Mike Tomlin isn’t rushing toward a return to the sideline, but he hasn’t shut the door on one either.
Speaking on a conference call with NBC correspondents ahead of the Steelers’ Week 10 road game against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday Night Football, the former Pittsburgh head coach said he hasn’t spent any time thinking about coaching again. Tomlin will be in attendance for the game as part of NBC’s "Football Night in America" crew.
“I haven’t given one iota of thought to coaching,” Tomlin said. “I’m sure some of that is going to come up in the not-so-distant future. But I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.”
Tomlin’s time in Pittsburgh ended after the 2025 campaign, and while the finish wasn’t always smooth, his résumé still stacks up with the best of them. In 19 seasons with the Steelers, he never had a losing record and went 193-114-2 in the regular season.
His postseason run closed with seven straight playoff losses, but that doesn’t erase the high points. Tomlin won Super Bowl XLIII with Pittsburgh in 2008 and added seven more playoff victories across 13 total trips to the postseason.
That body of work leaves him tied for the ninth-most head coaching wins in NFL history with Chuck Noll, another Steelers icon. Whether he coaches again or not, that kind of record is going to keep his Hall of Fame case front and center.
If Tomlin does decide to get back into coaching in 2027, 2028 or later, there’s also a question hanging over Pittsburgh: can the Steelers trade his rights and get something back in return?
The Saints did exactly that with Sean Payton after the 2021 season, before he was hired by the Broncos in 2023. Whether Pittsburgh could pull off something similar isn’t known.
If the Steelers still hold Tomlin’s contractual rights, a return to coaching could potentially bring back a first-round pick or even more from the team that hires him. That kind of return would be a major boost for a franchise that may be looking to chase a quarterback.
And even if Pittsburgh can’t deal his rights, Tomlin’s next landing spot would still matter. If he takes an AFC job, the Steelers could be seeing him on a regular basis.
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