Originally Posted by
Edman
When Mike Tomlin entered the fold in 2007, he took over an Veteran Squad who was coming off an uninspired 8-8 campaign after a disastrous season of injuries to Ben, one of which was a devastating motorcycle accident. Everyone in that locker room was a battle tested player who had won a Super Bowl and been deep in the playoffs. He re-energized that team to win another Super Bowl and advanced to another.
The Steelers held onto this core for years, before they all gradually left one by one. Tomlin inserted his own pieces like Mike Wallace, Antonio Brown, and Le'Veon Bell to keep the thing going with Ben, but as we all know, it didn't quite work out. The Steelers continually disappointed throughout the 2010's despite their talent. Couple with some locker room drama and unchecked egos getting out of control resulted in the whole thing breaking apart. One constant remained through all of this: Ben. Ben was the lone holdover from the Cowher years. A franchise quarterback that had already achieved massive success before Tomlin arrived.
Because of this, and call me crazy, Ben wielded a ton of power and influence within the organization and even the locker room. I mean, he pretty much earned it. He's a two-time Super Bowl winning quarterback. He did before Tomlin got here. Tomlin, as much as he could, couldn't actually say "no" to Ben or step on his toes. If he did, he would've been punted out the door. Tomlin had to find compromise with Ben and pretty much kiss his ass as much as he could without disrupting the team. Ben called the shots. Whatever he said, he goes. Todd Haley is the problem. Gone. Antonio Brown is the problem. Gone. Le'Veon Bell is the problem. Gone. Ben endorses Randy Fichtner as his OC of choice. He got it. Speaking of Randy, he was likely put in the same tough position. Do what Ben wants or else. Run the football? Nope. Ben doesn't like that. Playaction passing? Nope. Play behind center? Nope. Ben wants to stay in Shotgun. Run 5-Wide despite Moncrief playing like dogshit and not having the personnel to do it? Fuck it. Do it anyway. Take Wednesdays off? He can. Because that's what Ben wants. What Ben wants, Ben gets. He's the two-time Super Bowl winning quarterback on his way to Canton. Not you.
Antonio Brown is a nutcase, but he may be that crazy as we first thought, aw who am I kidding, he is crazy, but I digress.
Then, Ben has an elbow injury and is out for the year. Mike Tomlin doesn't have to deal with the ego anymore, and is finally free to do what he was hired to do: Coach this football team. This is absolutely 100% Mike Tomlin's team. HIS players, HIS Quarterback(Rudolph), HIS personnel, and without the Cowher shadow in the locker room. Let's hope Mike finally earns his keep. Now is his golden chance to do it.