If there’s one thing Mike Tomlin is known for, it’s consistency.

In his 19 years as an NFL head coach, he has never had a losing season. No matter how close he looks to finally losing that mark, he never, ever does. He’s gone 10-7 each of the last three years, and although he has taken wildly different journeys to get there each time, he’s wound up at the same exact spot.

He’s usually good for at least one win a year that his team had no business snagging. This season, you could argue that was the New England game. Even though the Patriots suffered fumbling issues in that game, it’s hard to justify how the Steelers beat a 14-3 team.

But it also goes the other way.

Each year, there’s a game the Steelers absolutely should win, and drop. This year, that was the Cleveland game in Week 17.

And of course, there’s the infamous playoff win drought, which is in danger of spanning to nine years. Tomlin, the winner of Super Bowl XLIII, has failed to get even close to nabbing a seventh ring for his organization in recent years.

For as much as the national media lauds Tomlin for the non-losing streak, the local media lambasts him just as much for the lack of playoff success.

Now, on the brink of hosting the team’s first true home playoff game since 2017, Tomlin perhaps has his best chance to break this wretched streak. And the game to finally break the streak that haunts Tomlin could come down to trio of mercenaries who just happened to be with the Steelers at the right time: Aaron Rodgers, Adam Thielen, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling.

Sure, they are not the only three players here in Pittsburgh on one-year deals. Running back Kenneth Gainwell, for example, was brought here on a cheap one-year deal. He finished the regular season as the team-leader with 73 receptions and was voted Steelers MVP by his teammates.

Gainwell has flourished in an offense that relies on two strong running backs, and pairing him with Jaylen Warren has resulted in Gainwell getting a level of opportunity he never had in Philadelphia.

But because Gainwell has played so well, and is only 26 years old, the Steelers will make it high on their priorities list to extend him after the season is over.

These three, however, have no guarantee of playing in the NFL next season, let alone for the Steelers.

Aaron Rodgers, whether he likes to admit it or not, was cast off after a horrid two-year run in New York. The future first-ballot Hall of Famer, who left Green Bay after 18 years to try and swing it in the Big Apple, tore his Achilles and ended his season just four snaps in.

The following year, his Jets went a miserable 5-12. The front office threw the kitchen sink at making it trying to work with Rodgers, including acquiring his old receiver from his Packers days in Davante Adams.

None of it worked. The Jets were out of the playoff race rather early, and both head coach Robert Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas were fired before the season was over.

A new Jets regime, led in part by first-year head coach Aaron Glenn, wanted a clean break away from the Rodgers experiment. In a meeting that the four-time NFL MVP detailed back when he was still making regular appearances on The Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers flew across the country to meet with Glenn, just to be hold he would no longer be a New York Jet.

A wistful free agent, Rodgers spent months openly contemplating retirement as several teams, including the Steelers, still checked in on him. Rodgers cited his age and attention to his personal life as reasons why he may decide to walk away from the game, but his name remained in the headlines while he thought this process out.

Pittsburgh, which was always tabbed as one of the most likely spots for him to land, stayed clued in the entire time. Rodgers had actually visited the city and the team’s facility back in March, taking calculated steps to attract as little attention as possible.

But unlike his predecessor Russell Wilson, who visited the facility on a March afternoon and left that night with a contract to quarterback the Steelers in 2024, no such agreement had been made between Rodgers and the team.

It wasn’t until June, after months of flirting, that Rodgers and the Steelers officially tied the knot. Uniting with Mike Tomlin, Rodgers would play his 21st season for a coach he has expressed great admiration for.

Rodgers was the latest in a carousel of quarterbacks to lead the Steelers ever since the retirement of Ben Roethlisberger after the 2021 campaign. When Rodgers took the field in Week 1 against his former Jets, he became the fourth different season opener starter in as many years for the Steelers.

Signing a one-year deal with the team and approaching this season as if it was his last, Rodgers was essentially a hired gun for the Steelers in 2025. But through all the ups and downs of the third straight 10-7 season Pittsburgh has had, Rodgers has been incredibly bought in to this team, this city, and this organization.

And if this is truly the end for him, he would love nothing more than to go out on top. It starts with hosting Houston on Monday night.

If he’s going to do this, though, he’s going to need some help on offense. Two of his weapons may also fit that “mercenary” description.

Adam Thielen started this year with Carolina. The longtime Minnesota Viking was gearing up for his third season with the Panthers and was looking to bounce back from a season where he only appeared in ten games and had 615 receiving yards. That was his lowest season total since the 2019 season, where he also played in only ten games.

A wide receiver who was brought in to be a steady veteran presence for Carolina’s aptly named Bryce Young, Thielen found himself on the outs with the Panthers. In late August, Carolina traded him back to Minnesota in a pick swap deal, reuniting Thielen with some of his old Vikings teammates.

But the homecoming for the Detroit Lakes, Minnesota native was underwhelming at best. His role in the offense was far reduced in his second stint, despite Minnesota embarking on a season that saw rookie JJ McCarthy starting under center.

Thielen had just two catches for 26 yards during Minnesota’s first three weeks, but at least he was still regularly on the field for the Vikings. He averaged more than 38 snaps on offense through the first three games, and was on the field for 70.6% of their offensive plays.

Then, his snaps started getting cut. A lot. Starting with Week 4 against Pittsburgh during an Ireland trip, Thielen’s involvement in the offense took a tumble. From Week 4 until his Vikings stint ended, Thielen’s average offensive snaps plummeted to 8.8, and he was on the field just 14.4% of the time on offense.

He never took more than 14 offensive snaps again with Minnesota, and as the season started to wind down, Thielen started to look elsewhere for opportunity in what he says will be his final season.

