Almost immediately after the Pittsburgh Steelers suffered a 28-14 wild-card playoff loss to the rival Baltimore Ravens this past January, Pittsburgh fans and some national NFL reporters openly wondered if the Steelers’ Mike Tomlin era could come to an end as soon as next offseason.
During a Monday appearance on Columbus sports radio station 97.1 The Fan, Steelers reporter Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette touched upon Tomlin’s job security after the club signed 41-year-old Aaron Rodgers to be its starting quarterback earlier this month.
“As safe as can be because he’s in the first year of a three-year contract that is paying him $50M,” Fittipaldo said about Tomlin, as shared by Troy Montgomery of Steelers Depot. “Unless something goes terribly wrong and they end up 3-14 or something like that, which I totally don’t expect, you’re not gonna hear anything about Mike Tomlin.”
Fittipaldo was referencing the three-year contract extension Tomlin signed last offseason. According to Kurt Badenhausen of Sportico, that deal pays Tomlin roughly $16M per year.
Tomlin has never had a losing season since he started his Steelers tenure in 2007, and he guided the franchise to a Super Bowl XLIII win over the Arizona Cardinals in February 2009. However, his Pittsburgh squads haven’t earned a single playoff victory since the 2016 campaign.
Most recently, Tomlin received criticism from some local and national media personalities for sticking with veteran quarterback Russell Wilson over Justin Fields through what became a five-game losing streak that lasted from Week 15 of the 2024 season through the wild-card defeat against Baltimore.
That said, history shows a Steelers organization that has employed just three head coaches since 1969 won’t fire Tomlin this coming January unless he completely loses the locker room as the Rodgers experiment blows up in his face. While Andrew Marchand of The Athletic is among those who think Tomlin could eventually leave the sidelines to work as an analyst for one of the NFL’s media-rights partners, the 53-year-old likely doesn’t need to be in a rush to accept such an opportunity unless he decides he simply needs a break from coaching.
Tomlin’s future beyond 2026 could make for an interesting topic if things go poorly for the Steelers later this year. For now, it sounds as if he’ll still have his current job next summer as long as he wants it.
