Mike Tomlin isn't settling for merely being good during the Steelers' 6-2 start. Neither is his team
PITTSBURGH — Mike Tomlin could have played it safe. Could have stuck with Justin Fields. Could have settled for the weekly rock fights that have been the Pittsburgh Steelers' trademark for a half-decade and counting.
The NFL's longest-tenured coach, however, knew he hadn't seen enough. Not from Fields or the rest of the offense, either.
So Tomlin pulled Fields aside a few days after a relatively easy 19-point win over Las Vegas on Oct. 13 that boosted Pittsburgh's record to 4-2 and told Fields it was time to see if Russell Wilson, now fully recovered from a calf injury, could still cook.
Asked if it was a tough discussion considering Fields had accounted for 10 touchdowns against one turnover, Tomlin shrugged.
“I don’t worry about the difficulty of conversations,” he said at the time. “It’s about whether or not they’re necessary. We’re pursuing big business here. Comfort is not a component of what we’re chasing.”
Neither, it seems, is complacency.
The NFL's most stable franchise is evolving, working with a type of urgency it has perhaps lacked at times during a playoff victory drought that's at seven years and counting.
It's why the Steelers blew up the quarterback room during the offseason and why Tomlin turned to Wilson in mid-October and essentially said, “Let's see what you got."
Turns out, more gas in the tank than Wilson's abrupt exit in Denver would have people believe.
The 35-year-old has thrown for 542 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions in wins over the New York Jets and New York Giants. The offense topped 400 yards in both games, something the Steelers hadn't done in consecutive weeks since 2018.
It's a promising start, though Wilson acknowledged it's just that — a start.
“We have great confidence (but) we haven’t done everything yet,” Wilson said. “We’re obviously sitting here at 6-2, which is a great thing, but it doesn’t mean anything.”
Reaching the playoffs hasn't been the issue for Pittsburgh, which has made it to the postseason in three of the last four years. The problem has been the Steelers often look overmatched once they get there, lacking the firepower to keep up with teams like the Bills and Chiefs.
That may be changing in 2024. Pittsburgh has reached 20 points in five of its last six games, something it hasn't done since its 11-0 start in 2020, taking some of the pressure off a defense that has spent the last three years well aware that it could ill afford to get into a shootout.
While cornerback Joey Porter Jr. downplayed the idea the defense has more wiggle room than usual — trotting out a variation of Tomlin's “the standard is the standard” motto — Pittsburgh's ability to score more often has allowed defensive coordinator Teryl Austin to be even more aggressive.
The Steelers are tied for second in the NFL with 15 takeaways, many of them momentum-changers like T.J. Watt's strip-sack of Daniel Jones and Beanie Bishop's clinching interception in the fourth quarter against the Giants, part of what outside linebackers coach Denzel Martin describes as a turnover “culture.”
There's even T-shirts to match. Coaches will hand them out after Saturday walkthroughs. They come with their own color code. Get one, it's a white shirt. Get two, it's a gray shirt. Get three, it's a black shirt. Watt and Bishop are racking them up with increasing frequency.
Yet, all is not perfect. The Giants gashed the Steelers for 157 yards rushing, not the best indicator for a team whose second-half schedule includes four games combined with Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia, three of the most productive running teams in the league.
New York's productivity on the ground was a sobering, and in some ways welcome, reminder of the considerable work that lies ahead.
“I think that’s good to be able to win ‘in spite of’ sometimes,” Austin said. “And so I’m real confident in our group coming back and working our tail off to be better when we line up and play next.”
It's a methodology that trickles from the top down.
Tomlin's message when he switched quarterbacks was simple: Good is no longer good enough. While Watt and defensive end Cam Heyward — now the longest-tenured defensive player in team history — are building resumes worthy of Hall of Fame consideration, neither has reached a Super Bowl. Watt, in fact, is still waiting for his first playoff victory.
“We can’t get comfortable because we know that we just got to, we got a lot of tough, tough games, a lot of tough ball ahead of us,” outside linebacker Alex Highsmith said. “And so we know our ultimate goal. And so we know we just got to always want to get better and have that championship detail.”
Something Wilson knows a little bit about. He arrived in Pittsburgh in March eager to resurrect his career after two underwhelming seasons with the Broncos. It's early — very early — but his play so far has validated Tomlin's decision to shake up the status quo and maybe set Pittsburgh on a path that's been a slippery slope since reaching the AFC championship in 2016.
“You want to be on the rise as you go,” Wilson said. “I think we’re on that journey right now. We’re on that train of just continuing to grow. I think that’s an exciting thing for this football team, what we’re doing, how we’re doing it.”
