Schefter: NFL Teams Could Call About Trading for Mike Tomlin
Don’t expect it to happen, but other NFL teams could be calling the Pittsburgh Steelers about trying to trade for head coach Mike Tomlin, ESPN insider Adam Schefter said on Sunday.
Talking about the NFL head coaching carousel that is about to get ramped up, Schefter said that some teams could see Tomlin as the potential solution to their head coaching vacancy.
While Tomlin has always been a popular individual in NFL circles, the Steelers’ foundational belief in consistency at the head coaching position has always made such a move highly unlikely.
But Schefter said that the Steelers’ four-game slide at the end of the 2024 season might have some teams wondering just how committed Steelers president Art Rooney II and general manager Omar Khan are to having Tomlin in Pittsburgh long term.
“I think there are going to be teams out there that have watched the way that the Pittsburgh Steelers season has ended and wonder whether they should call the Steelers to see if they should inquire about whether the Steelers would be willing to move on from Mike Tomlin and move him to another organization,” Schefter said on ESPN Sunday Countdown.
“I don’t think Pittsburgh will do that. That’s not what they’ve been about and there’s no indication that they would. But I do think there are teams wondering if they should lob in a call just to see if they could stir Pittsburgh’s interest.”
Tomlin signed a three-year contract extension this offseason that runs through the 2027 season, so as of very recently, both sides were committed to Tomlin coaching the Steelers for the foreseeable future.
NFL head coaching trades are rare. The last time a team traded for a head coach was when the Denver Broncos traded for Sean Payton from the New Orleans Saints. But while a trade was necessary because Payton was still under contract to New Orleans, he had retired and stepped away from his duties a year earlier.
Bruce Arians similarly retired for one season before he was traded from the Arizona Cardinals to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2019. The last time a sitting coach was traded was in 2005, when the New York Jets sent Herm Edwards to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Trade value for NFL head coaches varies greatly. Payton, along with a third-round draft pick, netted the Saints a first-rounder and a second-rounder. Arians went with a seventh-round pick for a sixth-round selection.
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