For the first time since 2007, Mike Tomlin will no longer be the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Tomlin announced his resignation from the Steelers on Tuesday, the day after a playoff loss to the Houston Texans, signaling the end of an era in Pittsburgh and the NFL.
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From Super Bowl victories to an unprecedented undefeated streak to late-career struggles in the playoffs, Mike Tomlin left a huge legacy for the Steelers and the NFL. Here are some numbers from Tomlin’s time as Pittsburgh’s head coach.
0
Tomlin is coming off a losing season in his 19th year as Steelers head coach. This standard of excellence, above all else, became Tomlin’s legacy as he successfully managed one of the NFL’s major teams.
.400
The Steelers’ playoff winning percentage in 20 postseason games under Tomlin. Tomlin’s postseason success early in his career with Ben Roethlisberger accounted for five of his eight postseason victories, helping the Steelers reach two Super Bowls and win one from 2007-10. The Steelers have since won three of 13 playoff games.
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.628
Steelers regular season winning percentage under Tomlin. It’s the 24th-best winning percentage ever among NFL coaches with at least five years of experience. Tomlin’s winning percentage ranks 14th among coaches with more than 10 seasons.
1
In Tomlin’s 309 regular season games, the Steelers have been eliminated from the playoffs. That was their 2012 season finale against the Browns. With Tomlin at the helm, the Steelers have had a shot at making the playoffs heading into the season finale every other season.
After the Steelers defeated the Cardinals in Super Bowl 43, Mike Tomlin walked off the field as a world champion.
(Al Tielemans via Getty Images)
1
The Steelers won two Super Bowls under Tomlin.
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3
Head coach fired by the Steelers since 1968. On December 17, 1968, Pittsburgh fired Bill Austin after an 11-28-3 record in three seasons. Since then, Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and now Tomlin have all departed in ways that are rare in the modern NFL, or in any era.
5
Under Tomlin, the Steelers have posted consecutive double-digit losses in the playoffs. The Steelers have been a playoff contender with Tomlin as head coach. But once they made the playoffs, they weren’t competitive by the end of his tenure.
5
Tomlin joined the Steelers a few months before the iPhone was released. On January 22, 2007, Pittsburgh hired then-Vikings defensive coordinator Tomlin. Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to the public in a speech two weeks ago. But the first-generation iPhone didn’t go on sale until June 29 of that year. Tomlin left the Steelers into a newer world than when he joined.
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6
Pittsburgh will have a different starting quarterback since Roethlisberger retired after the 2021 season. The toughest road to the Super Bowl is the road without a franchise quarterback. Kenny Pickett, Mitchell Trubisky, Mason Rudolph, Russell Wilson, Justin Fields and 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers, none of them look like franchise quarterbacks.
7
The Steelers have lost consecutive postseason games under Tomlin. It’s the longest winning streak for a Super Bowl-winning coach in NFL history.
8
Tomlin won the AFC North title with the Steelers in 19 seasons. That’s more than any other team during Tomlin’s tenure. The Ravens won six AFC North titles during Tomlin’s tenure, while the Bengals won five. The Browns haven’t won a division title since the AFC North’s founding in 2002, last winning the division in 1989 with the AFC Central. Tomlin’s three AFC North titles all came in his first four seasons.
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9
The Steelers had not won a playoff game against Tomlin in consecutive seasons before he resigned on Tuesday. It’s the third-longest streak in the Super Bowl era for a head coach to coach a team. Former Bengals coach Marvin Lewis (16 seasons, 2003-18) and former Saints coach Jim Mora (11 seasons, 1986-96) had longer coaching streaks.
10
Tomlin’s Steelers lost in 13 games against Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots. Like most coaches of his era, Tomlin struggled in head-to-head matches with Belichick. The worst loss in the series was a 36-17 loss to the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game after the 2016 season.
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13
Tomlin led the Steelers to the playoffs multiple times in 18 seasons.
16
It’s been a few seasons since Tomlin led the Steelers to the Super Bowl for the last time following the 2010 season. Pittsburgh lost to Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers that day, and the Steelers have made it past the divisional round of the playoffs only once since then — a loss to the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game.
36
Tomlin is the youngest coach in NFL history to win a Super Bowl. To be precise, he was 36 years and 323 days old when the Steelers defeated the Cardinals in Super Bowl 43 in 2009. After that, Sean McVay won the title at the age of 36 years and 20 days when he led the Los Angeles Rams to defeat the Cincinnati Bengals in LVI.
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6,933
It’s been a few days since Tomlin was no longer head coach of the Steelers.
20,857
A few days ago, the Steelers got a head coach not named Noel, Cowher or Tomlin. It was December 17, 1968 in Austin, the day they fired him.
100,000
Tomlin was fined for stepping in the front of Ravens kickoff returner Jacoby Jones near the sideline during the 2013 Thanksgiving Day game. Tomlin didn’t trip Jones, but he planted his foot on the field in front of Jones, which appeared to force Jones to change his route, potentially preventing a touchdown.
Tomlin’s back was turned to Jones on the kickoff return, and he said on a podcast years later that the incident was not intentional and that he was disoriented while watching the return on the video board.
“I didn’t realize I was in danger until I saw myself on the big screen,” Tomlin said. “I avoided Jacobi because I saw myself. I had never seen him.”