Mike Tomlin has accomplished many things throughout his career, but he's never been named Coach of the Year. Not by the Associated Press or Pro Football Writers of America. He may not win it again this year, but he'll certainly be in the running.

Part of the reason why is making bold decisions such as replacing Justin Fields with Russell Wilson when his team was 4-2. But a big reason, perhaps the most important of all, is that Tomlin consistently has the respect of his players. Despite being in his 18th season as head coach in Pittsburgh, Tomlin's messaging never gets stale. If it had, he wouldn't be here.

Tomlin was asked during his Tuesday press conference how he avoids burnout and why his messaging seems to never get stale:

"That question is easy for me. I love what I do. It's my job and my hobby, so burnout is not a component of the equation for me. I'm excited each and every week about the challenges that this role provides me and us," Tomlin said. "In regards to the messaging getting stale, I work with extreme urgency because I realize the careers of these players are short. So, my audience is forever changing. I'm less concerned about getting stale, and I'm more concerned about matching the urgency that is the short careers of most of these players. There are outliers like Cam [Heyward] that's been in there for 25 years listening to me. I care less about how he receives the message and more about developing guys like [Keeanu] Benton, who's a year-and-a-half into receiving these messages. I just want to continue hammering home values and cultural values and how to play and so forth. Experience has taught me that the stale component is probably overblown because the audience is forever changing."

Steelers social media team gave us a gem of just a few second of that messaging to another young player in Nick Herbig, who Tomlin greeted after his strip sack in Cincinnati:

We got a glimpse at the urgency Tomlin spoke of last January when he openly lamented players such as Maurkice Pouncey retiring without winning a Super Bowl. He also lamented that Heyward and T.J. Watt are still chasing that goal. But whatever it is we try to quantify regarding the consistent respect Tomlin gets from his players, it's clear that once again these players would go to war for him, regardless of the narratives created about him. Tomlin's got his finger on the pulse of this team, perhaps more than he's had in several seasons.

That's impressive for coaching the same team for nearly two decades. The criticism of the lack of playoff wins in recent years can't be ignored. There are always going to be things to criticize, including the same old stuff regarding timeout usage and clock management.

But, Tomlin might be having his best season in quite a long time. Tomlin caught a lot of heat for making a quarterback change when he had a winning record, and it's only elevated the team since. He deserves credit for that and everything else he's done to get his team to 9-3 by this point. All that's left is finishing the season strong. And, since the Steelers were projected by most to finish in last place, maybe a division title will be enough to nab Coach of the Year.