Former Top QB Prospect Absolutely Hated How Steelers' Mike Tomlin Treated Him: "F*** You"

The Pittsburgh Steelers are operating in a completely different way now that Mike Tomlin is no longer the head coach. Tomlin stepped down after the 2025 season, and Mike McCarthy took over, attempting to end the team’s playoff drought. With Tomlin no longer steering the ship, his legacy started to be debated heavily. It isn’t easy to evaluate, considering how hot he started, winning a Super Bowl early in his tenure in the Steel City, but over the last decade or so he failed to find any truly meaningful postseason success.

On the other hand, Tomlin coached for 19 seasons without ever having a losing season, and many believe he is a first-ballot Hall of Fame coach. He put together a really strong career record, going 193–114–2 in the regular season and finishing 201–126–2 overall, a .614 winning percentage. The postseason wasn’t as strong, though, where he went 8–12. That’s why his legacy is so difficult to define, because he started off so hot in the playoffs, but the way it ended was underwhelming, to say the least.

However, it's not often that former players say negative stuff about Tomlin. While speaking on The Script podcast, former top quarterback prospect Cardale Jones out of Ohio State had a story to share about Tomlin and the Steelers. Jones said he was not happy after his pre-draft interview with the team and explained why during the podcast on Thursday.

"I had a situation like that with the Steelers," Jones said. "I walked in and the first thing Coach [Mike] Tomlin said to me was, 'I hate your social media.' I'm just like, 'Nice to meet you, too.' As we're getting to talk and getting to know each other a little bit, it was someone, and I couldn't even see who this guy was, he was probably in the very back of the room where it had to be 20-25 people... He's asking how does my day go at Ohio State. I'm trying to be as detailed as possible... Every time I'm trying to get into detail, he's cutting me off. So, I turned into a straight jerk."

Jones ended up getting selected in the fourth round, 139th overall, leaving many who read this article wondering if that was why he fell in the draft. It’s also probably why he didn’t last very long in the NFL, despite clearly having talent as a quarterback. 

Jones clearly treated Tomlin and the Steelers with utter disrespect. It's safe to imagine how his other interviews went.

"I gave him the very detailed [response] as possible," Jones said. "I went full blown, 'F you, F the Steelers, I don't even want to be here anymore...' Everything I was saying, he was trying to talk over me, cut me off," Jones said. "That was by far the weirdest experience I had throughout that whole process."

Steelers' Mike Tomlin Was Trying To Help Cardale Jones

It’s rare that anyone has anything bad to say about Tomlin. He’s a great leader of men, and Jones had some tweets at the time about not wanting to go to class and only being there to play football, which were the tweets Tomlin was referencing. 

Tomlin was clearly using the leadership tactics that made him such a great NFL coach, and Jones couldn’t handle it. All these years later, it sounds like Jones still hasn’t learned the lesson.

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