PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – He won a Super Bowl with Mike Tomlin. What Ryan Clark said about his former head coach and not drafting Shedeur Sanders.
Mark Kaboly reacts to Ryan Clark's comments
Clark was a guest on ESPN’s First Take Show with Stephen A. Smith on Thursday and was emotional when talking about his old team.
“I believe Mike Tomlin should coach in another organization,” Clark said on ESPN. “Mike Tomlin should be the fresh voice somewhere else.”
He doesn’t think that should be done by firing Tomlin. Clark said Tomlin is ‘un-fire-able’ and it should be the 18-year head coach that decides he’s had enough in Pittsburgh.
“I believe, as great as a coach as he is, and he’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer, I believe his voice has run stale there,” Clark said on ESPN’s First Take. “I believe he’s allowed that team to reach the highest of heights they are going to reach unless they get a top-tier quarterback.”
Clark admitted when Tomlin had Ben Roethlisberger, Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown, the Steelers underachieved for a couple of years. But the last couple of seasons with Roethlisberger and through Mason Rudolph, Duck Hodges and Kenny Pickett, Tomlin has overachieved as head coach to get winning records out of those rosters.
The now veteran ESPN analyst said he thinks Tomlin can have a run with another organization like Andy Reid has done in Kansas City after he left Philadelphia.
Clark said what is holding Tomlin back with the Steelers is the lack of a quarterback. He said it blew his mind the Steelers didn’t draft Shedeur Sanders when he was available with the 83rd overall pick in this year’s draft. He speculated it was because of interest in Aaron Rodgers and he didn’t want to potentially be the second-most famous quarterback in the room as to why they didn’t draft him. Because of that they would have never drafted Sanders, anywhere in the draft.
“I think there needs to be an investigation as to why they didn’t draft a quarterback,” said Stephen A. Smith on ESPN’s First Take. “How you don’t draft a Shedeur Sanders? How you don’t do that? Knowing how debilitated you are at the quarterback position spanning years. I know they drafted a quarterback, but I’m talking about Shedeur Sanders, someone in the first round.”
Clark said Sanders should have been the Steelers pick in the first round and what he did in a couple of days with the Browns proves how good he will be.
Even if Rodgers signs, Clark believes it will only allow the Steelers to compete to be a game over .500.
“We all love Mike Tomlin,” Stephen A. Smith said on ESPN. “You understand how bad that is. You are the Steelers and you have not won a playoff game in nine years. That’s bad.”
And the reason the ESPN panel believes they will remain that bad is because they didn’t draft Sanders. They didn’t give Tomlin what he needs to win.