Just when the Pittsburgh Steelers appeared to turn the corner with a big win over the Indianapolis Colts, they came crashing right back down to earth on Sunday night against the Los Angeles Chargers. This hot-and-cold play has been a feature of Mike Tomlin’s teams for far too long, and now the annual calls for his job are starting to pop up in the national media conversation.
Rich Eisen, who has a very high opinion of Tomlin in general, thinks it might be time for Pittsburgh to move on from him.
“Let’s put it this way, I think he’s a Hall of Fame head coach. I think he’s remarkable at plugging into the athlete. I think he’s remarkable at taking the passion for football and instilling it in the team,” Eisen said Monday via The Rich Eisen Show. “I think that if this falls apart, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Steelers finally say, ‘Let’s figure something out.’ I think Tomlin is 100 percent gonna be a coach in this league for as long as he wants to be. But I totally understand that Steeler fans are like ‘We’re done.'”
Pittsburgh didn’t go all-in on this season, but they were one rung down from it with big offseason additions like Aaron Rodgers, Jalen Ramsey, Jonnu Smith, Darius Slay and DK Metcalf. They certainly didn’t load up on expensive veterans to tank for a high draft pick. Yet the results are on track to be even worse than they were a year ago.
Last year they started the season 10-3 before finishing 10-7 with a first-round exit in the playoffs. The way things are trending, they might be lucky to make the playoffs. They sit at 5-4 with the previously 1-5 Baltimore Ravens right on their heels in the AFC North.
Tomlin talked up the defense before the season as one that was capable of doing “historic” things. That hasn’t come anywhere close to panning out. Even with improvements in recent weeks, it’s still an average group at best. And right when the defense got its act together, the offense started sputtering with 247 yards per game over the last three weeks.
It’s never a good sign when defensive captain Cameron Heyward is publicly questioning if everybody is bought into the team. That’s supposed to be Tomlin’s secret sauce, and it’s not holding up this year so far. Earlier in the season, we could write it off as growing pains. Now it just seems like a permanent feature of the 2025 group.
“If the Ravens go from 1-5 to beat the team that went from 4-1, maybe it’s time for the Steelers to sit down with Tomlin and say, ‘Where do you wanna go?'” Eisen said.
Tomlin had his contract extended last offseason to be with the team through 2027. That contract is reportedly worth $50 million. It would be very un-Steelers-like to terminate that contract and eat the dead money, but frustration have been building among ownership for years with no playoff wins in almost a decade.
I personally would be surprised if it happens, but with the potential of drafting a first-round quarterback in 2026, it might make all the sense in the world to execute a clean break now.
Recommended for you