‘Master At Handling Personalities:’ Jerricho Cotchery On Playing For Mike Tomlin

Jerricho Cotchery played for plenty of head coaches throughout his football career. None, though, were quite like Mike Tomlin. Appearing on the Sports Spectrum Podcast, Cotchery outlined what made Tomlin so effective as a head coach.

“He was awesome,” he told the show. “He was everything that you would want a coach to be. Some coaches are X’s and O’s. Some coaches just know how to deal with personalities and know how to get guys to Sunday and all of that. But he was everything in one.”

Signed by the Steelers toward the end of his career, Cotchery played for Pittsburgh from 2011 to 2013. A veteran leader in that room, he played a secondary role behind Antonio Brown but had a significant 2013 season. Though he caught only 46 passes, 10 of them found the end zone, two more than Brown had that season on 110 receptions.

He finished his career with the Carolina Panthers and was part of their amazing 2015 run, going 15-1 under head coach Ron Rivera before falling short to the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl. But playing for Tomlin still stands out in Cotchery’s mind.

“He was great with the X’s and O’s. Everybody knows, everybody that’s come across him knows that he’s a really smart guy,” he said. “And he studies a lot of film and so he know[s] you’re gonna know your opponent when you play for him.”

Tomlin doesn’t get much attention for his football IQ but has been praised by Cotchery and other former players for his acumen. A college wide receiver who became a defensive backs coach, Tomlin has a perspective on both sides of the football. He still holds Friday “winning edge” meetings that players love, and his ability to predict what teams will do, especially in crunch time, is among the best in the league.

“I also saw him as a master at handling personalities,” Cotchery said. “Not just the personalities where you see guys that are screaming and wanting the ball or just the really passionate guys in that sense. Even the quiet guys, even the guys that aren’t as vocal, he knew how to tweak those guys to get them ready for the game.”

It’s a key and underrated point. Usually, Tomlin’s personality handling relates to the loudest voices. Keeping Antonio Brown relatively calm throughout his career compared to how he acted once the Steelers traded him. But Cotchery points to the 95 percent of the roster who didn’t act that way. And Tomlin handled them well, knowing what buttons to push, when to press, and when to back off.

“I was really impressed with my time there. Loved him as a coach.”

Cotchery is using those lessons in his post-playing career. He was named head coach at Limestone University in February where he’ll look to lead that program in 2024 and beyond.