Former New England Patriots linebacker and two-time Super Bowl champion Rob Ninkovich thinks it would be foolish for the Pittsburgh Steelers to fire Mike Tomlin. Of course, the Steelers have no desire to do so, but many talking heads are suggesting it.
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“Sometimes the grass isn’t greener. There’s always a risk that you’re not going to have a winning season if you move on from a coach like Mike Tomlin,” Ninkovich told Betway Insider.
“I think their biggest issue this year was that they didn’t have the stud quarterback. Russell Wilson is near the end of his career, he started out playing decent and then fizzled off in the last five to six weeks of the year.”
Steelers fans hate when it’s mentioned, but Tomlin’s non-losing season streak is a rare feat. Only Bill Belichick and Tom Landry have more consecutive non-losing seasons.
“I think the team would not be in a better place if they decided to move on from Tomlin. Who are your options when it comes to replacing a guy that’s been there for so long and has continued to have winning seasons?” Ninkovich said.
“It’s not easy to win consistently in this league. I think that the best thing for them would be to try and spend some money, bring in a quarterback, a veteran guy that can give you a spark, or draft a young quarterback.”
That’s the obvious glaring issue with the Steelers right now. They simply don’t have a long-term answer at the quarterback position. With it being a weak quarterback draft class in 2025, riding with Justin Fields next seasons seems like the best option.
“This year is not a great quarterback draft, but I don’t think moving on from him would be the best decision for that organization,” Ninkovich said.
Former Steelers running back and Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis also believes the Steelers need to find a long-term solution at quarterback. If they don’t, the Steelers are simply not going anywhere.
“I think Russell is a good quarterback for the time, but I think the problem is he’s not a long-term solution to the issue. They have got to figure out a long-term solution at the quarterback position,” Bettis said on the Dan Patrick Show. “And a lot of you hear a lot of talking heads speaking about the coach and this and that. In the NFL, we’ve seen this now. If you do not have a quarterback in the NFL, you are not going to win in the playoffs. That’s what we know for sure. And right now the Steelers have gone through this window of time where they’ve been trying to figure out the quarterback situation and they have failed.”
A report by Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated last week said the team grew frustrated with Russell Wilson down the stretch run, but would love to keep working with Fields, who started the first six games of the season while Wilson was hurt.
