The Pittsburgh Steelers, like the other 31 teams in the NFL, have had their fair share of trouble when it comes to properly using timeouts and knowing when to throw the challenge flag. NFL fans around the world have often questioned why teams do not hire game management coordinators who have the sole job of knowing when to use timeouts and burn their challenges. Recently, the Los Angeles Rams and their Head Coach Sean McVay hired a game management coordinator to help McVay use his timeouts in ways that will best benefit the team.
Steelers Should Follow In The Rams’ Footsteps
McVay is considered one of the best head coaches in the NFL, and is one of the best innovative offensive minds in the league. Every hiring cycle, teams around the league are trying to get their hands on one of the guys that stem from McVay’s coaching tree due to his excellence on the offensive side of ball. Even McVay will admit that he has his faults, and he brought in John Streicher as his game management coordinator to help him with timeouts and challenges. McVay spoke with NBC Sports about the hire and explained his expectations for the role.
“Help me not use my timeouts in the second half until I need to. This game management coordinator, there’s a select group of people who have really earned a great reputation around the league. There’s an innate understanding of the rules and how to be able to use those to your advantage, clock management, some of the situational things that do end up coming up.”
Streicher spent the last six seasons with the Tennessee Titans in many different roles, and he caught the eye of McVay. This is something Mike Tomlin and the Steelers should search for. Tomlin has often been questioned for his challenge calls, and his use of timeouts when it comes to clock management at the end of the first half or at the end of the game.
Tomlin has a bad reputation when it comes to utilizing his challenges in a game. He’s either challenging plays that shouldn’t be challenged, or refusing to throw the red flag when he should. The most recent challenge debacle involving Tomlin came in the Steelers’ Week 12 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals during the 2023 season. The Steelers were driving on their second offensive possession of the game, and Kenny Pickett found Diontae Johnson in the back of the end zone.
It was ruled on the field that Johnson did not have control of the ball and he did not score. The next play Jaylen Warren fumbled and the Bengals recovered. It was later revealed that Johnson did in fact catch the ball, and the play should have resulted in a touchdown for Pittsburgh. Had Tomlin thrown the red flag, the Steelers would have been in a much better position to win the game.
In his long career as the head coach of the Steelers, Tomlin has challenged a play on 93 occasions. He has lost 53 of those challenges. On two separate occasions, Tomlin has gone back to back years without winning a challenge. He had zero successful challenges in four attempts between 2021 and 2022, and between 2017 and 2018, he had zero successful challenges in nine attempts.
The NFL changed the challenge rules ahead of the 2011 season and again before the 2012 season. In 2011, all scoring plays were automatically reviewed and in 2012 all turnovers became automatically reviewed. Before these changes, Tomlin had a success rate of 56.5 percent on challenges. Since 2011, his success rate dropped down to 38.8 percent, and since 2012, it has been 37.7%.
It’s safe to say Tomlin could use some help from someone in a game management coordinator role when it comes to throwing the challenge flag. He also has shown he needs assistance deciding when to use timeouts. The Steelers burned a timeout early in the second half of their Wild Card loss to the Buffalo Bills in 2023, and there were many instances throughout the season when the offense did not have enough time to score at the end of the first half due to improper timeout usage.
