Tag: Mike Tomlin press conference

Steelers HC Mike Tomlin on Jon Gruden: ‘It’s a sad commentary’

Mike Tomlin coached DBs for Jon Gruden’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2001-2005.

News broke late on Monday that Jon Gruden resigned from his post as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. Reports started swirling last week that Gruden used a racist comment referring to NFLPA director DeMaurice Smith in a 2011 email.

It all came to a head yesterday when more emails surfaced in which Gruden repeatedly used homophobic and misogynistic language during his time as an ESPN analyst.

Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, who was on Gruden’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers staff from 2001-2005 as a defensive backs coach, was asked to comment.

In typical Tomlin fashion, he was not interested in going to great length about the controversy surrounding Gruden.

“I’m just saddened by it,” Tomlin told the Steelers media on Tuesday. “I’m saddened for the Raiders organization. I’m saddened for the people that were offended by it. I’m saddened for Coach Gruden. It’s a sad commentary.”

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Mike Tomlin says won’t Steelers ‘dramatically change’ despite two straight losses

The Pittsburgh Steelers need a dramatic change, but their head coach doesn’t think they need to — and that’s a concern.

The Pittsburgh Steelers need to change dramatically, but their head coach doesn’t think they need to — and that’s a concern.

“We’re not gonna push the panic button,” Mike Tomlin said in his weekly press conference. “We’re not going to dramatically change who and what we are at this juncture.”

“We’re not resistant to change for the purposes of getting better, but we’re not going to be so unsteady that we move away from our compass, the identity that we worked hard to develop, and we’ll continue to work hard to develop, and the emphasis on the style of play, whatever that may be, in all three phases.”

Move away from “our compass,” the “identity” they’ve worked hard to develop? First, their compass is broken. Second, the offense is without an identity.

Tomlin is right about one thing: The Steelers shouldn’t panic. They need to remain calm, cool and collected at all times, especially in the face of defeat.

Dramatic changes are needed, though — and stat. If Pittsburgh stands pat and drops any more than one game before the bye, its playoff hopes will go up in a cloud of smoke.

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Steelers press conference: Pittsburgh HC Mike Tomlin talks Trai Turner’s spit-isode

During his weekly presser, Steelers HC Mike Tomlin discussed the ramifications of Trai Turner’s ejection for spitting.

Steelers guard Trai Turner was ejected from Sunday’s battle with the Las Vegas Raiders for spitting on defensive lineman Soloman Thomas. The unsportsmanlike conduct disqualification left Pittsburgh vulnerable at an already thin position.

In his weekly press conference, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin discussed the ramifications.

“Trey is no kid, he’s very cerebral,” Tomlin said. “He understands what that circumstance did to us, collectively as a team. He was more than apologetic and required no meeting.”

In a statement after the game, Tomlin objected to the ejection, feeling it was unwarranted. “Somebody spit in his face. And so I understand the 15-yard penalties and so forth… for him to respond the way that he responded, what transpired had to transpire. I was stating that case to [the referees]. I didn’t believe he did enough to be kicked out of the football game.”

As reported on Monday, Turner is not expected to be suspended for the spitting incident but could face fines from the NFL.

Though a minimal distraction, Tomlin is no doubt eager to put this issue to bed and move on to the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Steelers host their AFC North rivals on Sunday, Sept. 26.

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Steelers injury report: Mike Tomlin provides an update on Robert Spillane

Aside from the update on LB Robert Spillane, only the usual “bumps and bruises associated with play” were reported.

When the Pittsburgh Steelers released their list of inactives on Sunday, an unexpected name was on it: Linebacker Robert Spillane.

It was initially planned for Spillane to play versus the Buffalo Bills, but a shin injury during pregame warmups kept him out of the matchup.

In his weekly press conference on Tuesday, Mike Tomlin provided an update on Spillane, noting that he’ll continue to be evaluated. “He may be limited somewhat at the early portions of the week, but we expect him to be available to us, barring any setbacks from a shin standpoint, and so that’s a good thing.”

Aside from Spillane, only the usual “bumps and bruises associated with play” came out of the Steelers’ victory over the Bills.

