Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers looked like a different team in the final month of the season. After starting 10-3, they ended the year on a five-game losing streak, including a first-round playoff exit. In short order, they went from competing for a first-round bye to falling out of the first Wild Card seed.

Regardless of where the Steelers started, it was the team they were at the end that played in the playoffs. And Tomlin knows that team deserved what it got. The Ravens didn’t do anything out of the ordinary to win—they simply whooped a weaker team.

“It’s certainly disappointing to be conducting this business today, but I don’t view it as misfortune”, Tomlin began his end-of-season press conference Tuesday, via the Steelers’ website. “There’s football justice. You get what you deserve, and so we’re here, and we’re here for really tangible reasons”.

Those tangible reasons were evident on the football field as the Ravens dominated the Steelers. There wasn’t a button Mike Tomlin could push to make it all better. All he could do was watch as yet another season drew to an unceremonious end.

“We didn’t evolve in the right ways. We didn’t strike the right chords at the right time, particularly down the stretch”, Tomlin said of his Steelers team of 2024. “There’s not a lot of misfortune in this business. Ultimately, you get what you’ve got coming to you. Certainly, as uncomfortable as it is, there better be growth in it for us individually and collectively in an effort to make sure 2025 doesn’t end in a similar way”.

How exactly do Tomlin and the Steelers go about doing that? Well, as he said over and over again, that’s what the coming days, weeks, and months are all about. They have a lot of decisions to make—though the one that doesn’t seem to on the table is Tomlin’s job. He remains committed to the Steelers and the Steelers remain committed to him, until we see otherwise.

There are three major questions the Steelers have to address beyond considerations about Tomlin, which are seemingly moot. First and foremost, they have to ask themselves how to solve the quarterback problem—and if it’s a one-year solution. In my opinion, quite frankly, it is not, because there are no good answers available right now.

Beyond the quarterback situation, Tomlin has to determine who stays and who goes on the Steelers’ coaching staff. Perhaps they will mull changes in the front office, as well, though not at general manager. And then there is the biggest non-quarterback personnel question: the curious case of George Pickens.

Mike Tomlin has as much on his plate this offseason as he ever has, in my opinion. Part of that has to do with the mounting pressure from the outside as his Steelers continue to founder. Because if the Steelers keep deserving these outcomes, then he’ll eventually find football justice coming for him.