Steelers president Art Rooney II said Wednesday that he was not unhappy overall with his team's season, despite a loss to Jacksonville in the AFC Divisional Playoffs that saw Pittsburgh knocked from the postseason one round earlier than it had been the previous year.
Speaking to a select group of media, Rooney said he could not overlook the fact the team went 13-3 and grabbed a first-round bye in the postseason. But, he noted, there was some obvious disappointment over not at least advancing to the AFC Championship, as the Steelers had done in 2016.
"Obviously it was a disappointing end to the season," Rooney said. "Disappointing in the sense we didn't take advantage of the opportunity of having the second seed, the bye, the kind of things that set you up for a run in the playoffs. That part of it's disappointing. The other side of it is winning 13 games in this league isn't easy. We accomplished some of the things you set out to accomplish, winning the division, putting ourselves in position to have the bye. All of those things are positives we can hopefully build on going forward."
The Steelers lost, 45-42, to Jacksonville in their first playoff game, ending their season abruptly Jan. 14.
Many pointed to comments that were made by both Mike Tomlin prior to the Steelers' Dec. 17 loss to the Patriots, and then by safety Mike Mitchell and running back Le'Veon Bell, that the Steelers were looking past Jacksonville to a rematch with New England in the AFC Championship. But Rooney didn't feel that was the main factor in the team's loss.
"I would say that you don't win 13 games in this league if you're not a focused group," Rooney said. "That is the barometer that I use to say, 'Did we have a problem here?' Here and there, there was maybe a comment that I would have rather not seen. But I look at it, those two turnovers in the first half had more to do with what happened in the Jacksonville game than anybody's comments before the game. We played some good teams this year, and probably the biggest problem you have is when you turn the ball over against good teams. It's not a good thing. Certainly that was the case in both of the Jacksonville games. I have a hard time putting a lot of weight on a comment here or there."
Ben Roethlisberger threw a career-high five interceptions in a 30-9 loss to Jacksonville Oct. 8, having two returned for touchdowns. In the postseason loss, the Steelers turned the ball over twice, with both leading directly to touchdowns. Because of that, Rooney also wasn't about to blame Tomlin for the playoff loss.
Pro Football Talk reported some of the team's limited partners were crafting a letter to Rooney to push for Tomlin to be fired.
"I didn't get that letter yet," Rooney said. "I don't know if it got lost in the mail or if it's coming by Pony Express. I'm not sure what happened."
Rooney said Tomlin, who has a career record of 116-60 and an 8-7 record in the postseason, has his full support.
"To me, in both of the Jacksonville games, turnovers were the main issues. In part, that's Mike's problem, but that's mostly the guys on the field have to make sure it doesn't happen," Rooney said. "And some of it was good plays by Jacksonville. There's a lot that goes into it. Anybody that wants to look at Mike's track record since he's been our coach, I think it speaks for itself."
Tomlin has led the Steelers to two Super Bowls, winning once in 2009. But the Steelers are 3-4 in the postseason since their last Super Bowl appearance in 2010, causing some to question Tomlin's long-term effectiveness.
"It's always easy for people to say, 'Get rid of your coach,' " Rooney admitted. "OK, who are you hiring next? There's another part to that question that people don't want to get into. I'm very comfortable that Mike is our coach and happy that he is our coach. I think he's one of the best coaches in the NFL."
Tomlin did not renew the contract of offensive coordinator Todd Haley after the playoff loss, elevating quarterbacks coach Randy Fichtner to replace him. Receivers coach Richard Mann retired, while Wednesday, defensive backs coach Carnell Lake announced he was not returning in 2018. Lake said he wanted to watch his youngest son play high school football.
Rooney hinted the changes to Tomlin's staff might not be complete.
"We are still working through contract situations with some of the staff members," Rooney said. "As we've seen recently, you can't count anybody out until the contract is signed. We're still working through some of that."
More coming.