Mike Tomlin isn’t ready to talk about his future with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The team’s season officially ended with a 30-6 loss to the Houston Texans in the wild-card round of the playoffs on Monday night, and you can’t blame him.
“As I sit here tonight, I don’t even have that mindset,” Tomlin said when asked about his future with the team, via Jory Epstein of Yahoo Sports. “I’m more focused on what’s going on in this stadium and certainly what we did or didn’t do. I don’t have the big picture.”
There have been a lot of questions and speculation about Tomlin’s future in recent weeks as the Steelers must work their way into the AFC’s final playoff spot. While Tomlin has accomplished extraordinary things in his nearly two decades leading the team, it’s easy to see why.
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Tomlin has never had a losing season in 19 seasons coaching the Steelers, his only head coaching job in the NFL. He helped the team win the Super Bowl in the 2008 season and has now made the playoffs 13 times. There is no doubt that if he wants to, he will retire as one of the best coaches in league history.
But lately, especially after the retirement of longtime quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, things have stalled a bit in Pittsburgh. While the organization has posted playoff wins in five of the past six seasons, it hasn’t won a playoff game since the 2017 season.
In fact, some believe Tomlin is on the “hot spot,” at least according to quarterback Aaron Rodgers – who himself may have played his final NFL game – which is ridiculous.
“This league has changed a lot in my 21 years. When you hear the talk about the Mike Tomlins of the world, the Matt LaFleurs of the world … when I first came into the league, there wasn’t a conversation about whether these guys were in trouble,” Rodgers said, also mentioning the Green Bay Packers head coach.
“But the way the league is being covered right now and the way decisions are rushed and the effectiveness of Twitter pundits and all the pundits on TV to make it look like they know what the hell they’re talking about, to me, it’s an absolute joke.”
Tomlin has two years left on his current contract with the Steelers and has a team option for 2027. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Steelers have until March 1 to decide whether to accept the option.
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However, according to Schefter, no one within the organization wants the Steelers to actually fire Tomlin. The Steelers haven’t fired a head coach since 1968. Tomlin and the Steelers fired offensive coordinator Matt Canada during the 2023 season, marking the first time in more than 80 years that the franchise has had an in-season coordinator change. The franchise simply doesn’t make these types of changes.
If that’s the case, the Steelers will have a new coach next season only if Tomlin chooses to leave the game himself. This is certainly possible.
But Tomlin said any discussions on the matter would take place on Tuesday and beyond.
“Now is not the time to talk,” he said. “We agreed to meet tomorrow and go from there. When you play in a single-elimination tournament, there’s not much to talk about. You win or you go home.”
