Season’s over, but Tomlin returns to work
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin speaks to reporters Wednesday his season-ending meeting with the media at Steelers headquarters in Pittsburgh.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said Wednesday he saw plenty of things this season that made him optimistic about his team for the 2016 season.
PITTSBURGH – Head coach Mike Tomlin said he saw plenty of good things from the Steelers this season.
But he’s also ready to start over again as the team prepares for 2016.
The Steelers are just a couple of days removed from their 2015 season ending with a 23-16 loss in the AFC Divisional Playoff at Denver, but there will be no rest for Tomlin and his staff.
Once they complete player exit interviews this week, they’ll begin working on getting ready for next season.
“The longer I am on the job, the more respect I have for what we are just beginning to do, and the clearer I see it, in that it’s a tremendous part of what we do to evaluate what we’ve done, its effectiveness, its usefulness, and really to kind of sow the seeds and lay a foundation for 2016 in the midst of that,” said Tomlin, who just completed his ninth season with the Steelers.
“We have the emotions that we have coming off of our last performance. But at the same time, I pause at about just every portion of my day at every point in this thing because I realize some of the things that we are doing right now are extremely critical as we push forward towards 2016.”
That includes meeting with players, assessing his team then working through the draft and free agency before heading into the offseason training programs.
Tomlin was pleased with the progress made with a young team – particularly on defense – lauding the work of first-year defensive coordinator Keith Butler in particular.
“I thought we were continually a group on the rise and that’s what you hope for,” Tomlin said. “I expect those guys to play great defense. They’ve got talent. We’re going to work to put them in position to be successful.”
The Steelers saw marked improvement in turnovers forced (30) and sacks (48) in their first season under Butler and were one of just 11 teams to allow fewer than 20 points per game.
“I was impressed with his work. I was impressed with the work of everyone, to be honest with you,” said Tomlin, who said he wants to bring his staff back intact. “I hadn’t started the details of evaluating performances. I’m just giving you a knee-jerk reaction when I say that. I thought (Butler) did an excellent job, I thought everyone did an excellent job.”
But it still wasn’t enough, as injuries, particularly on offense, consistently left the Steelers without key players for a number of games.
Despite that, the Steelers advanced one game farther in the postseason than they did in 2014 and led the Broncos midway through the fourth quarter Sunday.
“The journey that is the season will stress you in a lot of ways, both individually and collectively,” Tomlin said. “At just about every turn, I was proud of the manner in which our guys dealt with whatever adversity we faced or created. We acknowledge some of the adversity that you face you create over the course of the football journey. I really enjoyed the men, their professionalism, the selflessness, their willingness and their ability to put what we were doing ahead of and in front of maybe what they wanted to do. You don’t take that for granted.”
A number of players put off surgeries until the end of the season so they could continue to play.
That list included safety Mike Mitchell, who will have work done on his left shoulder, and punter Jordan Berry, who injured his right shoulder in the loss to the Broncos. Both will require four months of rehabilitation.
Requiring minor procedures are All-Pro guard David DeCastro and right tackle Marcus Gilbert, who will each have arthroscopic ankle surgeries; and linebacker Ryan Shazier and tight end Matt Spaeth, who will have work done on troublesome knees.
Tomlin said that a number of players who required season-ending surgeries, including All-Pro center Maurkice Pouncey and All-Pro running back Le’Veon Bell, are progressing and are on schedule to return in 2016. … Tomlin was asked if cornerback Cortez Allen, who has ended the past two seasons on injured reserve after signing a $25-million contract extension in 2014, is being counted on as an impact player in 2016. Tomlin simply said, “I’m not.” … All-Pro wide receiver Antonio Brown, who sat out the game against the Broncos while in the NFL concussion protocol, will not participate in the Pro Bowl in two weeks. He was replaced on the roster by Miami’s Jarvis Landry.