Tomlin calls losing Bell & Brown a “cleansing.”

[steelhurt]

I think this is Tomlin's "prove it year".
He's under contract for 2019 and 2020.
I don't foresee a contract being offered to him this summer.
And if he keeps letting the inmates run the asylum, especially now that the RB and WR cancers/distractions are gone, and can't get the team to play consistent regardless if they're playing the dregs of the league or the league leaders, than I think he'll come out saying, "2020 is my last season as I wish to take some time off for my family".
From the ol' Bruce Arians' "retirement" playbook.
He would have coached 14 years at that point, which would be more than everyone else in the league sans Darth Hoodie, and tied with Sean Payton if he were to continue that long with the Saints.
I think Tomlin is starting to mirror Chuck Noll's latter years. Cowher was much different circumstances so I won't include him. Cowher wanted out.
For whatever reason, it just seemed like Noll was stuck in a rut and mired in mediocrity. I'm not judging, just saying as it related to Tomlin.
I think CMT has to show the Rooney's/fans that he has control of this and can keep the team focused before the Rooney's write another check.
And I think so much has been said with Rooney saying, "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it" or something of that ilk.

If he doesn't get an extension this summer and they fail to make the playoffs this season, it would be difficult to see him enter the 2020 season as a lame duck coach. He sure as hell wouldn't get an extension prior to 2020 season if we don't make the playoffs. I hope Artie II does not extend him this summer, since that would be foolish.Let him earn the extension this year.

 

[stevielee]

Or maybe gout?

Herpes..... he keeps coming back

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[Ron Burgundy]

I think Tomlin is starting to mirror Chuck Noll's latter years. Cowher was much different circumstances so I won't include him. Cowher wanted out.
For whatever reason, it just seemed like Noll was stuck in a rut and mired in mediocrity. I'm not judging, just saying as it related to Tomlin.

I think the game and the players changed around Chuck Noll and he wasn't able to adapt.
Bill Cowher was burned out.
Shades is simply not good at drafting and developing players, particularly defense, and once Cowher's core was gone he was 13-3 with a lot of close wins when he had a good kicker and 9-6-1 with a lot of close losses when he had a bad kicker. Moral of the story, Shades' teams rarely put anyone away. Cowher was like 96-2-1 when entering the 4th quarter with a lead. Most of Shades' games are nail-biters until the buzzer.

 

[Steelworth]

I agree, Tomlin is no cancer. Chlamydia maybe, if you will, but not cancer.

Nice touch with the "if you will".

Obviously.

 

[Steelworth]

And what did Tomlin do about it? He doesn't get a pass for this mess; he may even deserve most of the blame.

Ugh, it was just a lame play on the thread title and it had nothing to do with Tomlin. They're gone now, he's still here, just hope for the best Bobby Boucher.

 

[stillwright]

There was little he could do about Brown. If Brown had been sent away a year ago, this board would have imploded. Brown had to absolutely earn his trip out of town before the fans would stand for it. As for Bell, I blame all of them, from Tomlin, to Colbert, to Rooney. They should have taken him at his word about not playing under a second tag, and moved on. Bell may have screwed himself financially, but you better believe that the union, and the players around the league were behind what he did. The tag screws short career positions like running backs, and it will be a MAJOR bone of contention when the next labor agreement comes around.

I think if they would have nipped the whole AB issue in the very beginning it would never have blossomed into what it did. Bell saw the special treatment AB got and knew he was just as good of a player as AB and he started to take advantage of the things AB did. Other players saw this. It started a long time ago. It was kept under wraps. Were AB and Bell "me first" selfish players? Yep.....but Tomlin allowed the seed to grow very early. The culture that they are now trying to cleanses themselves of was able to blossom because of only one person. Tomlin.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

If he doesn't get an extension this summer and they fail to make the playoffs this season, it would be difficult to see him enter the 2020 season as a lame duck coach. He sure as hell wouldn't get an extension prior to 2020 season if we don't make the playoffs. I hope Artie II does not extend him this summer, since that would be foolish.Let him earn the extension this year.

I didn't think he should have got the last extension.

