The Pittsburgh Steelers have not won a playoff game since 2016, and urgency around the organization has continued this offseason as the team looks to exhaust all options to win that game in 2024. But could that even mean that Mike Tomlin might have to put up or shut up this season? Willie Colon, former Steelers offensive lineman and analyst on FS1 made that exact point on Friday and believes that Tomlin is legitimately on the hot seat if he can not win a playoff game this upcoming season.
“I love Mike Tomlin, but this is, I have to officially say, he’s on the hot seat. And when you talk about his overall record, you talk about in 17 seasons, he has an eight and 10 playoff record, only four seasons with playoff wins and he’s had some bona fide teams even with Ben Roethlisberger. The issue with Mike Tomlin right now is he wins games he’s supposed to win, but loses games he shouldn’t lose,” Colon said on the Craig Carton Show. “I’m saying to myself, well, who are the Pittsburgh Steelers? Are they the bullies, or are they the dweebs right now? If you lost to the Patriots and the Cardinals, you look like the dweebs.”
Willie Colon believes that Tomlin has done nothing to earn the long-term job security, but former Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson ripped into Colon’s take, stating that he is a nobody and should go ‘sit down’ somewhere.
“For one, the only Willie Colon I know is the Spanish singer,” Johnson said on the NightCap Show. “Let’s start there, okay, so, I’m trying to understand, Mr. Willie Colon, why his words and how he feels and what he’s saying hold any weight, why it holds any weight. Tell Willie, go sit down somewhere, man. Tell Willie to go sit. I know Willie Parker. I don’t know no Willie Colon. Listen, his name holds no weight, no disrespect. Listen, I’m a Bengal. I’m a Bengal fan at heart taking for the Steelers organization because I don’t know who the hell this Willie Colon is.”
As stated earlier in the article, the Steelers haven’t won a playoff game in seven years. It’s the longest playoff win drought since pre-1972 for the franchise.
“We’ve had enough of this,” Steelers president Art Rooney II said about no playoff wins in seven years during a season-ending press conference. “It’s time to get some wins; it’s time to take these next steps.”
The 52-year-old is entering his 18th season as the Steelers head coach. He has a career record of 173-100-2 and is tied for 11th in NFL history for most coaching wins. But he needs to find a way to break the streak of playoff futility. Without that, all of the regular season accolades are largely fruitless over the past seven seasons.
If the Steelers’ streak of not winning a playoff game continues and the Wilson/Fields QB plan blows up into flames, Tomlin’s tenure will get rocky, but not in the way Colon described it. Instead, Tomlin is heading for an extension. That’s all but a formality at this point, and Tomlin should get that done at some point in the Summer.