Is Mike Tomlin Working More Closely With Bruce Arians? A Hypothesis To Consider
by steeler.lifer on Jan 13, 2009 10:40 PM EST
43 comments
Of all the things about pro sports teams that we as fans are unaware, the working relationship between coaches is perhaps the least known. This is especially true in football, where staffs are so big, and on which defensive and offensive coordinators are in a way head coaches running their own mini-staffs of positional coaches.
I did not see the season-ending game against Cleveland, a meaningless game but one which featured an aggressive commitment to the running game and a rare sighting of the I formation. What I saw Sunday against San Diego was an offense run with precision and aggressiveness the likes of which has been rare in the Bruce Arians' era. It wasn't just the strong commitment to the running game that everyone has remarked on. What we also saw was a quarterback who made quick reads of the defensive alignment and snapped the ball well ahead of the play clock expiring. San Diego's defensive front seemed unprepared for this; their DL was on their heels and rarely were blitzing LBs and DBs able to time their rush with the play clock winding down.
What we have seen over the past two years has been an Arians' offense that has lacked identity and meandered through games with all the urgency of a bloated whale paddling through an oil slick. Tomlin came into the job with a defensive background and clearly gave Arians a lot of rope in his promotion to OC. For most of the subsequent two seasons we have seen the offense deteriorate, operating best when faced with the urgency dictated by score and time remaining, often using no huddle. In last year's playoff game, we saw an offense that only looked good when circumstances were desperate, but that when it got the lead became turgid, passive and unimaginative.
All of a sudden, this offense has an identity again, but it's an identity that reflects Tomlin's aggressive approach to the game and supports, I think for the first time, his early statements after being hired that an offense must (to paraphrase) "attack all parts of the football field". Two examples from Sunday: 1) Steelers leading 21-10, early fourth quarter. Since allowing SD's opening-drive TD, the Steelers D has given up something like 44 net yards (including penalties) and four first downs in eight Chargers' possessions. It's simple, right? Run the ball, get a first down or two, let the defense put the finishing touches on the victory. No. Second and six, Ben throws a bomb to Washington in the end zone. A marginal PI call, first down at the one and TD, 28-10; 2) 28-17 after a quick SD drive, but still the lead is comfy. So you still run the ball, right? No. Ben goes deep to Washington again, almost a great catch. Instead of running the ball, Ben throws twice more to get the first down, including a third-down laser to Ward that could have been picked if he had delayed a second in his delivery or tried to baby it in there. There is nothing in Arians' history over the last two years to suggest he makes those kinds of calls in those two situations. Those are Tomlin plays, if not specifically than as part of the approach he wants his entire team to take.
This is only supposition on my part, but I think in the last few weeks Tomlin has taken a more active part in the game planning and preparation of the Steelers offense. We have seen since Day 1 this season how Tomlin changed the approach to covering punts and kickoffs. It's much easier for a head coach to have an effect on special teams than on any other area, starting by finding the kind of players required for it.. We've also seen the Tomlin influence in tighter secondary play this season. Maybe it's finally showing up on offense. We see it in the aggressive play calling of running play after running play, attacking the defensive front seven. We now see it in the alertness and urgency off the snap. We see it in the willingness to go deep, to attack all parts of the field and use the best offensive asset the Steelers have: Ben's ability to make plays.
It didn't surprise me a bit that the Steelers won (I picked them to win by 17 points, 23-6). But it was literally a shock to see such an unrelentingly aggressive approach on offense, after nearly two years of seeing an Arians' offense mostly wallow around in a miasma of incoherent game planning and execution.
Baltimore is a different story. But I just don't see this Steelers team being denied, the way they are now attacking the game with Tomlinesque aggressiveness and commitment on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
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Tomlinesque
Can I quote you on that. LOL. I feel the same way. Tomlin finally grabbed his balls and put his hand in the offense. I think that Arians approach has always been on the conservative side. When Whisenhunt fueled our offense in 05 to make that playoff run to, and through, Detroit; our offense was anyones call. JB made a huge difference but I remember the trick plays that got us that ring. The Randle El deep bomb was my favorite. Well, we have a like athelete in Dennis Dixon. And, although we haven’t seen much of him, except to close out already won games, he can be a vital part of catching the Ravens off guard. Tomlin most likely knows this and it’s only a matter of this sunday or SB sunday where we’ll get to see some of that. Tomlin needs to keep the approach he took against SD. Tomlin and Arians need to go to a bar together and enjoy some drinks, then go back to the office and have some more. What I’m getting at is that they need to be on the same page, every down. They should know what eachother is constantly thinking. Thinking about a gameplan like the one we saw in SD. Our D can keep us in this game all day. Will our offense make the push to get us to Tampa is my only question.
