Mike Tomlin remains at the center of speculation as to whether he will be back. More than anything, Tomlin potentially being fired, or even him walking away, has been talked about in recent weeks. But the coach rallied his team when everything seemed to collapse, and now, they are in the playoffs. That doesn’t mean Tomlin is guaranteed to be back on those accounts, though.
And Troy Polamalu, who loved playing under Tomlin, hopes that he remains as the team’s head coach for a long time. Talking with Jim Rome, Polamalu believes it would be terrible if Tomlin left the team and was not the coach of the Steelers in 2024.
“They’re probably the same fans that were saying get rid of Ben too, and me,” Polamalu said. “Honestly, I think Coach Tomlin is one of the greatest coaches in NFL history. I think he’s a Hall of Fame coach. Absolutely, I think the talk is crazy for people to consider or think that he wouldn’t be our coach next year. I think it would be terrible for him not to be.”
Adam Schefter and Jay Glazer, who is Tomlin’s close friend, both speculated that it could possible that Tomlin wants to step away earlier this week.
“They’re not firing Mike Tomlin, but here’s the thing that’s interesting. He’s got a year left on his contract, and there are some people around the league who believe that Mike Tomlin could decide eventually to take some time off like Sean Payton did,” Schefter said. “Maybe take a year off, we’ll see if that’s something that’s on his mind. But Mike Tomlin gets to dictate what happens here, not the Pittsburgh Steelers. They’re not firing him.”
In July, team president Art Rooney II said to not worry about a new extension, and that it would simply come with time.
“We’ve done the contract at different points and people seem to read more into that than is warranted,” Rooney said to Steelers Nation Radio in July. “The contract will get done when it needs to get done. As Omar said, I expect Mike to be here a lot longer than the existing contract. We’ll get it done when the time comes.”
Tomlin did acknowledge that entering his 17th season as the team’s head coach, he has more years behind him than ahead of him, but at just 51 years old, he still has plenty of energy to continue coaching for quite some time.