The annual NFLPA report card grades are in. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin was once again the team’s high point.
However, Tomlin wasn’t entirely immune to criticism. Alex Kozora of Steelers Depot attacked Tomlin for appointing Phil Matusz as the coach of strength and conditioning.
The Steelers fell to bottom in the league in the strength coaches category on the NFLPA report card during Matusz’s first season in Pittsburgh.
“It appears to be one of Mike Tomlin’s worst hires a year later,” Kozora noted.
The rating wasn’t the only thing the Steelers expert criticized.
Beat journalists would subsequently claim that the Steelers’ new pre-training camp conditioning test, which was instituted under Matusz, was unlike anything they had ever seen in Latrobe. All players, including quarterbacks, had to push a sled as part of the exam. During the break, Russell Wilson sustained a calf injury that would persist all summer long and keep him out of the first six games of the 2024 campaign.
Additionally, Kozora pointed out that the Steelers had several soft tissue injuries in the latter part of the season. The December injuries contributed to Pittsburgh’s five-game losing streak at the close of the season, even if Wilson’s injury didn’t significantly harm the team’s record.
Following the release of the NFLPA report card, Kate Magdziuk of SB Nation’s Behind the Steel Curtain also expressed disapproval of the Steelers.
“The strength coaching staff ranked 31st out of 32 teams, with only 75% of players reporting that they received individualized training plans,” Magdziuk stated. The strength team’s “slightly” contribution to their overall achievement, according to their assessment, was rated dead last.
The 2025 NFLPA Report Card Shows Poor Performance by Mike Tomlin’s Steelers
Tomlin scored an A on his yearly NFLPA report card, just like he did the previous year. However, that was the only grade higher than a B-plus that the Steelers got.
The Steelers scored a C+ or lower in seven of the ten categories, with the exception of head coach. The Steelers placed no higher than 15th out of 32 teams in all 10 categories.
Overall, the Steelers came in at number 28 on the NFLPA report card.
The Steelers received a B+ rating in strength and conditioning last season, placing them 20th overall. For a company that has already faced front office criticism in the last several years, the category setback should be quite concerning.
In addition to Tomlin, the Steelers’ 2025 NFLPA report card had a few minor highlights. This past season, they started offering game day childcare. Pittsburgh was one of seven clubs without that service before to last autumn, according to the 2024 NFLPA report card.
In the area of team travel, the Steelers also made progress. The organization’s second-best rating in that category, after Tomlin’s A, was a B-plus.
Is the Steelers’ Unsatisfactory 2025 NFLPA Report Card Due to Art Rooney II?
For the Steelers 2025 NFLPA report card, Magdziuk mostly criticized Art Rooney II rather than Tomlin.
She stated, “In general, it appears that the majority of these trouble spots originate from the head—Art Rooney II.” Admittedly, Rooney’s “D” ownership rating, which placed him 28th among team owners, was an improvement from his “F” score, which placed him 31st just the previous season.
“The food/dining area, training room, weight room, and locker room—all ranked 21st or lower among 32 teams—seem to be well reflected in his willingness to invest in team facilities, which earned him a 5.8/10 rating (31st).”
Ben Roethlisberger, the former quarterback for the Steelers, did not respond to the NFLPA report cards. However, Roethlisberger made it clear on his Footbahlin Podcast in late January that the Steelers haven’t increased the number of their coaches because it’s expensive.
Roethlisberger remarked, “We all know that the Rooneys aren’t putting a lot of extra into that stuff.” They just haven’t done it that way before. Therefore, we don’t anticipate that will change.
Fans may have faith that Pittsburgh will improve before 2026 as the team improved despite some particular criticism from the 2024 NFLPA report card.
Rooney, meanwhile, doesn’t seem to value the report card all that much. After getting low grades on the NFLPA report card the previous year, he publicly questioned it.
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