by Hochuli loves Broccoli on Jan 13, 2009 10:53 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
I don’t want tomlin to have to know what arians is thinking constantly or he’ll turn into a bumbling idiot.
by steelguy99 on Jan 14, 2009 9:48 AM EST up reply actions 1 recs
+1
I'll drink your Milkshake, I'll drink it up!
by drinkyourmilkshake on Jan 14, 2009 9:51 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Agreed
Its funny you posted this, I just read the chat transcript on post gazette.com and here was one of the questions and answers.
jawsteeler: Fake punt? Pooch punt by Ben? Reverse by Holmes? Did Mularkey take over for Arians for a day??
Ed Bouchette: Wicky Wacky, perhaps, but I don’t think it was Arians as much as it was his boss, Mike Tomlin.
You can find this at: http://post-gazette.com/pg/09013/941460-66.stm
I think Mike knew we weren’t going anywhere with the offense playing scared. I never seen so many shifts in the line this year. The FB was in full effect almost every run play. This was Tomlin’s doing for sure – he is becoming more and more sure of himself as a head coach and is starting to exert that confidence of his on the offensive side of the ball. I don’t think BA last long, I think tomlin goes and find someone who he can trust to run his type of offense and his type of play-calling. But if this offense can do this against the ravens then the sixth ring should be a lock.
by tannofsteel84 on Jan 14, 2009 12:20 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
I agree with most of your points here, but I think if we go to the Super Bowl, then Tomlin can’t justify firing Arians, as much as we would all hate it. You can argue that the performance was not up to standards, but it was good enough to get us here.
Guns don't kill people. Lamar Woodley kills people.
by BostonWahoo on Jan 14, 2009 10:40 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Catch-22. Unless, of course we continue to do so well, that he starts to look good to Detroit. We could even grant permission to interview right now.
by Jonny B. on Jan 14, 2009 12:09 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
funny though... Id argue that we ge to the SB in SPITE of arians
And if there’s a god, he will interview and be taken by some other team. And when the steelers play them, and the coaches congratulate each other at the end on the field, Tomlin will surely not be like Belichick is with his ex-pats, pardon the pun.
by SteelersVT on Jan 14, 2009 12:18 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
I think....
Arians played a marathon of Madden 08 over the bye week! In all seriousness, I do believe the o-line spending more off field time together breaking down game film has made all the difference. As an old lineman, knowing what the guy next to you is thinking in any particular situation and how he will block the defensive alignment/blitz will help prevent breakdowns that lead to Ben beat downs. I made a career out of good technique and knowing the play and what the guy next to me would do in any situation. This is the difference.
I wasn't hired for my disposition!
by Burgernazi on Jan 14, 2009 12:24 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
Lets try this again...
The O-line spending off field time together and breaking down game film is a good part of the difference. That and Arians playing a marathon of Madden 08 over the bye week…….
I wasn't hired for my disposition!
by Burgernazi on Jan 14, 2009 12:28 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
As t things look, I think that...
T RatBirds had t luck of beat t Miami Dolphs D, because in the definitive step they as Rodney Harrison pointed out: … Miami lost this game ´cause didn´t pressure enough Flacco, they giving up putting press on him and they let them (stole) t game"…
Finally as Kara Herderson recall in NFL´s Totall Access: …"the OL took confidence of training against their top D" … (That happend with 1, yes ONE week of work, WT hell in t world was BA thinking, but at least it delivers in t PS). But I suppose or it happends that t X factor right now is just that the OL confidence, and coincidentally it looks for most of US that at least by this time the part that "apparently" wons t game feel like was a little bit more t O side of t ball, so in that line of thinking, it will give a boost for their cappacity of take care of the business, at least an inch more, & help to balance the load a little bit, that today is the most important thing, take a little of weight of t D to let them be even more aggresive than they up to date have been, it will help us put in more plays Debo with Woodley & Timmons also I would like to see more of DIXON, even as a RB in options or as a WR, I got t feelling He could be in some next time at t very least a + in t O & ST.
Tomlin also has open a window of opportunity giving some responsabilities to t OL to help to win t game, and obviously more confidence in themselves.
