In 2007, Mike Tomlin was named head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The following year, John Harbaugh earned the same title with the Baltimore Ravens. Each has overseen successful times during their years leading their respective franchises, and the two are now the longest-tenured head coaches in the NFL.

Bill Barnwell answered questions from listeners on his show with ESPN on Wednesday. One question had to do with Harbaugh and Tomlin and who Barnwell thought was more successful. While he gave credit to Tomlin, Barnwell eventually sided with his rival.

“I just think he’s [Harbaugh] been a better version of the framework we have for Mike Tomlin,” Barnwell said. “Which is, Mike Tomlin always has a solid record, over .500 or at .500, and they do nothing in the playoffs. John Harbaugh’s teams have been well over .500 and have done a little bit in the playoffs.”

These two coaches have a lot of respect for each other, and they’ve been intertwined throughout their careers. As the two stewards over arguably the most intense rivalry in the league, these guys are all we know of the Steelers-Ravens rivalry over the last two decades.

Barnwell sides with Harbaugh, and it makes sense on the surface. Harbaugh’s teams have done better in the regular season, although Tomlin has an illustrious winning-season streak. However, the playoff wins are where Harbaugh’s supporters would give him the edge. Harbaugh only has three playoff wins since 2019. Still, that’s three more than Tomlin, who’s now lost his last six.

Even in their five playoff losses in that same time span, the Ravens have had some bad breaks. Mark Andrews dropped a pass that would have tied the game in their divisional-round loss to Buffalo. In the 2023 season, a goal-line fumble from Zay Flowers in the fourth quarter helped the Chiefs escape with a win in the AFC Championship game.

Those recent playoff losses were at least more competitive than the Steelers’ last two, which included being demolished by the Ravens themselves and a two-score loss to the Bills.

With all of that said, Tomlin deserves his credit. He’s keeping his team in the playoff hunt every year and doing it without a quarterback. Harbaugh was lucky enough to have Lamar Jackson fall into his lap on draft day. Mike Tomlin isn’t having quite the same luck. Still, Tomlin deserves some blame for not being able to find an answer at that position.

It remains impressive, though, that his teams have similar results to the Ravens when Baltimore has Lamar Jackson and the Steelers have Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, Mason Rudolph, or, well, you get it.

In a way, these coaches are in similar yet interesting positions. Both are elite coaches in the NFL and have a Super Bowl ring to call their own. Yet, they’ve each failed to live up to expectations in recent years and have slowly started to feel some heat from their respective fan bases. It will be interesting to see how their rivalry continues to unfold.