team that he inherited and now that the team is more of the players that have come in during his tenure that things aren’t looking as good as they did with Cowher. However, if Tomlin can put together a winning season in 2013 and get back to the playoffs much of this talk will subside.
Even if the Steelers finish with another non-winning record in 2013 it’s unlikely to cost Tomlin his job, but his seat may start warming up during next off-season if that happens.
As things stand now Tomlin seems rather safe in his position for at least the next two seasons. And as we all know if the Steelers can stay healthy in 2013, something they couldn’t do last year, it should play a big part in them getting back on track.
So is Mike Tomlin on the hot seat in 2013? I’d say no, but that could all change depending on how the 2013 season plays out.