O sales tickets,...and let D rest a little, and D Win Championships.
by YeOldeMexFan on Jan 14, 2009 3:33 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
One thing to keep in mind too is that Mike Tomlin was a Wide Reciever in College and his first two coaching jobs at VMI & Arkansas State were as a Wide Reciever Coach. So while Defense is obviously where he has the majority of coaching experience it is not out of the question that he has some of his own philosophies and schemes that he believe make a succesful offense.
Let’s go Steelers!
I'll drink your Milkshake, I'll drink it up!
by drinkyourmilkshake on Jan 14, 2009 7:00 AM EST reply actions 1 recs
so funny you posted this
during the game I turned to my gf and said the exact same thing
by schnifin on Jan 14, 2009 9:08 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
Arians' future?
If all that supposition is true, then we may not even have to fire Arians. If Tomlin’s willing to sit in and tell him what he expects from him, then perhaps this style can work with us. Ben loves the extra responsibility and as long as we give Willie his fullback back he’s comfortable.
Not to say I’m loving on BA, but if Mike’s keeping his finger on the pulse and keeping the right tone then I can live with it.
by Chicago Steeler on Jan 14, 2009 11:53 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
I hope you're right
I like the offensive philosophy that we all saw on Sunday much better than what we’ve been seeing since mid-September.
We ran the football, repeatedly and passionately which allowed our offensive line to get in a rhythm, and it also allowed for our passing attack to open up the field.
Solid post.
by NoCal-SteelCity on Jan 14, 2009 12:11 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
MT is the man
You have to figure this was his doing. I mean, we’ve NEVER seen BA stick with the run when it works. So either MT is saying hey you do this, or he is sorta coaxing him in the game planning.
I believed MT was working on defense more just due to his nature, but now if this is reallly what I think it is, then we’ve found a hell of a coach. Lets get him a ring thingy.
by Mechem on Jan 14, 2009 12:17 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
Arians?
Should The Steelers win the * ****. Shhhh. I would think they would have a hard time firing BA. If he has performed under Tomlin, then he has done his job: Namely, accepted the guidance of his head coach and exacuted the game-plan.
Remember: It can always be worse.
by WyoFan on Jan 14, 2009 12:41 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
Here's the deal
Good head coaches know how to make their coordinators better. I don’t have time to get deep into this but I may do a fanpost later on it. Some coaches come up through the ranks by piecing together a philosophy on one side of the ball. They may even switch sides along the way. There are others that become students of the game. They study the game as a whole, not in pieces. They want to know the WHY? They ask a lot of questions. They build a philosophy of the GAME, not fixing pieces. I call this DNA.
If a coach can get his DNA into his staff and his philosophy is solid, he will become a good coach. If that DNA gets into the players he will become a great coach. Mike Tomlin’s DNA has been transfered into the defense. It has blended with LeBeau’s strong defensive DNA and made a monster. I believe that Tomlin is a student of the game as a whole. He is working his DNA into the offense. He has everything needed to be a great coach. All that said, if he gets his DNA into the game of Arians there is no reason to look for another coordinator.
I think I just said the same thing Chicago Steeler said…..
"The team that scores the most points wins."
John Madden
(Master of the obvious)
by PixburghArn on Jan 14, 2009 12:51 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
very well put though
I'll drink your Milkshake, I'll drink it up!
by drinkyourmilkshake on Jan 14, 2009 1:27 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
But reading that make me feel like I need to be more descriptive though. :)
hmmm…. note to self include biology reference in next post. Mike Tomlin as a “retro-virus”….
by Chicago Steeler on Jan 14, 2009 2:08 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
I’d prefer Tomlin have higher standards about who he’s going to share his genetic material with.
charity standing orders
by BadMaafala on Jan 14, 2009 1:28 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
That was going to be my exact comment.
by steelguy99 on Jan 14, 2009 2:00 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Fathers across the nation say the same thing
"The team that scores the most points wins."
John Madden
(Master of the obvious)
by PixburghArn on Jan 14, 2009 2:04 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
offense
I think what we saw on the results we saw on Sunday were the result of:
a well rested team
a healthy FWP
an Oline being more cohesive due to more reps and experience together
a SD defense that is not great, good, but not great
This week, I do not expect our Oline to be as dominate as they were a week ago. Even though Ravens D is tired, I do not think we can run the ball on them like we did v. SD. It would be great if we can pound it, but I wouldn’t expect to. But, I do think our OL can play well enough for us to win, and I do think we can run the ball enough to keep them off-balance. I see this game, much like our secong game with them, coming down to our passing game and the play of Big Ben.