 

[fedderone]

To be fair, if those *** hats had the Steelers 70's D, they'd have some rings.

Perhaps, and you're probably correct.
But our D, albeit it not the Steel Curtain or Blitzburgh, was no schlepps, either.........except the last few years.
Not dominant, but serviceable like the 2000 Rams.
What you're implying is that we SHOULD have been hanging 50/game on teams.......and we probably should have been.
But besides the defensive breakdowns, our O wasn't always clicking, either.
And as more and more things come out, seems Clown liked to "go into business for himself" and/or improvise every play and not stick to his assigned route.

 

[squidkid]

so he talks tough now that they are gone but didnt do anything while they were here causing issues.........

 

[Hines57]

We cleansed the board of cooch too. The arrow is pointing up around here.

 

[tapeANaspirin2it]

And what did Tomlin do about it? He doesn't get a pass for this mess; he may even deserve most of the blame.

No No, the media says it was all Ben’s fault somehow because he dared point out that AB ran a wrong route so then AB had no choice but to act the way he did to be free from such a hostile work environment

 

[Litos]

No No, the media says it was all Ben’s fault somehow because he dared point out that AB ran a wrong route so then AB had no choice but to act the way he did to be free from such a hostile work environment

He felt it almost like slavery...

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[slashsteel]

We cleansed the board of cooch too. The arrow is pointing up around here.

He is only out for a month.

 

[Ike Kelly]

Tomlin calls losing Bell & Brown a “cleansing.”

There was little he could do about Brown. If Brown had been sent away a year ago, this board would have imploded. Brown had to absolutely earn his trip out of town before the fans would stand for it. As for Bell, I blame all of them, from Tomlin, to Colbert, to Rooney. They should have taken him at his word about not playing under a second tag, and moved on. Bell may have screwed himself financially, but you better believe that the union, and the players around the league were behind what he did. The tag screws short career positions like running backs, and it will be a MAJOR bone of contention when the next labor agreement comes around.

Hold a sec......a bit of revisionist history being done here. First off, after the first tag ended, Colbert and Bakari immediately started negotiations with Bell’s contract. Bell himself in January 2018 intimated “they were real close”. And this was after his rap music implying what he wanted. As the CBA allowed, to protect the negotiations, Bell was tagged Exclusive since he said they were close and to not allow another team to interfere. Then in late March 2018 after the tag, Bell speaks of “resetting the market” and changes from wanting 15 mil/yr to 17 mil/yr. All this probably due to his conversation with OBJ. Therefore contradicting what he said in January 2018. The July 15 2018 timeframe came and went even though Bell was offered the largest contract ever offered to a RB (including Gurley). The sticking point was the semantics of guaranteed money. Which anyone who has followed this team knows you sign a large contract and are productive, you are going to get salary bonuses earlier in the contract (like guaranteed money) so as to manage the cap for the length of the contract. He would have probably earned more money than he wanted “guaranteed”.

Bell then mislead the FO a second time by not showing up like he said he was......twice. First at the end of preseason and second the 7th week. Sure Earl Thomas injury had to have given him pause, but that is the risk you take playing the game regardless. He said himself at the end of the year he didn’t show up on week 7 because he agent had found a loop hole in the CBA regarding his vested years.

So to place blame solely on the FO is foolhardy. Sure they could have avoided all this headache and just placed the non-Exclusive tag on him. The problem was the FO wanted Bell to remain a Steeler apparently more than Bell wanted to remain one. He blinked, the Steelers didn’t and it cost Bell 14.5 million.

To say the tag “screws the player” is a misnomer. The NFLPA themselves requested the tag rules to be included in the CBA. The owners allowed it because it gave them a better chance of resigning players to long term contracts and to limit “player hoarding” that some owners embraced while circumventing the cap. (Jones and Snyder). Player agents have caused the tag to be used as leverage which was not the reason it was created.

Finally.....Tomlin has NO involvement in player contract negotiations. Not one iota. That is handled by Colbert, Omar Khan and Art 2. So to blame the Head Coach for contract negotiations is down right an exaggeration of the facts.


