"It's Going To Hurt Your Feelings": Steelers 1st Round Pick Detailed Exactly How Mike Tomlin Coached

The Pittsburgh Steelers have been through a massive coaching transition in 2026, and the debate about what Mike Tomlin truly was as a leader of men has never been louder. However, a two-time Super Bowl champion who played under Tomlin firsthand just shared the most riveting behind the scenes truth about what the legendary coach was really like.

Former Steelers offensive lineman Kendall Simmons, who battled through a type one diabetes diagnosis to win two Super Bowls with Pittsburgh, recently sat down on the Red Zone Blitz podcast and was asked what he learned from Tomlin that he has carried into his own coaching career. What Simmons said next is going to stop every Steelers fan dead in their tracks because it is one of the most honest and personal accounts of what it was actually like to play for one of the most polarizing coaches in NFL history.

"The one thing that I do not have is all of those Tomlinisms that I don't think anybody could ever do that because he comes up with some stuff and I'm like, wow, where in the world did he come up with that?" Simmons explained. "But I would say the coaching style, which I would say at first when he first got there, it somewhat rubbed me the wrong way. But the longer I'm around him and I was there, I appreciated it. He is so blunt and straightforward, that if you don't want to know the answer, don't ask him because he's going to tell you the truth. And that's what we need. That's what we all need. 

Simmons continued about how players grew to love Tomlin.

"It's going to hurt your feelings at times. But if a person is around you long enough and they see things, you want them to be blunt with you and say, hey, look, that is awesome," said Simmons. "Or, no, you're effing up. And that's the one thing why I think that I only had him for two years, but the players after me who had him for a long time, TJ [Watt] and all, they love him because I ain't going to tell them what he said to them that has hurt their feelings and built them back up to where they needed to be at."

That is a remarkable quote for a number of reasons. First because Simmons admits openly that Tomlin rubbed him the wrong way when he first arrived. That is not something you hear from former Steelers players very often and it takes honesty and courage to say it publicly. However, what makes it truly powerful is what comes after that admission. The longer Simmons was around Tomlin, the more he came to understand that the bluntness was not a flaw. It was the whole point. 

Tomlin did not coach to make people feel good. He coached to make people better. And if making you better meant telling you something that hurt your feelings, then that is exactly what he was going to do. 

Steelers Players Loved Mike Tomlin

The part of Simmons' quote that is going to resonate most with Steelers fans is the reference to TJ Watt. Simmons only had Tomlin for two years, but he watched from the outside as Tomlin built relationships with the players who came after him. And his point is clear. The players who had Tomlin for a long time, the ones who went through the battles and the hard conversations and the moments where Tomlin told them exactly what they did not want to hear, those are the players who mainly love him the most. That is not a coincidence. That is the product of a coach who genuinely cared about the people in his building and was willing to be uncomfortable to help them grow. 

As SteelerNation has covered, former players have been opening up about what Tomlin was really like behind closed doors and the picture that keeps emerging is the same one Simmons is painting here.

What do you think about Kendall Simmons' riveting truth about what Mike Tomlin was really like behind closed doors? Let me know on X @hagenbackus94!

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