Also, I really feel Cam is going to let Flacco loose…I expect to see much more passing in this game (especially on 1st down), with some no-huddle mixed in.
by SteelerMike on Jan 14, 2009 1:38 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
Those points may be right
But clearly they ran a different offense than they did all year.
Also I hope they do unleash Flacco. That’s the only way we win.
"The team that scores the most points wins."
John Madden
(Master of the obvious)
by PixburghArn on Jan 14, 2009 1:40 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Not the ONLY way but the easiest way
"The team that scores the most points wins."
John Madden
(Master of the obvious)
by PixburghArn on Jan 14, 2009 1:41 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
yeah
it will certainly make our day easier if Joe unibrow wants to throw 30 + but otherwise we can take care of them either way.
by Mechem on Jan 14, 2009 3:00 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
he prefers to be called "Bert"
I'll drink your Milkshake, I'll drink it up!
by drinkyourmilkshake on Jan 14, 2009 3:09 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
How ironic….Bert likes pigeons now he’s a black/purple pigeon.
"The team that scores the most points wins."
John Madden
(Master of the obvious)
by PixburghArn on Jan 14, 2009 3:19 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Good post
What is interesting about what this post might suggest is that it puts some actions by the players in a different context. Remember FWP was taken to the woodshed by Tomlin a few weeks ago. The guess is that the reason was not necessarily the possible perception of selfishness (although that was a valid criticism) but that he essentially ‘outed’ Arians. As head coach, Tomlin needs to protect his subordinate coaches from just the type of criticism that they have been (rightfully IMO) subjected to by fans and other outsiders. The O line is spending more time together, unit cohesion is up and so is performance. Not only is the running game more potent but sacks, pressures and hurries are down. I tend to agree with Lifer that there has been an intervention that has been very effective and may usher this team to a championship.
It probably involved both BA and O line coach Z.
Now, if they can internalize these changes and continue to produce there is no reason for these coaches to be disposed of. What bodes poorly for BA is his relative inability, despite being with the organization longer than Tomlin to comprehend the underlying concept and culture of Steeler offensive football. It is not just about running the ball, it is about attack and aggression with running as its foundation fpr reasons both psychological and practical. If Lifer is right than the last two games are not anomalies and the Achilles Heel of this team has been fixed (make room for that sixth trophy).
by RickVa on Jan 14, 2009 5:07 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
Tomlins Vision...
If Arians has gotten a new clear understanding of Tomlins vision of offense, just as Lebeau has for defense…He should stay…why not?? Last weeks game plan was perfect! Plus in all honesty it’s Tomlin’s JOB to put his stamp/over see/Veto all offensive play calling/game planning from the very first game of his coaching tenure. That’s what great Coaches do!!
by footballcafe on Jan 15, 2009 12:03 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
I suspect that ...
Coach Tomlin and BA have been communicating all season long. Coach T may interject more the closer it gets to win or out, but that’s only natural. Some of these comments make it seem like BA has been running amok for the season and Coach T finally reigned him in. Good leaders don’t need to do all their leading stage front and center.
There are many reasons why the Steelers lost all those games [only 4 for gosh sakes] and many folks are responsible or played a role in things that went bad. The team is tremendously better the last few weeks because everyone is back healthy, opponent defenses can’t assume risk as easily and with all players back, the team is "firing on all cylinders.’
As to firing BA — if Coach T has invested in BA and developed him so that he fully understands the vision, why fire him? Coach T doesn’t seem to be the kind of guy who throws away good meat because of a little excess fat.
by tenthmtnman on Jan 15, 2009 8:37 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
My goodness,
Guys, I mentioned all of this weeks ago but most of you kept saying fire Arians. It takes time to get to know your team. Especially O-line. These guys need a nuturing style of coeching that is strong but mostly patient, I also mention that coach T and Arians would sit down for coffe and discuss some offense related issues. Maybe that happpend.
Lastly, I love and repect all Steelers fans that blog in.But I have to say some of you (you know who you are) don’t really know a thing about coaching or development on the fly or understanding that when you panic, there is never a chance of going to the playoffs let alone AFC championship game. You have to continue a belief to your players that the coaching is top rate, your coaching personnel is solid , and the play calling will reap benefits.
Please do not be angry with me . Just take a look at self.
You thoughts. Go Steelers!
by C-Mac on Jan 15, 2009 9:51 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
I agree most of us “don’t really know a thing about coaching or development on the fly”, but it’s presumptious to say that anyone does unless they’ve done it at a high level. I know we’ve got some High School coaches that post, and I respect their opinions as they have more experience than me.
