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The loss to the Jags is fresh in everyone's mind. Not many positive things to read about the Steelers right now.

Source: Some Steelers limited partners want a coaching change.

Posted by Mike Florio on January 16, 2018, 11:59 AM EST

Plenty of Steelers fans currently are upset with the performance of coach Mike Tomlin, given the team’s inability to get back to the Super Bowl or, more specifically, to get past the Patriots. (And now the Jaguars.) A small group of Steelers fans who own pieces of the franchise’s equity are particularly miffed with Tomlin — sufficiently miffed that they want to see a change get made.

Per a source with knowledge of the situation, some of the team’s limited partners intend to lobby owner Art Rooney to fire of Tomlin and to hire a new coach.

The limited partners, who became involved nearly a decade ago as member of the Rooney family sold their interest in the team after acquiring gaming interests that violate league policy, have no authority over the management of the team, but they have a pipeline to owner Art Rooney. Per the source, they plan to utilize it.

The group of limited partners includes Rob Citrone, Paul Evanson, Larry Paul, Stephen Paul, Bruce Rauner, Paul Sams, John Stallworh, Benjamin Statler, Scott Swank, David Tepper, Thomas Tull, Peter Varischetti, and Mike Wilkins.

The concerns relate to the increasingly obvious issues with decision-making in key moments of the game, also known as “situational football.” The absence of a plan in the final seconds of the loss last month to the Patriots was one thing; the frittering away of the final 47 seconds on Sunday against the Jaguars, when Pittsburgh was five yards from the end zone and down 10 points, only made it worse. (The source specifically pointed to those key 47 seconds, noting that the players were moving without any real sense of urgency as the clock was ticking and the Steelers needed two scores.)

The limited partners who will be pushing for a new coach also are concerned about the team’s lack of discipline, with last year’s Facebook Live fiasco from receiver Antonio Brown a prime example of it.

Tomlin drew criticism from many in November for talking openly about meeting the Patriots both in the regular season and in the playoffs, before Pittsburgh had even clinched a postseason berth. One of Tomlin’s key players, running back Le'Veon Bell, proclaimed via social media after New England beat Tennessee on Saturday night that the Steelers would have a pair of regular-season rematches in the playoffs — one against the Jaguars on Sunday and another against the Patriots the following Sunday.

Yes, Tomlin has won a Super Bowl and taken the team to another one. But the last appearance in the NFL title game came seven years ago; there’s currently a sense that the Steelers are underachieving under Tomlin. As one source observed, Pittsburgh would be undefeated if Bill Belichick were the coach, given the talent on the roster.

The Steelers have had only three coaches since 1969, with Chuck Noll yielding in 1992 to Bill Cowher, who resigned after the 2006 season. It’s believed by some that Art Rooney II preferred Russ Grimm as the replacement for Cowher, but that the late Dan Rooney wanted Tomlin.

Now that Art II is running the team, Art II can make the call on whether to change coaches. While it’s not believed he’ll give the limited partners’ plea any credence on its own, if Art II already is thinking about making a change, the coming effort by the limited partners to advocate for change could at least be a factor.

It was delightful listening to the "fans" boo the Steelers. Simply delightful. Nothing quite makes my day like Tomlin's bug-eyed disbelief or Rothlessburger's whipped dog face.

Big Ben apparently just threw him under the bus on a radio show. Said Tomlin won't allow him to run a sneak, they have no audible for a QB sneak and that Tomlin laughed when Ben suggested they do a QB draw out of empty sets.

I haven't read much. Just headlines and what I hear on the radio to and from work.

I was under the impression that Ben was more at odds with Todd Haley than Tomlin.

Mike Tomlin would be a great replacement for Jon Gruden on Monday Night Football.

The Haslams are brokenhearted.

I hope they do fire him.
We then could get rid of ours and hire him.

Ha! There it is. I was wondering how we could turn this into a Hue hate thread.

I always wondered how he would fare without Roethlisberger...he's had him his whole career. Maybe we won't even get to find out.

Crazy to think he's - I believe - the fourth longest tenured head coach in the league (behind Belichick, Lewis, Payton). I still sometimes expect to see the Chin on the other sideline.

