Why Mike Tomlin Is Continually ‘a Guy on the Rise’

The Steelers coach sets reasonable expectations for his team. Plus, notes on Jack Jones, Kellen Moore, Chandler Jones, J.K. Dobbins, and the pass-rush market.

Emptying the notebook with everything quiet on the NFL front …

• Video of Steelers coach Mike Tomlin addressing his team went viral last week—and it again illustrated the way he’s been able to remain effective over 16 seasons, a run that is now one year longer than Bill Cowher, his predecessor in Pittsburgh.

“It’s always good to acknowledge reasonable expectations,” Tomlin told his players. “I expect you to get better in all areas, man, whether it’s the knowledge relative to what it is you do, the maintenance, the preparation of your body, the understanding of the game, etc., etc., etc. You need to continually be a guy on the rise. That is a reasonable expectation.”

It’s also an expectation he has for himself, and holds himself to, which is why his message resonates with his players.

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Tomlin has remained effective over 16 seasons as Pittsburgh's coach, one year long than Bill Cowher :: David Dermer/USA TODAY Sports

Back in April, we recounted what Tomlin told me over the summer of 2021, how he used his annual trip through the pro day circuit for professional development, by meeting with recruiting staffers and social media creators at college football’s best programs, to see what’s getting through to this generation of teenagers. Likewise, he’s one of the most well-connected coaches in the pro ranks, and just as he’s a resource to younger coaches coming up and his peers alike, he’s able to tap into those folks to improve what he’s doing.

So, yeah, it’s easy for Tomlin to tell his guys to be guys on the rise, because he is one himself.

• In light of second-year Patriots corner Jack Jones’s arrest at Boston’s Logan International Airport on Friday night, it’s fair to take a look, again, at the NFL’s gun problem.

Jones was charged with two counts of four different offenses—possession of a concealed weapon in a secure area of the airport, possession of ammunition without a firearm identification card, unlawful possession of a firearm, carrying a loaded firearm and possession of a large-capacity feeding device. The final of those four is the most serious of the charges, and carries a minimum prison term of two and a half years.

The arrest happened when Jones brought two loaded weapons through a TSA checkpoint.

And a quick run through USA Today’s NFL arrest database shows that his arrest is (at least) the 17th time an NFL player has been arrested on gun charges since March 2020. There’s a name that shows up on that list twice (Frank Clark), and even a date that shows up on that list twice (Ed Oliver and Cody Latimer were both arrested May 16, 2020), and that’s not great at a time when gun control is such a hot-button issue in our country.

The truth is, it wouldn’t be good, really, at any point in time. So it’ll be interesting to see how the NFL handles this one, with a player who fell in the draft just 14 months ago because of a litany of issues he had over his college years, both at USC and at Arizona State. Jones was also suspended last year by the Patriots for missing and being late to rehab sessions (after which he talked back to Bill Belichick). None of those things are league matters, but they do add layers and context to this story., and could influence the NFL’s decision-making.

Also worth considering is how the NBA came down on Ja Morant. The Grizzlies star was suspended for eight games in March for brandishing a gun in a nightclub on Instagram Live, and another 25 games last week after showing up, again, on social media with a gun. The NFL hasn’t typically been as draconian, though Clark was suspended for two games last year for his 2021 arrests.

Ball’s in the league’s court

• One leftover from my Chargers story Monday—it was really clear how excited Kellen Moore is to work with Justin Herbert. And that’s notable to me in that Moore, over his 11 years in the league, has worked with Matthew Stafford, Tony Romo and Dak Prescott, so he has some pretty good context.

There was what Moore said in yesterday’s column about Herbert’s uncanny recall in working through play calls. Then, there’s the physical part of it.

“Yeah, there’s some obvious stuff,” Moore says, laughing. “The biggest thing is obviously his arm talent. But his combination of size, throwing ability, athleticism, I mean, there’s only a few on earth that can have that combination, and play at such a high level. It’s really fun to see. I was a 6-foot, kind of hanging-on quarterback for six years. And I laugh, there’s a few throws sometimes he makes that I say, I would never think about trying that throw, but here we are. It’s opened my eyes to some things.”

With the idea from here being, of course, that some eye-opening play is on its way.

• With NFL teams now shutting down for the next few weeks, there are still some notable names out there on the market, including a number of big-name pass-rushers. Of course, Jadeveon Clowney, Yannick Ngakoue and Justin Houston aren’t what they were five years ago. But they all still can add to a team’s pass rush, and that’s something coaches are always looking for.

A market for such players has been set, too, with Leonard Floyd signing in Buffalo for $7 million (with upside to $9 million) and Clark getting $5.5 million in Denver (with upside to $7.5 million). We’ll see where it takes Clowney, Ngakoue and Houston come July (or August).

• I can’t blame J.K. Dobbins for rattling cages about a new contract. No, it probably won’t work, because he’s been hurt, and hasn’t fulfilled the promise he showed as a rookie. But doing this now should at least smoke out how the Ravens value him, and maybe it does get him something on a modest extension. And, by the way, I wouldn’t blame Jonathan Taylor for making noise over the next month, either.

After the free-agent running back market topped out around $6 million in March (David Montgomery’s and Miles Sanders’s deals averaged out in Detroit and Carolina), those guys should do all they can to get every last dime they can.

• Was interesting seeing Chandler Jones has slimmed down to try and bounce back after an up-and-down first year with the Raiders. Another thing that should help with the presence of first-round pick Tyree Wilson once Wilson is ready to roll.

Part of Las Vegas’s logic in drafting Wilson was rooted in the belief that they played both Jones and Maxx Crosby too much last year, and that creating a rotation, as well as some creative nickel packages that have all three of them on the field at the same time, should allow for the team to get more out of everyone. Crosby played more than 96% of the team’s defensive snaps for the season, while Jones was over 87% in four of his last five games of 2022.

USC's Caleb Williams is the top prospect in the 2024 NFL draft :: Kirby Lee/USA Today network

• With the NBA draft coming, and unicorn Victor Wembanyama set to go first, I think it’s worth mentioning here that the NFL has a guy coming in its next draft that may not be as rare a prospect as the 7'3" French phenom, but is pretty special in his own right.

That guy is Caleb Williams. I made calls about next year’s draft class last week, and I can say that the sentiment I got on the USC Heisman winner is pretty unanimous.

“I can’t wait for the one scout that tries to tear him apart like they did with Andrew Luck,” UAB coach Trent Dilfer, who's seen all these guys throw since high school, told me Saturday. “Like, C’mon, guys, sometimes you don’t have to be negative. There’s nothing not to like.”

We’ll have a good rundown on next year’s quarterback class coming for you in early July.

• Antonio Brown never ceases to make headlines.

• The buzz on Jordan Love’s pretty good coming out of the spring.

• Last year, the NFL announced the Lions as the 2022 Hard Knocks team on March 28. So that we don’t have news on that is a pretty good sign that HBO and NFL Films might have to, to borrow a phrase, take a hostage rather than a volunteer this year.