Nearly instantly after the Pittsburgh Steelers suffered a 28-14 wild-card playoff loss to the rival Baltimore Ravens this previous January, Pittsburgh followers and a few nationwide NFL reporters brazenly questioned if the Steelers’ Mike Tomlin period may come to an finish as quickly as subsequent offseason.
Throughout a Monday look on Columbus sports activities radio station 97.1 The Fan, Steelers reporter Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Publish-Gazette touched upon Tomlin’s job safety after the membership signed 41-year-old Aaron Rodgers to be its beginning quarterback earlier this month.
“As secure as will be as a result of he is within the first yr of a three-year contract that’s paying him $50M,” Fittipaldo mentioned about Tomlin, as shared by Troy Montgomery of Steelers Depot. “Until one thing goes terribly incorrect and so they find yourself 3-14 or one thing like that, which I completely do not count on, you are not gonna hear something about Mike Tomlin.”
Fittipaldo was referencing the three-year contract extension Tomlin signed final offseason. In response to Kurt Badenhausen of Sportico, that deal pays Tomlin roughly $16M per yr.
Tomlin has by no means had a shedding season since he began his Steelers tenure in 2007, and he guided the franchise to a Tremendous Bowl XLIII win over the Arizona Cardinals in February 2009. Nevertheless, his Pittsburgh squads have not earned a single playoff victory for the reason that 2016 marketing campaign.
Most just lately, Tomlin obtained criticism from some native and nationwide media personalities for sticking with veteran quarterback Russell Wilson over Justin Fields via what grew to become a five-game shedding streak that lasted from Week 15 of the 2024 season via the wild-card defeat in opposition to Baltimore.
That mentioned, historical past exhibits a Steelers group that has employed simply three head coaches since 1969 will not hearth Tomlin this coming January until he fully loses the locker room because the Rodgers experiment blows up in his face. Whereas Andrew Marchand of The Athletic is amongst those that suppose Tomlin may finally depart the sidelines to work as an analyst for one of many NFL’s media-rights companions, the 53-year-old possible does not should be in a rush to just accept such a chance until he decides he merely wants a break from teaching.
Tomlin’s future past 2026 may make for an attention-grabbing matter if issues go poorly for the Steelers later this yr. For now, it seems that he’ll nonetheless have his present job subsequent summer time so long as he needs it.
