The latest Mike Tomlin narrative about his run with the Steelers ending might be hot air, but each year, it becomes more likely. And each year the Steelers come short of their goals, perhaps some of the sheen wears off the golden boy. Now in his 50s, Tomlin is further removed from his lone Super Bowl win than the win is removed from his first legal alcoholic beverage.
As if you, dear reader, need reminding, the Steelers under Tomlin haven’t won a playoff game since 2016. They haven’t been to a Super Bowl since 2010, and they haven’t won since 2008. That might not sound too bad for some other franchises, but it is for Pittsburgh. And the playoff drought keeps looking worse with each passing year, especially as other franchises snap their losing streaks. As of the 2025 season, only seven teams have longer playoff win droughts. How many teams are running to sign up for that? Perhaps not as many as in the past.
“There’s always gonna be a team out there that would be happy to have what the Steelers have had for the last 20 years, or close to it”, Mike Florio said when discussing the theoretical prospects for Mike Tomlin should he ever part company with the Steelers and wish to continue his coaching career on 93.7 The Fan.
“I still feel like it would be such a land rush that, maybe even teams that weren’t gonna fire their coach will fire their coach just to get a chance at Mike Tomlin”, he added. “I think he will have options if he and the Steelers decide it’s time to move on. But I don’t think it’ll be, you know, half the league trying to get him at this point. But that’s just a gut feeling. I suspect that if he’s available, there will be multiple suitors. But not maybe as many as there had been in the past”.
For many years, even while at his lowest, the narrative has always been that Mike Tomlin would land another job within minutes. But would that really be true now? Even some of his staunchest defenders in the media are wavering.
The Steelers are 5-9 in their past nine games, going back to last season. They completely collapsed at the end of 2024, and Mike Tomlin, almighty coach that he is, was powerless to stop the freefall. Twice in the past three games this year, they allowed things to snowball into blowouts. We have heard alarming comments even from the likes of Cam Heyward—not directly about Tomlin, but about the state of the team’s confidence in itself.
Mike Tomlin might not be leaving the Steelers anytime soon, but it’s fair to wonder what his prospects really would be if he left. Bill Belichick couldn’t even land a single NFL head coaching job. I have no doubt that Tomlin would coach if he wanted. But would he be just another top coach on the market, or would many teams fall over themselves trying to land him? I am no longer certain if that would be true.
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