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Steelers HC Mike Tomlin offers mixed messages about Ben Roethlisberger’s return

What do the Steelers plan to do about QB Ben Roethlisberger, whose current contract expires at the end of the 2021 season?

We were left with more questions than answers by the close of Mike Tomlin’s final press conference of the 2020 season.

A big question heading in was what the Steelers plan to do about quarterback Ben Roethlisberger whose current contract expires at the end of the 2021 season.

When WPXI sportscaster Alby Oxenreiter asked Tomlin whether it was realistic to expect Roethlisberger to return given the salary cap implications, Tomlin said, “I think it is reasonable to assume that there is a chance that he will be back, certainly.”

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The return of Roethlisberger comes with a $41 million salary-cap hit or 23 percent of the overall cap, according to OverTheCap.com. The contract will pay him $19 million — $4 million in base salary and a $15 million roster bonus due March 15. The remaining $22.25 million is a prorated bonus, which accounts as dead money or money that Pittsburgh will be responsible for, even if Ben is released or retires.

Tomlin claims he’s not privy to the Steelers current salary cap situation. “I’m very much in the information gathering stage there,” he said.

Whatever the Steelers decide, we’ll know before March 15 when that $15 million bonus is due.

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Mike Tomlin: Maintaining status quo and hoping something changes is the definition of insanity

Tomlin said he’s working to identify the necessary repairs, but said it could be weeks until any moves are made. 

End-of-season collapses and early exits from the playoffs are nothing new to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Since being defeated by the Green Bay Packers in the 2010 Super Bowl, Pittsburgh made the playoffs six times and bowed out early in each.

2020 was the worst collapse of all, finishing out the season with a 1-5 record after remaining undefeated through 11 games.

“I’m not going to maintain the status quo and hope that the outcome changes,” said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin in his final 2020 season press conference. “That’s the definition of insanity.”

Tomlin said he’s working to identify the necessary repairs but said it could be weeks until any moves are made.

Changes could include offensive and defensive coordinators. According to Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Randy Fichtner and Keith Butler’s contracts both expire in February.

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NFL was considerate of ‘special circumstances’ that allowed Steelers to practice Monday

Mike Tomlin said the Steelers had to seek permission from the league, players association to start preparing for the Eagles yesterday.

No thanks to the coronavirus outbreak in Tennessee, Pittsburgh’s Week 4 and Week 5 schedule was a little off.

Under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, teams normally have four consecutive days off heading into a bye week. However, practice was already underway on Thursday when news of the Steelers-Titans postponement came down.

The Steelers wanted to return to work Monday as to not disrupt preparations for the Philadelphia Eagles, but that would mean only three days off. So, to get back to practice yesterday, Tomlin had to seek permission from the NFL and the NFL players association.

“We always work on Mondays coming out of byes, but very rarely do we work on Thursday,” Tomlin said Tuesday during his weekly press conference. “The issue for us last week was, we didn’t know that we had a bye until we were at work on Thursday. So the [players association] and the league were considerate of those special circumstances, and they allowed us to stick to our schedule.”

The Steelers bye week was certainly unanticipated but Tomlin said it was productive nonetheless.

“It was a really productive [bye week], largely because we didn’t know it was a bye week,” Tomlin said in his weekly press conference. “We got a lot of good schematic work done at the top of the week in preparation for what we thought would be the Tennessee Titans game. We were able to put some of that preparation away and file it for later.”

Tomlin said they’ll see exactly how productive it was when the time comes to play the Titans on Oct. 25.

 

 

An advantage to the unexpected bye week was to be able to watch the competition and, particularly, their upcoming opponent in the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles defeated the San Francisco 49ers, 25-20, on Sunday. At 1-2-1, Philadelphia is first in the NFC East.

“It was an opportunity for us to pause, and take a global perspective on competition, and we were able to do that,” Tomlin said.

Otherwise, as Tomlin likes to say, they were able to take care of “normal bumps and bruises associated with play.”

Diontae Johnson is good to go on Sunday, but the status of fullback Derek Watt and safety Marcus Allen is still up in the air.

