Steelers' Mike Tomlin ranked fourth-best NFL coach for 2022 season

For a piece published last month, Pro Football Network ranked Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers third overall among NFL head coaches heading into the 2022 season. Tomlin was behind only Andy Reid of the Kansas City Chiefs and New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick on that list. 

While Tomlin holds an overall regular-season record of 154-85-2, he has gone 8-9 in the playoffs (1-1 in Super Bowl games). It's also worth noting he'll enter training camp later this month without future Hall of Famer Ben Roethlisberger atop the depth chart at the quarterback position for the first time during his Pittsburgh tenure. 

Earlier this week, Cody Benjamin of CBS Sports ranked Tomlin as the league's fourth-best head coach behind Reid (No. 1), Sean McVay of the Los Angeles Rams (No. 2), and Belichick (No. 3). 

"The lack of recent deep-playoff success is a concern, as the Steelers are a combined 3-7 in the postseason since losing the Super Bowl in 2010," Benjamin explained. "Tomlin's teams are also good for at least one annual clunker, and his in-game decision-making occasionally gets wonky. But man, would other organizations love to have such a consistent, attentive leader. Even when crises strike on and off the field, he never lets the ship sink. You've heard the stat aplenty: in 15 years, he's never once had a losing record. The question is, can he elevate their structure, with all-around physicality trumping QB certainty, to big-game success?" 

Free-agent signing Mitchell Trubisky is the heavy favorite to be Tomlin's QB1 for Week 1 over popular first-round draft selection Kenny Pickett. If Tomlin can help turn Trubisky into a playoff-caliber signal-caller, he could find his name atop power rankings for NFL head coaches at this time next year.