Ryan Clark urges Mike Tomlin to leave Steelers: ‘His voice has run stale’
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Thursday, May 15, 2025 7:31 p.m.
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Former Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark believes it is time for Mike Tomlin to step away from the team. Clark, who still believes Tomlin is ‘unfirable,’ says much like Andy Reid with the Philadelphia Eagles, Tomlin’s voice has gone stale in the locker room.
Clark says Tomlin should leave the organization and realize they will not win another Super Bowl together in his tenure. If he wants to find more success as an NFL head coach, Clark believes Tomlin will have to go elsewhere.
“I believe Mike Tomlin should coach in another organization,” Clark said. “Mike Tomlin should be the fresh voice somewhere else. I believe, as great as a coach as he is, and he’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer, I believe his voice has run stale there. I believe he’s allowed that team to reach the highest of heights they are going to reach unless they get a top-tier quarterback.”
The Steelers are in the midst of an eight year playoff win drought. Tomlin has been the overseer of the team in that time, and he has already entered some dangerous territory in regards to postseason success.
He has now lost six in a row in the postseason, which is a Steelers franchise record and the longest active streak in Tomlin’s tenure.
With that, Tomlin joins four other coaches in the pantheon of NFL history as coaches who have lost six or more straight playoff games in their career. Jim Mora, Marvin Lewis, Marty Schottenheimer, and Shane Owen are the only other coaches to reach that mark. Lewis holds the record with seven straight playoff losses.
While Tomlin brings great qualities to the table, the success has to turn around at some point. If Tomlin can not turn around his lack of postseason success, the answer is simple — he will not be around Pittsburgh much longer. He will be back next season and likely 2026, too, but even with the Steelers, patience is wearing thin with so many losses, and the same script is being run back year after year despite changes around Tomlin.