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Pittsburgh Steelers HC Mike Tomlin pulled one over on us

At long last, it appears that Tomlin has opened his mind to an RBBC approach to the Steelers’ run game.

Remember all that talk in the offseason from Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin about not utilizing a rotational running back system? Yeah, me, too. And I fell for it. Why? Because in 13 seasons, Tomlin has never done it — except when the unit has been riddled by injury (2019, 2015).

“It was good to get Anthony McFarland involved,” said Tomlin in Sunday’s postgame press conference. “I thought our utilization of all the backs was a good element of play for us.

In reference to McFarland, Jr., Tomlin said game circumstances hadn’t allowed his role to develop. He was inactive Week 1 and suited up but didn’t play in Week 2.

“We like the overall trajectory of [McFarland’s] game,” he said. “He’s been working hard and practicing hard and has professional detail in his work. We had trust in his abilities. He brings a different skill set than the others, and they complement each other well.”

Games through three weeks have played out as such that they’re able to close games on the ground — where they’re winning but need to run out the clock and play mistake-free football in the final minutes.

“All these games are close,” Tomlin said. “Everything in the National Football League is a one-score game, so your ability in the waning moments to possess the ball and not put your defense in harm’s way, to win the critical possession downs, to be able to run or run-like action.

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“I can’t say enough about what Ben was able to do in some of those short-yardage situations. We did supplement the run with some quick RPO options that allowed us to sustain drives and possess the ball.”

The shuffling of James Conner, McFarland and Benny Snell, Jr. worked in Week 3. Every game will dictate its own set of circumstances, but it’s great to see Tomlin open to a rotational running back approach finally.

“James is our feature runner,” Tomlin said for the umpteenth time since July. “It doesn’t mean that we won’t play others, but it does mean as we distribute carries, particularly as we find our rhythm in the game, that will include Conner unless someone has an unusually hot hand.”

Tomlin added that that’s the approach from now on — he doesn’t care who gets the credit or who makes the plays.

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Mike Tomlin says ‘We do not care’ about the potential of 13 straight games

Tomlin appears to be calm, cool and collected about the chaotic situation the Titans have put the league in.

After 14 seasons, we’re all familiar with that dead serious look that Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin gets. Thursday was one of those times.

When asked about the chance of the Steelers needing to play 13 straight weeks if they lose their initially scheduled bye week, Tomlin said to the media, “We do not care.”

Meanwhile, the players are off for the remainder of the week and will return to work on Tuesday after Monday’s scheduled “bonus day.” The team will need to stay local to report for daily COVID testing.

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Per Teresa Varley of Steelers.com, Tomlin “wishes not to speculate” on the timing of when the NFL will make its decision about rescheduling the Titans game.

Tomlin believes, no matter the outcome, that the league is doing the right thing. “We take marching orders from the National Football League. We understand they’re acting our collective best interest.”

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A ‘disappointed’ Mike Tomlin says there is one advantage to early bye week

Publicly, Tomlin is looking on the bright side of this unfortunate situation.

Publicly, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is looking on the bright side of this unfortunate situation: The team will get ample time to rest and have additional preparations for the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 5.

“We’re getting a bye week, so we’re going to make the best of that… Kicking back and gaining a little bit of perspective in watching others work,” said Tomlin during a Thursday press conference.

Though it’s different when it affects your team directly, the Steelers have understood from the start of the season that a situation such as this one could unfold.

“We’re all understanding of the situation … it’s just that we live in these 7-day cycles and we had a game scheduled, and so we were going through a process,” Tomlin said. “That’s physical work and mental work. We were readying ourselves for the opportunity, and we’re not getting it.”

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Tomlin added that he is a “tangible guy“; therefore, focused has turned from the Titans to the Eagles, and not when the Tennessee game is rescheduled for.

“I’m a tangible guy. The next tangible thing for us is the Philadelphia Eagles.”

And so, it’s on to Philly. The standard is the standard.

The Steelers welcome the Eagles to Heinz Field on Sunday, Oct. 11, at 1 p.m.

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