Colin Cowherd Says Mike Tomlin Deserves Criticism For Offensive Struggles

The offense continues to be a big question mark for Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers heading into the 2024 NFL season.

After having an offense that ranked 25th in yards per game (304.3) in 2023, the Steelers made the move to salter their offense by completely changing the quarterback room. They moved on from Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, and Mason Rudolph by replacing them with the duo of Russell Wilson and Justin Fields.

While it’s just the preseason, the duo hasn’t been able to create much offense with just three points to show for it through 13 combined drives for the two quarterbacks. The offense has been a struggle since the best days of Ben Roethlisberger at quarterback, which was the 2018 season when they were fourth in offensive yards per game (403.3).

Colin Cowherd has taken notice and is sending criticism toward the Steelers head coach. On Monday’s edition of “The Herd” on Fox Sports, Cowherd said that Tomlin is the person to blame as the offense looks on track to struggle for yet another season.

“They are just inept offensively,” Cowherd said. “Young, old, Mason Rudolph — doesn’t matter who the quarterback is. Justin Fields and Russell Wilson are running for their lives. So this is Mike Tomlin’s culture, it’s his locker room. It’s his offensive coordinator. It’s his responsibility. They haven’t been good for like seven years in that area and they can’t produce a rhythm now, last year, the year before, the year before. Again, I think Tomlin would be a great broadcaster. I don’t think he’s a bad coach. But we’re running Andy Reid out of Philly and Pete Carroll out of the NFL and Bill Belichick out of New England. This is the coach’s responsibility. How many OCs have we had in the last seven years? This is an organization like Green Bay that drafts and develops really well. It’s on Mike.”

Even with the continued struggles of the offense, Tomlin has been able to push the Steelers to the playoffs in three of the last four seasons. But they’ve been unable to get out of the NFL Wild Card Round in those three seasons.

With the 2024 season set to start on Sep. 8, Tomlin and the coaching staff will need to find answers quickly if they want to make the playoffs (and further) this season. Especially with how stacked the AFC North is looking.

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