Steelers Locker Room In Peril Under Out Of Touch Mike Tomlin

The Pittsburgh Steelers are going through a situation that seems as unprecedented as it is painful to experience. After a hopeful 2023 Week 12 victory following the firing of Matt Canada, the wheels have fallen off the bus, and suddenly, their forward momentum has been halted. Back-to-back losses to two-win teams at this stage of the season are unacceptable on any NFL team, but for the Steelers, it falls so far below the expectations that no one really knows how to feel other than angry and frustrated. Mark Kaboly sees these losses as a result of a much deeper issue lurking in the Steelers' locker room.

Are Steelers Players Losing Interest Under Tomlin?

The Steelers hit a low point in their 2023 Week 13 loss to the Arizona Cardinals, but the silver lining was that the New England Patriots, who had two wins entering Week 14, were waiting. As it turns out, that silver lining was actually a harbinger of doom because the Steelers left that Week 14 contest with a loss that put their playoff hopes on thin ice.

Kaboly joined The PM Team with Poni & Mueller on 93.7 The Fan Friday to talk about how low the 2023 Steelers have fallen following their 21-18 loss to the Patriots. While the losses are certainly concerning, the reason for the fall from grace is what has Kaboly more worried.

"I guess what's a little bit troublesome is the players. This organization, this group of guys, don't seem to be as tight. Don't seem to be as interested as years past."

Considering that Tomlin is supposed to be known as a player's coach who can connect with the locker room on a visceral level, hearing from someone close to the Steelers that the players themselves seem to be losing interest is a horrifying notion in Pittsburgh. Kaboly mentioned Tomlin's rebuild that lasted all of two years, and even then, during what Kaboly called the 8-8 years, there was never the sense that the players were drifting from the mission.

After putting forth his concern about the lack of interest in the Pittsburgh locker room, Kaboly was asked whether he believes that the message from Tomlin is no longer getting through to the men he coaches. Right away, the fact that the question needed to be asked is worrying enough because, during the Tomlin era, one thing you could count on was that the Steelers head coach getting every single ounce out of every player he had.

"Yeah, I don't know about getting through, but I don't think - some of them seem like they're disinterested and that would be something you would never see in the past here. So, I don't know, do you blame that on Tomlin?"

Even as he answered, it was apparent from Kaboly's tone that this was a painful thing to admit. From a fan's perspective, the idea that Tomlin's foundational characteristic as a coach is in question would be devastating, but it has to be all the more awful for someone as close to the situation as Kaboly is. Granted, in typical Tomlin fashion, this could turn around, and we could watch the Steelers yet again squeak into the playoffs, ready for another blowout loss.

Steelers Rewarding Bad Behavior

There have always been those who believe that the Steelers would be better off without Tomlin as their head coach, but that vocal minority is quickly becoming a widely accepted point of view, even for those in Pittsburgh. Following the 2023 Steelers second consecutive loss to a team with only two wins coming into the game, all the goodwill from their single game with more than 400 yards of offense (Week 12) has blown away.

The trend in Pittsburgh over the last few years has strangely been to reward bad behavior, as the NFL world saw with Canada. Retaining an incompetent offensive coordinator after he turned in a subpar 2022 season is a glaring example, and the worry is that if the Steelers somehow inch their way toward the postseason, they will do it all over again. 

There was a time nearly two decades ago when fans in Pittsburgh couldn't imagine a world where Bill Cowher wasn't their head coach, but then came Tomlin. For an organization that has only had three head coaches since the 1969 season, there is something to be said about that kind of consistency, but they can't let it blind them to reality.

The national line used in response to this is that Tomlin has never had a losing season, but consistent mediocrity is still mediocre. It isn't just the record that needs to be improved in Pittsburgh. It is the belief that being barely above average is good enough. Somewhere along the way, it became okay to do a tiny bit more than getting by. Now the shine has fallen off the Tomlinisms everyone get in every postgame, and all fans want is accountability.

Should Mike Tomlin still be the head coach of the Steelers in 2024?