A key role of the head coach of any NFL team is to cultivate and develop talent coming from college football. Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin went on The Pivot Podcast from his basement and was quite insightful on this topic.
Channing Crowder, one of the hosts of the podcasts asked Tomlin about how long he tries to coach up players until he realizes they just don’t have what it takes to play in the NFL. And Tomlin gave the most Tomlin answer of all.
He admitted that there is no hard and fast rule for how much time he gives a player but he says, “when you’re out of time, we all know.” The player I kept coming back to as Tomlin talked about this was outside linebacker Jarvis Jones.
Jones had serious red flags about his NFL potential from the second the Steelers drafted him in the first round of the 2013 NFL draft. Tomlin and his staff tried for four seasons to coach up Jones but it never worked. A case could be made that Tomlin gave Jones at least one too many seasons. Jones retired one season after leaving the Steelers, which really makes you think if Tomlin can’t turn you into a viable NFL player, no one can.
