2024 NFL Head Coaching Carousel

This is the key point, and one that anybody who says a coach “must” be fired must be made to answer: Who will you replace him with, and how will that guy be better?

 

Ace ... is that you?

 

The Trailblazers one is particularly annoying to me since Phil Knight publicly offered to buy the team.

 

That's funny. And here I thought the GM's job was to give away franchise running backs, give away numerous picks to grab a No. 1, not put an offensive line in front of new No. 1 pick and stand idly by as the team owner tosses drinks at opposing fans. Weird.

 

John Harrington, Jean Yawkey's executor, held onto the Red Sox for 10 years and the trust even bought out the third partner in the team. (Harrington owned the other share.) It can happen.

 

Nobody’s that good.

 

I wouldn't know why Tomlin had much input on drafting Pickett.

Pickett's not it.

He doesn't throw touchdowns. He ranked last among starters in TD%.

Behind Brice Young.

And Mac Jones.

He also ranked last in 2022.

 

I doubt the Steelers knew who they were going to hire to replace Cowher when he stepped down after the 2006 season. Most people thought it was going to be Russ Grimm or Ken Whisenhunt, who were both on Cowher's staff. Hell, one Pittsburgh writer notoriously reported that Grimm did get the job. (Supposedly, his source either screwed up or intentionally screwed him over. He didn't make it up, but damn, that could have been a career killer.) No fans knew who Mike Tomlin was at the time. Neither did most of the journalists and columnists in Pittsburgh. That worked out okay.

 

That’s my opinion of his.

 

No one knew who Cowher was when he replaced Noll. Also it’s hard to believe that Tomlin’s been in Pittsburgh longer than Cowher, who has Pittsburgh written all over him, was.

 

Unless everyone involved has been lying for years, Tomlin has always had input into draft picks. It was Colbert's last draft. He was retiring as soon as it was done. I can't imagine Rooney allowing him to take a quarterback Tomlin didn't want and he knew Pickett very well.

Pickett has shown flashes despite a ridiculously-conservative offense run by a coordinator who was so bad that the team fired him mid-season, something the Steelers hadn't done in decades. He did it behind a line that was, at best, erratic.

No, I don't think he has shown he can be the guy. I think he's at least going to get one more year to compete for the job with the hopes that a competent offensive coaching staff can fix him. I'm dubious about that happening, but I understand the logic behind it. Also, this is the Steelers. They are stubbornly, sometimes stupidly, patient.