When an NFL team struggles one year, you can often point to the roster for answers. When an NFL team struggles for a decade, the attention has to point back at the coaching staff. This is the situation the Pittsburgh Steelers find themselves in with head coach Mike Tomlin. Tomlin seems to be impervious to criticism by Steelers ownership despite a laundry list of missteps in hiring and player acquisition.
One former Steelers player who noticed this and didn’t hesitate to call Tomlin out for it is Charlie Batch. He went on Unsportsmanlike and didn’t hold back about Tomlin’s missteps, starting with the hiring of former offensive coordinator Matt Canada.
“He absolutely deserves all of the blame,” Batch said Friday. “Why is because he hired Matt Canada. That was a disaster for three years. So now, you’re trying to rebuild off of that. You lost the quarterback that you drafted that could possibly fit in the Matt Canada offense with Kenny Pickett.”
No matter what happens in Tomlin’s career with the Steelers, the debacle of hiring Canada and then dragging out firing him will be one of the things Tomlin is best known for. Tomlin has always been a control freak and needs guys like Canada on the staff who he can control, even if it is at the detriment of the team. Batch also talked about Tomlin’s inability to replace Ben Roethlisberger and his inability to develop a young quarterback which makes him content to just signing veterans over and over.
“You had Russell Wilson, Justin Fields last year, but now Aaron Rodgers [is] here,” Bath continued. “He understands that’s what comes with the territory because Steelers fans have been spoiled because Ben Roethlisberger was at the helm for 18 years.”
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