Joey Porter Sr. is just the latest Steelers legend to defend Mike Tomlin from fanbase

It's been a tough couple of months for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The team lost their last four games of the regular season, and thus extended that streak to five with a demolition at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens.

For nearly two decades, the standard has been the standard in Pittsburgh. Mike Tomlin hasn't finished a regular season with a losing record in any of his 18 years at the helm. Still, the product has grown stale for the Steelers and they're stuck in football purgatory – just good enough to be the best team left out of the postseason, or bad enough to get walked over by the premiere teams in the AFC like the Chiefs, Bills and Ravens if they do make the playoffs.

Joey Porter Sr. has a message for Steelers fans upset about Mike Tomlin

Some Steelers fans have had enough of Tomlin. Many were calling for his firing just a few weeks ago, only for ownership to quickly put that concept to bed. One of Tomlin's former players and a longtime Steeler himself, Joey Porter Sr., had a message for Pittsburgh fans: Be careful what you wish for.

"The standard of a bad season is 9-8, that's no hard for us...that's not what we're looking for. We're looking to do what we did last year but not go on a five-game skid," Porter Sr. said. "The fanbase is gonna be the fanbase because they're spoiled. You don't want to lose Coach Tomlin and then realize that you had a great one. There's a reason why that franchise has only had three coaches."

Porter Sr. is correct in his assessment of Steelers fans – they are certainly spoiled. Pittsburgh's only had three head coaches for the vast majority of its history, and the Rooney family would rather keep it that way.

Steelers fans have to be patient with Mike Tomlin, says Joey Porter Sr.

Porter Sr. knows those fans better than most, as he spent the vast majority of his career with the Steelers and even coached briefly. His son, Joey Porter Jr., now plays in Pittsburgh's secondary.

The standard of Steelers fans is higher than Tomlin's, at least of late, and until those two sides can match each other there are bound to be some disagreements over the success of his tenure. The solution likely starts with finding a new franchise quarterback, something the Steelers failed to do when they selected Kenny Pickett in the first round as the supposed heir-apparent to Ben Roethlisberger.

A franchise QB can change the Steelers fortunes quite quickly. Running it back with Russell Wilson or Justin Fields will not.

Joey Porter Sr. spoke to FanSided thanks to GNC on the Arrowhead Addict podcast.