PITTSBURGH — Reports out of New England indicate Bill Belichick might have to win a playoff game this season to save his job. That’s despite the fact he has led the Patriots to nine Super Bowls over the years, winning six.
Speculation in Pittsburgh has Mike Tomlin almost certainly getting another contract extension before Steelers training camp opens on Wednesday. That’s despite the fact his teams have missed the playoffs in three of the past five seasons and haven’t won a postseason game since 2016.
Two very different organizations.
Two very different standards for their coach.
You know all about the way the Steelers do business. The Rooneys long have believed in continuity with their coach. That’s why the organization has had just three coaches in the past 54 years since Chuck Noll was hired in 1969. That’s why it stuck with Bill Cowher after he had three consecutive non-playoff seasons from 1998-2000. That’s why it will ride again and again with Tomlin despite his recent failures, which include just three playoff wins since the 2010 season.
Live with it.
Tomlin will be the Steelers coach for this season and beyond even if the team misses the playoffs again. Odds makers have the team as the fourth-betting choice in the AFC North behind the Bengals, Ravens and Browns.
The New England situation is curious in a much different way. Like the Steelers are the long shot in their division, the Patriots are picked to finish fourth in the AFC East behind the Bills, Jets and Dolphins.
Owner Robert Kraft has sent mixed messages about Belichick during this offseason. At times, he has said he still believes in his coach: “I think Bill is exceptional at what he does. His football intellect and knowledge is unparalleled from what I’ve seen.”
But at other times, Kraft has said he expects more than his coach has given him recently: “In the end, this is a business. You either execute and you win or you don’t. That’s where we’re at.”
The Patriots are 25-25 in the three seasons since Tom Brady left. They missed the playoffs in two of the past three seasons. They haven’t won a postseason game since 2018, their most recent Super Bowl season.
“I was very disappointed with the way our season went [in 2022],” Kraft said at the NFL owners meetings in March.
It was easy to blame Belichick for the Patriots’ 8-9 finish last season. He had no sensible plan after offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels left to take the Las Vegas Raiders’ head job after the 2021 season. Belichick turned over the offense and play-calling duties to novices Matt Patricia and Joe Judge. The results were awful. Second-year quarterback Mac Jones took a big step backward.
“I thought changes had to be made,” Kraft said.
The Patriots brought back Bill O’Brien to be their offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach. He had been a Belichick assistant from 2007-11 before taking the Penn State job in 2012. Better things are expected from Jones with O’Brien in charge of the offense. O’Brien is a terrific coach.
Kraft also gave linebackers coach Jerod Mayo a big raise to — according to the Boston Globe — “keep him off the coaching market.” Globe columnist Ben Volin suggested Kraft looks at Mayo “as the team’s coach-in-waiting.”
That could make for an interesting dynamic at Patriots headquarters this season.
“My objective for our team is that we make the playoffs,” Kraft said.
Belichick’s future is complicated by his place in NFL history, which goes beyond his record six Super Bowl wins. With 329 regular-season and postseason wins, he needs 19 to pass Don Shula as the winningest coach in league history.
Belichick is 71.
It’s hard to imagine Kraft firing him before he takes his best shot at that record.
Or is it?
You have heard of the standard being the standard, right?
I’m thinking Kraft doesn’t look at that catchphrase the same way Art Rooney II does.