I don't hate Hue.
I just enjoy listening to Tomlin more than I do Hue.
If you really want to know where I stand,I don't care who they hire,who they fire,the result is going to be the same.History has shown me it's going to be bad football,with a good mixture of embarrassing actions thrown in.
You guys are getting as bad,if not worse,than those with the opposing view.

We knew you guys would figure it out somehow.

Glad to see their loss. Tomlin is losing ground IMO; parts of his inherited talent has gone since he was hired. He helped get them close. Glad to see them take a loss this way. Not much class throwing your coach under the bus after a loss. Keep it up and they will compare you to the Pats soap opera and drama (without the wins, of course).

Awww music to my ears. Beginning of the end in pitt.

Tomlin canned, Ben retires...will be glorious for me...

Changing of the guard? Jags, Eagles/Vikes Super Bowl?

jags vs eagles SB...yup

Terry Bradshaw was right, Tomlin is just a cheerleader! He is riding the coat tails of Big Ben. Without Ben, the team is worse than the Lions franchise. Without Big Ben since 2004, the team would be completely mediocre. Did you see that stupid onside kick against the Jags. WTH! You cannot be serious. I thought Hue was a bonehead but Jeeeeez! The Steelers are winners because of the QB position who the Browns passed on for Kellen Winslow. LOL It's really funny seeing the Steeler fans crying and complaining Go Browns!

I never thought Tomlin was this great coach that people made him out to be. He inherited a historically great defense and a great franchise QB that was just hitting his prime. Given those two things, I think he has underachieved.

But I will give him credit that he's strung out the success of the Steelers longer than I thought he would. People have been predicting the deterioration of this team for quite a while now, and they're still playing well enough to do what they did this season.

I just can't get past how the way he looks and talks just screams that he's in way over his head.

They know next year is probably Roethisberger's cleats hanging, so I don't blame them for wanting to make a change before the clock runs out on another ring.

I can't wait until that happens. Having an elite quarterback in the division has sucked. I was hoping he'd retire after this season, but reports are that he's playing on.

He'd be great at a sneak but has no business running a draw

Turn those smiles upside down! Just poetic justice at its ironic best.

Todd Haley out as Steelers Offensive Coordinator

Posted by Michael David Smith on January 17, 2018, 12:16 PM EST

Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley will not return for the 2018 season.

Haley’s contract is expiring and he won’t be getting a new contract to remain in Pittsburgh, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports.

That’s not a big surprise: There’s been increasing talk that Haley wasn’t seeing eye to eye with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, and that head coach Mike Tomlin was ready to move on.

Haley has consistently coordinated a strong offense in Pittsburgh, but he’s long been viewed as someone who can be difficult to get along with, and the speculation that he wasn’t long for Pittsburgh has been ongoing for quite a while now.

Tomlin, who has faced criticism for his coaching after the Steelers were upset by the Jaguars on Sunday, now has to make one of the most important decisions of his coaching career in finding Haley’s replacement. And some other team looking for an offensive coordinator will have to make a decision about whether Haley is a good fit.

Report: Mike Munchak won't interview with Cardinals again

Posted by Josh Alper on January 17, 2018, 10:10 AM EST

Tuesday’s updates on the Cardinals’ coaching search involved word that the team wanted to schedule second interviews with Steelers offensive line coach Mike Munchak and Eagles quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo, but at least one of those candidates is reportedly passing on the opportunity.

Chris Mortensen of ESPN reports that Munchak has declined the opportunity to speak to the Cardinals again. There’s no reason cited for Munchak’s decision, although it’s not unreasonable to think the prospect of a change at offensive coordinator in Pittsburgh could be a factor.

Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Tuesday that “as of now” DeFilippo is expected to interview with the Cardinals again.

Mortensen adds that Patriots linebackers coach Brian Flores is “now in play.” If he’s going to interview with Arizona again, he will be eligible to do it next week whether the Patriots win or lose on Sunday. The same is true for DeFilippo and any other candidates from the four teams still playing.

