Why Mike Tomlin never had playoff success with the Killer B’s
If I had a penny for each time someone mentioned Mike Tomlin “wasting a lot of talent” I’d have a lot of pennies – maybe a few rolls worth in which to smack that person over the head with!
Yes, we all know the storylines by now: Mike Tomlin has only won three playoff games since his last Super Bowl appearance, and defeat, following the conclusion of the 2010 NFL season.
And yes, that narrative is old and annoying as well, but none is worse than the number of comments frothing at the mouth as to what Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell are “accomplishing” by playing in this year’s Super Bowl.
The insinuation is that each of those players is a major contributor to their new teams and have found success by getting out of Pittsburgh: that couldn’t be further from the truth. (As detailed in a previous article I wrote.) While on the surface that statement stings, it further hurts to see fans who have completely forgotten the circumstances in which the Steelers previous seasons had fallen with those talents in the locker room.
At one juncture, the Steelers had a stable of budding young stars collectively nicknamed the “Killer B’s”. While the term came to include Ben Roethlisberger, and jokingly Chris Boswell, three of those “B’s” included Brown and Bell, as well as WR Martavis Bryant.
Critics of Mike Tomlin claim that he couldn’t win with this all-star lineup, yet, this lineup was infrequently available to him through most of the mid-2010’s.
Antonio Brown was always an ironman, seldom missing a game. However, Big Ben sustained injuries which saw the Steelers turn to quarterbacks such as Byron Leftwich, Charlie Batch, Michael Vick and Landry Jones at different times.
Furthermore, Bryant, who was drafted in 2014 and exploded onto the scene his rookie season, was often unavailable in games due to various suspensions (and some minor injuries). Bell befell the suspension bug on more than one occasion as well as two serious knee injuries.
All are lost to time as critics complain about Tomlin wasting talent: but how does one waste talent that they do not have?
Bell missed the first three games of his rookie season, where the Steelers started 0-4, and finished 8-8 – still in the playoff race which amazingly came down to a Chargers overtime win over the Chiefs in Week 17.
When the Steelers qualified for the postseason in 2014, Bell was injured in the final week of the season and replaced by free agent Ben Tate, and undrafted practice squad running back Josh Harris. Tate was responsible for two turnovers in the playoff loss, which also saw QB Bruce Gradkowski play his only snaps ever for the Steelers as Roethlisberger left the field for 3-4 plays.
In 2015, Bryant missed the first five games of his sophomore season. The Steelers limped into the playoffs without Le’Veon Bell, who was injured in the sixth game of the year. His replacement, DeAngelo Williams, was also injured heading into an improbably playoff win in Cincinnati which also saw Ben Roethlisberger get momentarily knocked out of the game and replaced by Landry Jones.
Also knocked out of the game was Antonio Brown, who was concussed by Vontaze Burfict and would miss the following week’s Divisional Round game against Peyton Manning’s Denver Broncos. The Steelers would lose that game, in part, due to a fumble by third-string running back Fitzgerald Toussaint.
The Killer B’s were almost at full strength in 2016. I say almost, because Bryant was suspended for the full season.
Heading into the playoffs, the Steelers squashed the Miami Dolphins when Le’Veon Bell, playing in his first playoff game for Pittsburgh in his fourth pro season, broke Franco Harris’ single game postseason rushing record.
Bell would break the record again the following week in a Divisional Round win over Kansas City, before getting injured and exiting the first quarter of the AFC Championship game, a loss to the New England Patriots.
Up until this point the Steelers had still not had Bell, Brown and Bryant on the field at the same time for any playoff game.
After finishing the 2017 regular season with a 13-3 record, they would.
Unfortunately, they would also have a huge hole in the middle of their defense while turning the ball over on offense in a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars where 42 points weren’t enough to win.
The loss, following a season where the Steelers felt robbed of the first seed against the Patriots (i.e. “Jesse Caught It”) and the loss of Dan Rooney (the team wore “DMR” patches on their uniforms for the season) is likely one of the most disappointing seasons in recent memory. Doubling down on the disappoint was the near crippling of LB Ryan Shazier, who enabled the Jaguars to attack the middle of the Steelers defense and kept them at bay – the team also wore shirts bearing Shazier’s number 50 uniform number as well.
The team wouldn’t be quite the same over next two seasons as Bryant was traded to the Raiders in the offseason and Bell would sit out the entire year, making way for James Conner.
A late season slump with questionable officiating calls in losses against the Chargers and Saints, as well as the “x-ray machine incident” which saw Joshua Dobbs takeover for Big Ben in an Oakland loss, tainted 2018 and saw the Steelers miss the playoffs.
However, they were still in the running, with some possible help, heading into the final week of the season. Antonio Brown’s tantrums, which became more noticeable over time too, saw the receiver walking out of practice and being benched for that game.
- Brown left the sideline at halftime, demanding a trade in the offseason.
- Bell would sign with the Jets when free agency began in March.
And Ben Roethlisberger?
He would prepare to be the Steelers starting quarterback for 2019, but got injured by halftime in the Steelers second game against the Seahawks and would land on Injured Reserve, missing the remainder of the year.
How all of this adds up to Tomlin not winning with talent is beyond my comprehension. There is a sense of disappointment in the last two playoff losses in 2017 and most recently in 2020. That much cannot be understated.
However, in regard to the Killer B’s being squandered? That much is baloney.
Ben, Bell, Brown and Bryant all played together in exactly one postseason game. Had Mike Tomlin had his team at full strength during any of the other playoff appearances since 2010, perhaps we would be talking about his postseason record a lot differently.
As it stand, the Steelers head coach was dealt a bad hand to attempt to win with – something I seriously doubt any other coach could’ve overcome given the circumstances.
