Has Steelers' Head Coach Mike Tomlin Lost Final Control Over Coaching Hires In 2023?

Many observers think Tomlin has the final say over his coaching staff and most head coaches do decide what coordinators stay and who moves on at the end of the season. The Pittsburgh Steelers are one of the opaquest organizations in sports. There are some fundamental truths about the way Pittsburgh does business exasperated by the current situation. One is that the Steelers don’t like to pay people not to work. If they fired Canada that is exactly what would happen.

 Behind closed doors, Tomlin may have wanted to move on from Canada but Art Rooney II could be taking the position that you hired him and he has a year left, so you are stuck with him. In fairness to the coordinator, the last nine games of the season demonstrated offensive improvement, but they were still winning low-scoring games with late improvised drives by Kenny Pickett. The final game of the season against the Cleveland Browns was a very encouraging complete game and the best winning performance by the offense in two years under Canada. That victory may have cemented the remaining season on the coordinator's contract under the premise that the offense could look a lot more like the final game in 2023.

This is not uncharted territory for the Steelers. The legendary Noll had a wildly successful first half of his career followed by a slow decline to mediocrity in the mid-1980s. He was well-liked within the organization, but Dan Rooney was ready to move on when the organization became noncompetitive. Joe Greene saved the organization from itself, by forcing the two men into a room and a compromise with the purge of 1988 that Greene was one of the few assistants to survive.

That compromise allowed the Steelers to return to the playoffs where Noll got to show off his magic one last time and negotiated his exit from Pittsburgh without the team having to fire him. Noll did not want to continue when he first met with Mr. Rooney but after discussion was willing to give up some control for the good of the club and the preservation of his mystique. The incident also birthed the Steelers' reputation for not firing coaches. The question is, did it establish a permanent precedent of organizational control over the coaching staff? 

That decision and experience served the Steelers well when Bill Cowher went into a three-year funk in the late 1990s. Cowher’s assistants were being hired away from him at such a rapid rate, it was easier to justify patience internally. But the patience wasn’t infinite and there was external pressure. Cowher had a deadline and started winning again just in time. The Rooney’s had faith in Cowher to restock his staff and allowed him to rebuild an aging team and it paid off, but his seat got very hot during the process.

The organization decided to stick with Noll and Cowher, and it paid off but there is a different Mr. Rooney in charge this time. Unlike his father, he has spent the majority of his career with the Steelers on the business side and doesn’t seem to have the ability to help Tomlin through his current struggles. This is the longest period the Steelers have gone without winning a playoff game in the modern era. The current Mr. Rooney has to rely on Omar Khan, Andy Weidl and Tomlin to fix it, but he isn't going to allow them to break with tradition and pay coaches to sit at home. 

The NFL is a win-now league but when your games sell out, and you have “winning” seasons with the illusion of being competitive a smart businessperson will be satisfied in the short term. A head coach who is trying to win may not be, but it is bad for business to contradict the boss. 

An important fact to remember is that Tomlin’s contract expires in 2024 when Pickett can potentially sign his first extension. The current Mr. Rooney is a very smart businessman.