We’re bloggers and we have uneducated opinions, however I will argue that you find people that research and care about knowing football here. There are certain things that can be discerned even at the fan level. Such as don’t clam up and run twice up the gut, and then a quarterback sweep when you’re up less than a field goal with 3 minutes less in a playoff game.
An offensive coordinator has many jobs, and even if we’re winning it doesn’t mean he’s good at all of them. BA certainly has made bad decisions and probably will continue to make bad decisions. You can’t tell me that at the beginning of this year Colon was a better tackle then Starks. I may not be paid to do this, but I watch the games as close as anyone and it’s not idiotic of me to judge BA on making that decision.
I ain’t mad at you C-Mac, but simply trying to point out that you’re kinda like the pot calling the kettle black. Why do you have special knowledge that we don’t?
by Chicago Steeler on Jan 15, 2009 11:35 AM EST up reply actions 1 recs
In defense of C-Mac
He’s not saying that people that don’t coach can’t see some obvious things. It does however give you a different perspective of what it takes to runa team when you coach at just about any level. It is mind numbing to coach a game that is tightly contested. You sometimes do things that look like they don’t make any sense at all, but if you are standing on the sidelines it seems to make great sense at the time.
What he’s saying is coaching in itself is not an easy thing to do. coaching in crunsh time is even harder. I have never coached beyond some college level but I can imagine what it must be like on an NFL sideline.
Even the best make descisions that are easily criticized, but the best don’t allow that to stop their train. There are plenty of things that don’t change from pee wee to the NFL. I have had NFL coaches tell me that they take advice from high school coaches. There are great minds at the high school level. Even if they couldn’t coach in the NFL some of their wisdom will work at that level. I can’t do this justice in a blog, but I hope this clarifies a little.
C-Mac…did I at least touch on what you are trying to say or did I babble? I know what I’m trying to say but I don’t know if I effectively said it.
"The team that scores the most points wins."
John Madden
(Master of the obvious)
by PixburghArn on Jan 15, 2009 11:46 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
True true, but
I get that decisions made under pressure are much different then a decision you get to take your time on and has few consequences. However some people excel in that position and some don’t. And while the hindsight being 20/20 you can question how some coaches react in those pressure situations.
by Chicago Steeler on Jan 15, 2009 12:39 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
In defense of hating Arians
There are some around here who were calling for Arians’ head not when things were going poorly (aka Eagles game), but when things were going “well” (Ben and Willie at the top of the league in stats). I’m sure there are a lot of intricacies to coaching/coordinating that I don’t know about and can’t see on the field. Clearly Ben has been a major proponent of Arians for the last 2 years, so he must be doing something right.
However, what are the central objectives of an offensive coordinator? Among the most important things he can do are developing gameplans that best use his team’s strengths and exploit opposing teams’ weaknesses, working within those gameplans (and adjusting them) for effective playcalling in game situations, and identifying areas of exceution that need to be improved throughout the year and for a given gameplan.
That was a mouthful, but my point is that there have been major breakdowns in all three of those areas in the past 2 years he has been coordinator. We know the OL is bad, but he has done very little before the last few weeks to cover up it’s deficiencies. He has consistently run out of 2 TE sets with two TE’s that are much better at catching than blocking, and contiually ignores TE’s and RB’s in the passing game plan. We played several teams with beat up DT’s (Titans, Colts) and couldn’t run on them worth a damn, but we ran all over a decent Chargers run defense TWICE. How does that happen? I’ll tell you: shitty zone blocking that lets 265 lb Eric Foster and Jason Jones out manuever Chris Kemoeatu. Ridiculous. He obviously has not adjusted his plan when it’s not working; there have been several games in which the offense did almost nothing productive, but he kept running the same plays. Also, should professional football players be able to run a screen? Why is it so difficult for us to do this? Maybe our players suck at them, but we should still be able to practice it until they get it right. I’m not putting this all on Arians, but he should get at least some of the blame. Maybe this is a good reason to fire Zeirlien as well.
There are plenty of coordinators around the league that do most of these central objectives on a fairly regular basis while keeping their offense from being malnourished or self destructing or whatever, which leads me to think that no matter what, we should be able to do better than Arians.
