Mike Tomlin Isn't Bothered by Veterans Not Mentoring Rookies
Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin sees the good in veterans mentoring rookies, but doesn't think it's a big deal when they don't.
Tomlin was asked on the Rich Eisen show about his thoughts on Tennessee Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill saying it's not his job to mentor Malik Willis during his time in Tennessee. A topic that has been controversial over the last several days.
"You know, it's good when it occurs, but it's certainly not necessary," Tomlin said. "That's why we have offensive coordinators, quarterback coaches, assistant quarterback coaches, people who are employed and their sole focus is the development of players."
Tomlin does see positives in players learning from players, but re-iterated that it isn't the key to success in the NFL - or a players job to take on that role.
"Certainly, there's growth and development opportunities and learning opportunities among players, but it is definitely not their function," Tomlin said. "Their function is to have themselves ready to go and be good teammates, and I think that's probably what you speak to just in terms of providing common human decency and courtesy to someone if you can help them along the way. I'm sure Ryan is open to that, but I think he was just stating the obvious, that he was not employed to do that. He's employed to play quarterback."
The Steelers had a similar situation when they drafted Mason Rudolph and Ben Roethlisberger was open to not having to mentor him. Although, that situation seemed a bit more tense.
"I don't think I'll need to [mentor him] now that he's said that he doesn't need me," Roethlisberger said during the summer of Rudolph's draft. "So if he asks me a question, I might have to just point to the playbook."
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