You guys are arguing that a, what, two time Super Bowl winning coach is bad? He was a good coach in Tampa, good defensive cordinator with the Vikings and while he may have inherited a good team when he was hired, that team didn’t get worse under him and has been a playoff contender for most of his tenur. Been to the playoffs all but three years of his career with the Steelers. He may not be the best coach of all time, but a bad coach? That’s ridiculous.

no surprise about Haley ... he and Ben have basically hated each other for a while now

Not a bad coach, an over rated coach. Give Pat Shurmer a HOF QB and I bet he’d look competent too. Would it make him a great coach? No I don’t think it would.
Tomlin gets talked about like he’s a great coach. Over the years I’ve seen him making decisions that have cost his team victories. Last week was a prime example. Yet the ESPN/NFL Network talking heads fawn over him. He’s not a bad coach. He’s over hyped and over rated. That’s all I’m saying.

I agree with that assessment.

I also think he lacks a lot of class. There was the stepping out onto the field during the kick return incident. That is combined with the fact his team has been head hunting for quite a while with the likes of Harrison and Shazier.

Randy Fichtner (Steelers QB coach) favorite to be Steelers next OC.

Ill take him here over our joke any day. He stepped into a good situation yes, however other than Ben, not one single player on that team is from Cowher's tenure. Tomlin gets this team to the playoffs every year (just about) and statistically, is the second best coach in Football. FACT.

If I remember correctly, it was from day 1, second 1. Ben hated it when the Steelers fired Bruce Arians as OC. It worked out well for him though, as he got a shot to run the Colts when Pagano was ill, and that got him the Cardinals job.

Yep, and Trent Dilfer won a Super Bowl. That's a FACT.

Doesn't mean that he's a good QB or that he's the reason for the team's success...

Who really cares

I would greatly appreciate this lol...

Granted I'm a Steeler fan and biased in this regard.....but you have to be kidding about that last part right? Almost every one of those hits Harrison got flagged for in that one single season were considered not only legal, but highlight reel hits literally the week before they start calling them. Overnight the league changed everything. Harrison was arguably the leagues most intimidating player and represented everything they were panicking about with the concussion scare. So Goodell honed in on him simply to make an example for the rest of the players to scare the crap out of them with the threat of fines. They were worried about getting the pants sued off them by former players and needed to take drastic action immediately, so they changed the entire nature of the game mid season. They were trying to put every defender in the league on notice and he was the guy to make the example of. Period.

I never screamed at my TV more than I did watching those weekly flags on basically hard tackles of the QB. It was insanity there for awhile. The low point and the one I still haven't recovered from during that stupid season was the one sack that year he got flagged on....I wanna say it was on Jamarcus Russell. Now this was after about 5 consecutive weeks of BS personal foul calls for basically hitting the QB too hard, so I was already at my limit and ready to quit watching football all together. This particular one was on pretty much a textbook tackle of the QB and not even a particularly hard sack at that. Here comes the flag. The referee proceeds to say, "Unecessary roughness, #92, Landing with full body weight on the Quarterback". I think my wife may have had to restrain me from throwing a glass through my TV screen. It became an absurd joke around the league on a weekly basis.

The rest of that year and part of the next I hardly watched another game. And I tell you, I think the league is now paying for all the seeds they sowed that season coming to fruition now as far as trying to eradicate hard hitting. They have chased a lot of long standing fans away from the game with this crap. And it's all phony outrage by the league and commentators too, that's the part that makes me sick. They secretly still love hard hitting but now they have to pretend they hate it. I thought Jon Gruden was going to vomit on national TV when Ju Ju Smith Schuester blasted Burfict on that block. He may as well had a funeral for him on the air. He sounded like he had just witnessed a drive by shooting. It's all a gigantic sham.

And Shazier has never had a reputation as a dirty player. Yeah he dropped his head and paralyzed himself but it isn't like he was trying to hurt the guy, it was just lousy tackling form. And don't even give me the helmet to helmet hit on the Bengals RB a couple years ago that caused the fumble in the playoffs. That was two guys lowering there heads and meeting in the hole. It was beautiful.

As for Tomlin stepping out onto the field during the Ravens game, I can't make any excuse for that. That was just silly. Honestly I think he temporarily lost his mind when he saw their season about to go down the toilet and made a stupid decision. I've often wondered if it crossed his mind for a split second to stick out his leg and trip the guy and then sanity reasserted itself at the last moment lol. It was dumb either way.

Wow......that was a rant. Sorry about that, I didn't intend for it to be. Sore subject for this fan lol.