And if by nourishing the team or whatever you mean player development, well, if that’s part of his job, Arians must suck at that, too. Ben developed with Whis at OC, and everyone else on offense has gotten worse or just not developed. I can’t name one player who has gotten better. Miller looks bored. Parker’s average has gone down in each year. No one has stepped up in the WR corps. The line’s a mess because we haven’t used high draft picks there, but the promising lower picks we’ve gotten (Starks, Essex, Colon, Kemo, Stapleton) probably aren’t even average OL’s.
I’m not saying panic, I’m saying we should have calmly fired him last off-season because the offense was inconsistent and poorly coached last year against bad defenses, and it’s inconsistent and poorly coached this year against good defenses. Well, again I say we should fire him after this season – I don’t care if we win 3 Super Bowls this year, the offense still sucks.
charity standing orders
by BadMaafala on Jan 15, 2009 12:52 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
And if we win a superbowl and then fire our OC, you can bet all the marbles that the next OC will work his butt off.
by steelguy99 on Jan 15, 2009 1:01 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Dilfer again?
Kinda like letting Trent Dilfer go after the Ravens won. They knew that they were winning not because of him, but just with him. To be fair this didn’t end up helping out much, but it’s a similar situation.
by Chicago Steeler on Jan 15, 2009 2:34 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Arians future
I’ve generally agreed with BadMaafala about Arians. I advocated his firing a year ago because I didn’t envision the offense getting better in 08, and that has been the case. The offense was average last year despite a great season from Ben (and others), and has declined into mediocrity most of this season. The kind of performance we saw vs. San Diego just underlines what this team is capable of doing with the ball. Even so, even in the victory, we saw examples of the X’s and O’s of Arians’ playbook not coinciding with the talent those X’s and O’s represent (ie, Carey Davis, not Gary Russell getting the ball at the goal line; Carey Davis, not Mewelde Moore, catching passes out of the backfield). I would disagree with Bad about Heath Miller looking bored; he is just a non-demonstrative player who is criminally under-utilized. Fortunately for us, he doesn’t have the ego of a Jeremy Shockey or Kellen Winslow Jr, and go to the media to whine about it. And I think Nate Washington has improved considerably over the past two years and is now a very reliable and dangerous WR who could end up being one of the heroes this Sunday. He’ll be open all day against the banged up Ravens’ secondary.
Tomlin has shown his leadership publicly and behind the scenes by committing himself to work with the people he has. He has not panicked, he has kept people that he could have fired, he has shown faith in everyone’s ability to get the job done. If they win a Super Bowl, then it can be fairly said that everyone did their job, plus a little more.
But even with a SB ring, I think Tomlin will make some changes. Change is a fact of life and must be embraced, win or lose. QB coach Ken Anderson will be 60 years old next month. Arians is 56. Coach Z might still have to pay the price for his email shenanigans early in the season, and in general being responsible for the worst-performing unit on the team. It might be tough for Tomlin to fire people from a winning team, but there’s always a way to put a different spin on things. Arians might “find” a college opening for his golden years, Anderson could just up and retire.
The job as offensive coordinator would be a huge plum for dozens of capable candidates. For example, I know a little bit about a guy named Kent Austin, a former Ole Miss QB who had playing and coaching success (as an OC and head coach) in the CFL, then did a great job this past season as offensive coordinator at his alma mater under Houston Nutt. Mississippi had a very good balanced offense in the SEC, Austin developed their young QB and they capped off the season by hammering Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl. I have no doubt this guy (45 years old) could be successful in the NFL, as either a QB coach or right off the bat as an OC. There are undoubtedly dozens of other guys WITH experience in the NFL who would be slathering to join a SB team with a dynamic young head coach, a young established QB and an arsenal of talented offensive weapons. There are good people available, some of them even younger than Tomlin. Houston hired 27-year-old Kyle Shanahan as their QB coach/offensive coordinator this past season and the Texans were terrific offensively despite losing their No. 1 QB for a big part of the season.
For now, I don’t really care who or what is responsible for the recent transformation of the offense. It’s intriguing to try to analyze or guess why, but the bottom line is that it’s working. I don’t see any reason why it can’t continue to work for two more games. This Sunday, I think the Steelers hit hard and fast and win by two touchdowns, 24-10.
by steeler.lifer on Jan 15, 2009 11:51 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
agree here
i have been as worried as anyone about our offensive coaching staff, esp. Z. But, with our success this season, I cannot complain. Plus, there’s always the chance of some of them moving on, or just getting replaced. I am almost as concerned about who could possibly succeed LeBeau at this point.
by tkired on Jan 16, 2009 6:41 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
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