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[Ron Burgundy]

So to place blame solely on the FO is foolhardy. Sure they could have avoided all this headache and just placed the non-Exclusive tag on him. The problem was the FO wanted Bell to remain a Steeler apparently more than Bell wanted to remain one. He blinked, the Steelers didn’t and it cost Bell 14.5 million.

Very well said.
I also think that at least part of the reason Bell held out and also wanted more guaranteed money was that he is aware of his injury history. Playing two full seasons in five years is not a good record. So I suspect he wanted a good bit of guaranteed money because he knew his odds of playing a full season and hitting incentive bonuses was slim. And even if he did play and got hurt again (likely) that would lessen what he could ask for as a free agent, if it didn't end his career. Once his agent found a loophole in the CBA I don't think he intended to play at all last year and risk injury.

 

[SteelerFan448]

Great post, Ike! Bell was all over the place in this negotiation process and all but admitted that in his interview with Sports Illustrated.

https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/03/20/leveon-bell-opens-final-season-steelers-exclusive-interview

Bell said his goal was to sit out during training camp and miss the team's Week 1 game against the Browns. It was only after Bell realized that he could miss the entire season and still be franchise tagged by the Steelers that he decided not to return. Bell forfeited eligibility to play after choosing not to sign a franchise tender ahead of a Nov. 13 deadline.

Bell said he almost returned to Pittsburgh for the 2019 season.

“I was so close,” Bell admits now. “Like, I almost [signed] it.”

 

[Ike Kelly]

Very well said.
I also think that at least part of the reason Bell held out and also wanted more guaranteed money was that he is aware of his injury history. Playing two full seasons in five years is not a good record. So I suspect he wanted a good bit of guaranteed money because he knew his odds of playing a full season and hitting incentive bonuses was slim. And even if he did play and got hurt again (likely) that would lessen what he could ask for as a free agent, if it didn't end his career. Once his agent found a loophole in the CBA I don't think he intended to play at all last year and risk injury.

Yeah Ron, spot on. In fact I think one of the talking heads (Bayless?) even commented that why would a player accept incentive laden contracts when they have an injury history? The Jets offered him the best deal, but he had others that were incentive laden. I personally never thought Bell was injury prone. His two knee injuries were freak and purposed in nature. That hammy during the playoff, I remember somewhere a player had punched his hamstring during a pile on tackle.

As for the loophole, I really think the FO didn’t want to prolong the headache, hence not requesting mediation on the decision.


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[Stoney]

I doubt Brown and Bell were the only two players in the locker room with zero respect for Mike Tomlin's ability to coach this team.

 

[Mosh Pitt]

The leadership of the team should come primarily from the defense to keep the pri-madonnas on offense in check. The Steelers tried to change their model investing heavily on offense to mold to the "new" NFL and it has backfired. This has been a bad investment decision and collective failure from the ownership on down to the coach.

Good to see they now realize their mistakes and are going back to basics. The D needs to take back control of the locker room. Hopefully, Watt, Haden, Heyward, Nelson, and now Bush will step up and lead that.

 

[fedderone]

The leadership of the team should come primarily from the defense to keep the pri-madonnas on offense in check. The Steelers tried to change their model investing heavily on offense to mold to the "new" NFL and it has backfired. This has been a bad investment decision and collective failure from the ownership on down to the coach.

Good to see they now realize their mistakes and are going back to basics. The D needs to take back control of the locker room. Hopefully, Watt, Haden, Heyward, Nelson, and now Bush will step up and lead that.

Heyward, Tuitt, Roethlisberger, Pouncey, DeCastro.
From the outside looking in, these are my leaders in the locker room.
Be it leading by example or being the rah rah guy, these are the ones I look to in maintaining the TEAM dynamic and keeping the inmates in check for the warden.
IMHO.

 

[Drink IRON City]

Heyward, Tuitt, Roethlisberger, Pouncey, DeCastro.
From the outside looking in, these are my leaders in the locker room.
Be it leading by example or being the rah rah guy, these are the ones I look to in maintaining the TEAM dynamic and keeping the inmates in check for the warden.
IMHO.

I think BUSH will be in that group very soon as well as JuJu. You have to have leadership from top to bottom, experience wise.

 

[IndySteel]