Steigerwald: Tomlin or Cowher as Steelers' 2nd-best coach? Right now, it's a tie - TribLIVE

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Who is the second best coach in Pittsburgh Steelers history?

Is it Bill Cowher or Mike Tomlin?

Right now, it’s a close call. Both are 1-1 in the Super Bowl. Cowher coached 15 years and was 149-90-1, a .623 winning percentage. Tomlin is starting his 14th year and is 133-74-1, .642.

Cowher won his only Super Bowl in his 14th season. Tomlin won his first one in his second season and went to two in his first four years.

Tomlin’s accomplishments have been diminished by some because he took over a team that was only two years removed from a Super Bowl win and had a franchise quarterback in Ben Roethlisberger.

In 1992, Cowher took over a team that had won more than nine games once in the previous 12 seasons and had been in the playoffs once in seven years. He went 11-5.

Cowher’s teams went to the playoffs six seasons in a row, including a Super Bowl in 1995, but they had a postseason record of 5-6. Before going on a great 4-0 run to a championship in 2005, Cowher was a losing coach in the postseason at 8-9.

Cowher won seven division championships.

Tomlin has won six.

Cowher had three seasons with 12 or more wins. Tomlin has had four, but Cowher went 15-1 in 2004.

Tomlin never has had a losing season.

Cowher had two back-to-back in 1998-99 and salvaged only a 9-7 season in 2000 because an injury to Kent Graham forced him to give the starting quarterback job back to Kordell Stewart.

He probably deserved to be fired after the 2000 season.

Stewart, who had been banished to wide receiver two seasons earlier, in one of the dumbest coaching decisions in Steelers history, was their team MVP in 2001 when they won 13 games and lost to the Spygate Patriots in the AFC championship game.

Cowher planned to keep Tommy Maddox as the starting quarterback after a disastrous 6-10 season in 2003 and didn’t want to draft a quarterback in 2004, but his boss, Dan Rooney, insisted and Ben Roethlisberger fell into his lap.

If Maddox hadn’t been injured in Week 2 and backup Charlie Batch hadn’t already been injured, Roethlisberger might not have taken a snap in 2004. And there would have been no 15-1 season.

Tomlin is 8-7 in the playoffs after 13 seasons compared to Cowher’s 8-9 and gets a pass for last season because of losing Roethlisberger in Week 2.

At this point I’d have to call it a tie.

What Tomlin does the next two seasons will break the tie one way or the other.

He already has made history this season, though.

Tomlin will be the first Steelers head coach to start a season without playing preseason games. Of course, every coach in the NFL will be making the same history for their teams.

All also will start the season with teams that had no minicamp and no OTAs. You have to believe that a lot of final roster mistakes were made this weekend because every decision will be made based only on practice.

You can be pretty sure there were a lot of young players cut who would/should have made a team based on what they would have shown in games. Some, if not most, never will get another chance.

Every NFL head coach has faced the same issues trying to pick the best team and get ready for games, and that could mean coaching might be more of a factor this season than ever before.

It has been 20 years since a Steelers team missed the playoffs three seasons in a row. It puts Tomlin in great position to break that tie for second place.

He needs to make the playoffs and win at least one game to do it.

John Steigerwald is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.

Categories: John Steigerwald Columns | Sports | Steelers/NFL