If he was hired to any other team back then...hed be back to being a coord or even a position coach. Any coach we would have hired then would have had the same success based on the talent we had alone. Not to mention possibly winning another title or two.
But since he has been given this long to remain HC , we may have helped his career down the road. Maybe he does learn from mistakes and becomes a solid HC elsewhere. Like plenty of coaches have done with their 2nd/3rd chances. 10 years being with this franchise and this much talent surely helped him learn alot(improves on one thing each year lol, still waiting on clock management and challenges).
Bottom line, with the team we had we should have never hired a young coach with no experience. We had the talent to win it all and still think we beat GB with an experienced HC. Yes inexperienced coaches can come in right away and be successful like Pederson and McVay but those teams were different. Young teams who werent successful years prior and they turned them around. We didnt need that.
Tomlin may go on to be a solid coach years from now because of what the Steelers did for him, yet we wasted these years by sticking with him.
Cant believe the Jags playoff loss and going from 7-2-1 to missing the playoffs isnt enough to make a change. We will have to have another disaster in 2019 for that to possibly happen. But my prediction is we add more talent to this team(thru FA and draft) that we will make a run at the Superbowl. This year was an anomoly imo. Yeah we lost to inferior teams like in the past but we had a kicker ruining games...guys fumbling games away...Ben sitting out the second half of the Raiders game until it was too late. And all of the drama from Bell..Brown. Conner getting hurt. A mess of a season. But I do see our D getting even better next season. Adding a FA and a solid first round pick(Murphy, Baker, Sweat, etc) . And our offense still being one of the best.
We'll see how the rest of these playoffs go, but this year was wide open...we had the talent to go all the way. Thats what he should be judged on.
Next year who knows...Mahomes will be more seasoned along with Watson. Colts will be better with 120 mil in cap space. Pats may be on the decline but those teams will get better imo. We can still compete with any team but this was the year I thought we could win it all. The main reason I wanted us to add at the trade deadline. Eagles adding Golden Tate helping them advance is a perfect example...especially with all of their injuries.
When we didnt make a move with the cap space we had nor bring Bell back...I lost a little hope for this year. And what happened? Conner got injured a week after the Bell deadline. If that doesnt sum up 2018 I dont know what does. The FO messed this year up...thats not all on Tomlin. Altho he should still be gone, we should have added at the deadline and brought back Bell. And that isnt hindsight. Many said bring back Bell in case Conner gets hurt(Our RBs get hurt every year, wasnt far fetched) and even if he didnt he would have been an extra weapon for the offense. But of course we were doing great at the deadline and they didnt think we needed to make any moves. Thats what happens when you dont prepare for the rest of the season..youd think they would have learned that after the last 4 years(having season ending injuries to top players) but they didnt.
Lets see if they finally learned and sign a top FA or two this time with all of the cap space we have. I say they will, but also thought they were smart enough to add at the deadline to push this team over the top. Maybe that player(s) make the difference in any of those losses we suffered at the end of the season. Im guessing they would have.
Seems like this team has to learn from what they did wrong each year. Couldnt beat the Pats in AFCC? Focus game plan on beating Pats but overlook the Jags in the playoffs and get beat(a year I actually thought we would have gotten by them). Get beat by the Jags not being able to stop the run? Make the changes needed to stop the run and got better in that area, but mess up a bunch of other things...losing to teams we shouldnt have. Now whats to learn? Get rid of the drama?
One year at a time I guess for learning...by then hopefully we dont lose most of our talent. People say we havent won it all with Bell and Brown, thats true but they werent the problem. The defense was. Now watch our defense get better in these next few years but our offense will fall to middle of the pack when Ben leaves. We Better hope we find a QB who can get the ball to the talent we have on offense or those guys wont matter.