Dude, you can't look at Harrison over the course of his career and say he wasn't a head hunter. Just ask Josh Cribbs and I believe Colt McCoy.

Harrison is a head hunting POS, always has been, always will be. Google search Harrison Head Hunting and his laundry list of infractions pops right up. This is nothing new, this article is from 2010:

NFL Injuries: Get Rid of Headhunters, You Fix the Game
SAM WESTMORELAND
OCTOBER 19, 2010

PHILADELPHIA - OCTOBER 17: DeSean Jackson #10 of the Philadelphia Eagles is helped off the field after being laid out by Dunta Robinson #23 of the Atlanta Falcons during their game at Lincoln Financial Field on October 17, 2010 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Both players were injured on the play and had to be helped off the field. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
Al Bello/Getty Images
The NFL finds itself at a major crossroads in 2010. With the current Collective Bargaining Agreement ending, and talk of an 18-game season in the works, the last thing the NFL needed was another major issue to deal with.

But through six weeks of the season, that’s exactly what the league has on it’s hands, as numerous players have sustained serious head traumas on hits in 2010.

In Week 6 alone, there were at least six different players who left their games with head injuries sustained via helmet-to-helmet hits. The NFL dealt out $175,000 in fines to players for reckless play, as well.


The NFL announced today that it’s going to start fining and suspending players who make reckless and dangerous plays on the field.

However, there is a portion of the NFL fan base who feels that this move is further weakening a sport that has long glorified the big hit, and the toughness and grit of it’s players.

With all of the rules involved in hitting the quarterback combined with this new crackdown on violent hits, this camp claims it’s getting to be impossible to play the game the way it was meant to be played.

They say the violence is a part of the game, and the injuries that come with that violence is as well. Limiting a player’s ability to tackle another person makes things unfair for NFL defenses.

Are they right? Is the NFL getting too soft for it’s own good? Have we gone too far in our efforts to protect players?

An NFL game is full of collisions. There are dozens of them every game. Every play features several, as the offensive line slams into the defensive line, and the play ends with a tackle. Most of these collisions are harmless; even many of the hard hits we love so dearly are typically perfectly acceptable.


The NFL isn’t trying to do away with big hits. Guys like Troy Polamalu, Ray Lewis, Ed Reed and Brian Urlacher are capable of delivering big hits cleanly, without causing injury. They’re not the one’s the NFL will be punishing.

I’m talking about the Dunta Robinsons, James Harrisons and Brandon Meriweathers of the football world. They’re what are known as headhunters, eschewing correct technique in an effort to light up opposing players.

It’s not that they’ve done it once or twice; every player’s made at least one poor tackle in his career. Instead, it seems that they make a habit out of doing it.

Take Harrison. He has admitted to the press in the aftermath of sending two Browns receivers, Mohammed Massaquoi and Josh Cribbs out of the game with matching concussions. Harrison led with his head, and aimed at both players’ heads.

Then there’s Meriweather, a promising young safety for the Patriots. He tried the same cheap shot on Ravens tight end Todd Heap not once, but twice, connecting on the second try by rocketing his helmet up into Heap’s as the tight end came down from missing a pass.

Add to that the fact that Heap had missed the ball and was going to be tackled by another Pats defender, and Meriweather clearly knew what he was doing.


Finally, there’s Robinson. Known around the NFL as a dirty player, Dunta always seems to lead with his helmet, and paid the price this week against the Eagles, knocking himself and wideout DeSean Jackson out of the game.

The sport of football hasn’t gotten more violent as the years progressed as many would have you believe; it’s just as bad now as it used to be. The difference is the players. With a massive increase in the number of incredibly athletic players, the game has gotten bigger, stronger and faster.

The average NFL player is infinitely more explosive than he was 20 years ago. He’s much more capable of dealing damage to an opposing player. However, he’s just as foolish about how to avoid doing that damage.

While we’ve become much more aware of the consequences of repeated head trauma, the culture of the NFL has not changed one iota. Until this season, many headhunters were lauded as excellent defenders, and it was seen as macho to re-enter a game after sustaining a head injury.

Coaches allow this to continue, neglecting to punish players who deliver those hits, and in many cases, even defending the hit despite clear video evidence of the player’s actions.

Link

and Massaquoi

Oh man, I miss him.