Mike Tomlin Tuesday: I’m not a doctor

Once again, it doesn’t seem like a Tuesday unless we are graced with words from Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin from his weekly press conference. Since it is unlikely we will hear from coach Tomlin again until the draft, let’s take a look at some of the most interesting quotes Tomlin has given us this past season.

We’ve experienced several “Throwback Tomlin Tuesday” quotes so far this off-season. So far we have re-lived the following:

A nose guard is like Blockbuster video
We weren’t ready for prime time tonight
So that’s how you lay an egg
We’ve got to make plays

As we continue trough the 2019 season, let’s go back to the first press conference following Ben Roethlisberger going onto the Reserved/Injured List before the Steelers’ Week 3 matchup against the San Francisco 49ers. In his opening statement, coach Tomlin jumped right in to discuss the Steelers’ quarterback situation.

“Obviously we’re disappointed for Ben,” Tomlin started. “From a team perspective, we’ve got a great deal of confidence in Mason [Rudolph].”

In typical fashion, Coach Tomlin chose to focus on the players available on the field rather than his franchise quarterback who was out for the season. After outlining the promotion of Devlin Hodges and the signing of Paxton Lynch to the practice squad, Tomlin moved on to discuss the trade for Minkah Fitzpatrick (which will be addressed next week).

Once opening up the press conference for questions, Tomlin was immediately asked if he knew any specifics about Roethlisberger’s injury.

“I do, but you guys know I try to avoid getting into specifics in this forum,” Tomlin answered. “I’m not a doctor and I think a lot of those things will be confirmed when he gets his surgery.”

Thanks for clearing that up, Mike.

With the benefit of hindsight, this was the first step in Coach Tomlin‘s deflection over the injury with Ben Roethlisberger. At first he claimed to not be a doctor and would wait until things were more confirmed. But as the season rolled on, Tomlin still lacked answers as he claimed to not be privy to the information. But Tomlin was not finished outlining how he expected to report on Roethlisberger‘s progress as they move through the different stages of dealing with the injury and the recovery.

“I’ll probably wait until after that to get into specific details of what they found and the prognosis in terms of recovery. We released some statements yesterday that really kind of outlined our collective sentiments as we sit here right now. And Ben released a statement as well.”

Unfortunately, news beyond the other statements previously released has been scarce. Yes, we got an update that Roethlisberger had his surgery, but the exact procedure was not ever outlined other than saying it was not Tommy John surgery. One thing which has been clear from the beginning, even though news of his injury and progress has been kept private, the hope for a Roethlisberger return in 2020 has always been the main statement.

“He fully intends to come back from this injury and everything we’ve heard, we’re comfortable that that is a strong possibility,” Tomlin concluded.

Four months removed from Ben Roethlisberger going on the IR, the Steelers have pretty much kept the same statement without revealing anything else. The only report on Roethlisberger‘s progress so far is he has a doctors appointment in Los Angeles on February 21 where he hopes to be cleared to begin going through the throwing motion with very light objects.

As for the statements of Roethlisberger making a full recovery, it is the hope of all invested in the Steelers in order for the team to make a run in 2020.