Orlovsky: Steelers ‘Are Nearer’ To Titans And Jets In QB Purgatory Than Contenders

For the reason that Pittsburgh Steelers misplaced 5 straight video games to finish the common season, together with a blowout playoff loss to the Baltimore Ravens, questions have been requested about Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin.

One media member who has been a passionate defender of Tomlin is ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky. Orlovsky was on Get Up earlier this week and defined that the Steelers quarterback state of affairs is so dangerous that it will be arduous for anybody else to get higher out of the workforce.

“And so to sit down right here and suppose that we’re simply gonna eliminate Mike Tomlin as a corporation, we’re simply gonna go discover one other actually good soccer coach that’s actually sensible, and he’s going to do it nearly as good or higher job, additionally, and not using a quarterback is lunacy,” mentioned Orlovsky. “I imply, quarterback-wise, the Steelers are nearer to the Tennessee Titans and the New York Jets and the Las Vegas Raiders and the Indianapolis Colts than they’re the Baltimore Ravens and the Cincinnati Bengals and the Buffalo Payments.”

Tomlin is clearly a floor-raiser—that’s simple. It’s spectacular that he was capable of get eight wins out of quarterbacks Mason Rudolph and Duck Hodges in 2019 and 10 wins in 2023 with a committee of Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, and Rudolph on the quarterback place. Nonetheless, what’s the finish purpose?

When Tomlin says the “Normal is the Normal,” that customary is successful Tremendous Bowls, not making the playoffs. Proper now, the “Normal” is being lowered to only making the playoffs, and the nationwide media, like Orlovsky, is pushing that.

Certain, the Steelers quarterback place is nearer to the Titans, Jets, Raiders, and Colts than it’s to the Bengals, Ravens, and Payments. Tomlin deserves credit score for maintaining Pittsburgh aggressive, not like the Jets, Raiders, and Colts. However on the similar time, the Steelers, below Tomlin, have handed on nice quarterbacks. Pittsburgh may’ve drafted Ravens QB Lamar Jackson in 2018 however handed on him after which took Rudolph later in that very same draft. Much more egregiously, in 2020, after QB Ben Roethlisberger was coming off season-ending elbow surgical procedure and was 38 years previous, the workforce handed on present Philadelphia Eagles QB Jalen Hurts.

Pittsburgh is in quarterback purgatory proper now, and will probably be arduous for them to enhance as a workforce till they discover their quarterback. However to say Tomlin is nice, and we are able to’t criticize him for persistently shedding within the playoffs is a slap within the face to the followers. He’s an enormous a part of why the quarterback place is a wreck, and his philosophy of caring for the soccer and never being aggressive is just not suited to the 2020s NFL.

The Steelers should not transferring on from Tomlin; they only rebuffed a commerce provide from the Chicago Bears concerning him. It’s a moot level to argue who ought to take over for Tomlin or how the workforce can be with out him. However, Tomlin has performed an enormous half in why the Steelers are very mediocre proper now. As an alternative of singing his praises for a way spectacular it’s for a workforce in quarterback purgatory to repeatedly make the playoffs simply to get blown out within the Wild Card spherical, perhaps Orlovsky and different media members ought to ask why the Steelers are nonetheless in quarterback purgatory.