Steelers Growing ‘Impatient’ at Lack of Playoff Success

The Pittsburgh Steelers have not won a playoff game since 2016, and for many in the organization, with no playoff success then, it’s long overdue for the team to find a way to win in the playoffs. Team president Art Rooney II acknowledged two weeks ago that the team wanted to see more playoff success after their loss to the Buffalo Bills.

“We’ve had enough of this,” Rooney said. “It’s time to get some wins; it’s time to take these next steps.”

Rooney cited the team’s ability to turn around a three-game losing streak into a four-game stretched that rescued their playoff hopes as a reason to believe that Tomlin still has what it takes as a head coach. And on Tuesday in an interview with Bob Pompeani of KDKA-TV, Rooney included Tomlin in the message of those who are frustrated.

“I made that comment for a lot of us who have been in the organization for a while, and I include Mike Tomlin in this, we are getting impatient,” Rooney said. “We want to take that next step. We want to win playoff games and go deep into the postseason. So, we miss being a part of that, and that’s where the urgency is. We need to get back to playing football deep into January and hopefully February.”

The 51-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. And for the Steelers, a lot of those problems are on the offensive side of the ball. With the new hire of Arthur Smith, they hope that can rectify where they are and lead to some postseason success.