After playing just three snaps on offense (his lowest in a game since 2015) in Week 12 and being a healthy scratch the following week, Thielen and the Vikings mutually agreed to cut ties. Thielen wanted a chance to contribute to a playoff team in his final days as a player. Minnesota, per Thielen’s request, placed him on waivers, where a desperate team like the Steelers put in a claim.

Understandably, there was not a ton of excitement about bringing in a wide receiver who had a mere eight catches and 69 yards on the season. But, he brought route-running abilities and experience to Pittsburgh, and has nearly doubled his Minnesota yardage totals since suiting up for the Steelers.

He’s not the only receiver experiencing somewhat of a revival. Marquez Valdes-Scantling can say the same.

Valdes-Scantling has one of the weirder career arcs in the NFL. A former buddy of Rodgers in Green Bay, the receiver led the league in yards per reception in 2020. Although he could never find consistency in the receiving game, he made the most of the ones he did haul in from Rodgers.

But by the time Rodgers was making that infamous walk down the tunnel with Randall Cobb’s arm around him during a frigid season finale to close out the 2022 season, Valdes-Scantling was already gone.

The NC State product had wound up in Kansas City, living out the mantra of being at the right place at the right time. He put up a year that rivaled his 2020 campaign with his new quarterback in Patrick Mahomes, catching a career-high 42 passes on a career-high 81 targets. In the postseason, he tacked on seven catches en route to a Super Bowl ring with the Chiefs.

The following year, he did it again. And although he took a massive step back in the regular season, he made up for it in the playoffs. He made eight catches (five of them for a first down) and caught a touchdown pass in the Super Bowl, on the way to a second consecutive ring.

But it was the consistency issues that ultimately made Kansas City feel comfortable with moving on. Since then, Valdes-Scantling has bounced around with four different NFL teams, including Pittsburgh. He hasn’t stuck around very long with any of them. Nowhere since that Chiefs run in 2023 has Valdes-Scantling posted a catch rate higher than 50%.

This summer, Valdes-Scantling was reported to be choosing between Pittsburgh and San Francisco to try and extend his NFL career. At first, he chose the 49ers, where he played in five games. But after only four catches and 40 yards, he was cut. The Steelers, looking for receiver depth, picked up the phone. But the best they could do at the time was a practice squad spot.

Valdes-Scantling spent weeks there, where he was unheard from while the NFL options the Steelers had continued to struggle. Finally, with the team in desperation mode, he was elevated to make his Steelers debut at the same time Thielen was.

He’s been a favorite target of Rodgers since taking snaps with the team. Since his team debut in Week 14, only DK Metcalf has been targeted more than Valdes-Scantling among wide receivers for the Steelers.

Interestingly enough, all three of these men each played a crucial role in the playoff-clinching game.

Rodgers saved one of his best games for the regular season finale, putting up season-highs in completions (31), attempts (47), and yards (294) in Pittsburgh’s 26-24 win over Baltimore.

Thielen and Valdes-Scantling each played key roles as well. Valdes-Scantling led the team’s wide receiver room with five catches, adding 34 yards. Thielen chipped in with three catches for 43 yards, including a 28-yard nab on a dart from Rodgers early in the third quarter.

Their last-second thriller to cap off the regular season has now led to this: a shot at a Super Bowl in a wide open NFL. For each of these guys, it could be their last true shot at this thing.

Thielen is 35 and, as previously mentioned, has said this is his last season in the NFL. He has never won a Super Bowl ring.

Valdes-Scantling is 31 and, while it is possible he still has playing days ahead of him, they likely aren’t in Pittsburgh.

Rodgers, though he has kept the door open recently to playing next year, is ultimately on a one-year deal and will have an important decision to make once again.

And they aren’t playing for just themselves. They are playing for a head coach who has experienced it all this season. It’s rare that a coach hears fans chant for him to be fired, and also be cheered on as blows a kiss to the camera as he team advances to the playoffs.

But that’s the kind of year it’s been for Tomlin. After clinching his 19th non-losing season in as many years, his Steelers had a chance to make Week 18 meaningless if they had just beat the three-win Cleveland Browns. But a sluggish and timid Steelers team could only muster six points in a 13-6 loss, setting up a game that decided the final playoff spot against Baltimore.

Lost in the temporary jubilation of that win, however, was an ever-growing desire for Tomlin to do just one thing: win a playoff game.

The Steelers have not won a playoff game since the final days of the Barack Obama administration, when Chris Boswell booted six field goals and the Steelers defeated the pre-Mahomes Chiefs in Kansas City.

Since then, they are 0-5 and have been outscored 194-131. All but one of those losses were by double digits, and their one three-point loss has a caveat. Jacksonville was ahead by ten until one second left in 2017.

Though the frustration of fans has been expressed in more public ways this season, it’s nothing new. The team is going on nine years without doing something over 75% of the league has done more recently than them.

Pressure just continues to build on Tomlin to elevate the standard of what Steelers football has become. Back in June, Tomlin took the bet that Rodgers, the man he watched beat the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV, would be the one to get him there.

Rodgers took the bet that Pittsburgh would be the best opportunity to set the record straight, and erase the stench from his New York Days.

Thielen and Valdes-Scantling took bets on coming here too.

And now, it’s time to see if those bets have truly paid off. The Steelers will get DK Metcalf back from suspension heading into the postseason, which will provide a massive boost to Rodgers and the passing game. But, it also means the will draw the bulk of Houston’s attention on defense. Thielen and Valdes-Scantling will still be counted on to contribute.

Ten years from now, it’s highly likely that none of these men will be remembered as Steelers. But, they have the chance to make history as Steelers, right here and right now.