The End of An Era

Image courtesy of Post Gazette.

By Avery Saylor

There is no debate. The Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers share one of the most historic and passion-filled rivalries in the AFC and even the entire NFL itself. For the past 18 years, the Steelers-Ravens rivalry has been defined by the careers of head coaches Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh. Their careers have featured 44 total games. Tomlin’s Steelers lead the rivalry in the regular season and postseason. Each time Tomlin and Harbaugh meet on the field, the games are rooted in deep mutual respect and heated competition, often resulting in a buzzer-beater game. 

However, this all quickly came to a halt following the end of the 2025 regular season when Harbaugh was fired for missing the playoffs, and Tomlin stepped down seven days later following another consecutive playoff loss. In these seven days, the AFC North was completely flipped upside down. Many fans from both teams were enraged by the choice.

Now, each of these coaches is phenomenal in their own right; the choice to fire them is extremely questionable. However, this is not an isolated incident. In just the past season, there have been 10 changes to the head coaching staff alone, which is a significant increase from previous years. For example, there were only about five coaching changes following the 2020 season. 

The question of why there has been an increase in staffing changes remains. Mike Tomlin shared some insight on the subject when he was interviewed on the Rich Eisen show, saying, “I just think it’s a larger example of today’s sport culture in terms of not a lot of patience and the entertainment component of what it is that we do. There’s just not a lot of longevity.” As Tomlin explains, modern sports culture is driven by a “win-now” mentality, so when a team is not winning championships, head coaches are often the first to blame because they are the most publicized figures on the coaching staff.

Therefore, head coaches are often used as scapegoats and fired first so teams can show impatient fans they are trying to address the issue. However, this is often a duct tape solution for deeper organizational issues.

In the case of the Steelers, Mike Tomlin had to fight the Pittsburgh roster, and while the head coach has input on a team’s roster, he does not have the final say. Therefore, the responsibility for the decline in talent does not rest fully on Tomlin’s shoulders. Furthermore, in the question of the playoffs, Pittsburgh easily had the worst roster out of any team. 

For the question of the defense, Pittsburgh’s defense, while still formidable, is also incredibly old. When paired with a young offense that frequently goes three and out, the defense is on the field for most of the game and cannot keep up with younger teams, even with their talent and experience.

However, the reason for the failed offense does not rest on the rookies alone; it also rests on their former offensive coordinator, Arthur Smith. Arthur Smith was one of the league’s most terrible coordinators, not only failing to produce yards but also failing to create any sort of passing game and making what I would call a poor excuse of a running game. Pittsburgh hasn’t exactly gotten it easy when it comes to offensive coordinators because, before Smith, there was Matt Canada, and I won’t even get into that trauma. 

The team is stuck between a rock and a hard place. While they have performed well enough to play winning football, and they make it to the first round of the playoffs, they always have a first-round exit. However, because they have a winning season, the team also does not get a great position at the draft—meaning incoming talent often comes from slim pickings. 

While Tomlin can be blamed in part for the team’s dreadful performance, the team and its franchise have unimaginable expectations. In the recent past, fans have been spoiled by having legendary talent like Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, and Troy Polamalu on the team. The current team doesn’t even have a fraction of that talent anymore, so of course, the performance of the team is not going to compare. Hines Ward is not going to walk into Acrisure Stadium with a number 86 on his back, so we all might as well suck it up and reassess our expectations. 

Switching gears to John Harbaugh, he was also used as a scapegoat to make up for other organizational failures in attempts to gloss over the issue of Baltimore’s performance in the playoffs and the lack of Super Bowl wins. Harbaugh has proven to be a phenomenal coach with a 62.3% win rate, a Super Bowl title, 12 playoff appearances, 6 AFC North titles, and another 4 AFC Championship games. However, unlike Tomlin, Harbaugh does not have to deal with a subpar roster and instead deals with a lack of consistency on the field.

The reason for the Ravens’ plight is a low red zone completion rate and offensive struggles. In the past seasons, the defense was at the bottom of the league in sacks, and quarterback Lamar Jackson had a dip in performance with a sub-60% completion rate. Also, Jackson performs significantly less in critical games, especially the playoff games. Jackson has increased turnovers and decreased accuracy, accompanied by multiple lost fumbles.

Even in the regular season, Jackson cracks under pressure. In the Ravens’ game versus Detroit, Jackson failed to adapt on the field and abandon the run game that clearly was not being productive, as Jackson received sack after sack.

Nonetheless, Jackson is not the only one to blame, despite how much he enjoys choking in the big game. Other players experience the same plight as Jackson in critical games, such as tight end Mark Andrews in the loss to Buffalo. However, the real plight of the Ravens rests on the roster. They have star players such as Isaiah Likely, Zay Flowers, and Jackson on the field, making for a well-rounded starting offense, but once injuries start racking up, there’s no reliable backup to fill their spot. 

Their offense is entirely one-sided, resting on a few star players to put up spectacular numbers each week to win. In other words, they have all their eggs in one basket, and each year, all the eggs are continuously taken out of commission by a 250-pound linebacker. 

In any sense, both the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens are embarking on an uncertain upcoming season following the release of head coaches Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh. Now, in the context of modern sports culture, this shift was inevitable, as most owners and fans lack the patience and insight to truly root out the issue holding the respective franchises back from success. The question is whether the decisions will benefit them or come back to bite them in the long run.