Inside Mike Tomlin's decision to walk away from the Steelers

With only the most dedicated, or perhaps the most discontent, fans remaining in the bright yellow seats of Acrisure Stadium on a deflating, frigid night, Mike Tomlin walked off the turf for the last time as the Pittsburgh Steelers‘ head coach just after 11 p.m. Monday.

A week earlier, he pounded his chest and blew kisses in a triumphant exit, exuberantly celebrating an AFC North title in front of a raucous crowd. A miraculous fourth quarter by quarterback Aaron Rodgers and a missed Baltimore Ravens field goal attempt breathed life into Tomlin’s 2025 Steelers, an opportunity to break the drought of postseason failure.

Now, though, that hope and fanfare were gone in the aftermath of a close wild-card game that ultimately snowballed into a 30-6 blowout against the Houston Texans. Tomlin wove through clumps of numb Pittsburgh players and staffers, past benches and heaters, descending down the flight of stairs to the tunnel with Rodgers trailing close behind.

Out of view of the cameras and the fans calling for his dismissal as well as Rodgers’ retirement, Tomlin strode several yards, ascended two small flights of stairs, paused for a moment and then turned left into the locker room’s antechamber. He crossed the yellow logo on the black speckled, rubberized floor, and as he turned left to step into the spacious room rimmed with wooden lockers, he passed by his own words, immortalized in steely, silver block letters hanging on the black cinderblock wall: “The Standard … is the Standard.”

Once everyone was off the field and inside the locker room, security closed the black double doors and created an enclave from the outside world, just as Tomlin always wanted it. Even when it became standard for broadcast networks to join the winning team in their locker room to film postgame celebrations, Tomlin found ways to maintain the sanctity of his room. If cameras came in, he would hold off on postgame speeches, instead dismissing players with instructions to reassemble at the practice facility the next day.

To Tomlin, the only people who needed to hear his message were the ones who mattered most to him: his players. Steadfast in his consistency, Tomlin concluded his 19-year tenure by dedicating his final day as the Steelers’ head coach to that group of men.

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The last look (Monday, 11 p.m.)

Monday night, Tomlin’s message was brief. He told a silent locker room that it wasn’t time for talk. They’d reconvene the next day and go from there. “When you’re in a single-elimination tournament, there’s not a whole lot to talk about,” he said at his postgame news conference, “You win or you go home.”

No one listening to his message in the locker room anticipated what would come less than 24 hours later. But one answer at Tomlin’s postgame news conference gave some on the outside an inkling of Tomlin’s next steps, according to multiple sources.

Two years ago, after a wild-card loss in Buffalo, a defiant Tomlin walked away from the lectern in the middle of a question about his future. He didn’t want to entertain the idea he wouldn’t be the coach of the Steelers the next season. But posed with a similar question after Monday night’s wild-card loss, Tomlin remained seated and gave a measured response.

“I’m not even in that mindset as I sit here tonight,” he said. “I’m more in the mindset of what transpired in this stadium and certainly what we did and didn’t do. Not a big-picture mentality as I sit here tonight.”

To some who know the 53-year-old best, that non-answer foreshadowed what would become official the next day.

“He’s never not given an answer that showed future promise,” one former Steelers player told ESPN.

After fulfilling his media obligations, Tomlin exited through a door connecting the media compound to the maze of team training rooms, bathrooms, makeshift offices and, eventually, the locker room. There he found an almost entirely empty room — except for one player.

Defensive captain Cameron Heyward faced a deep ring of reporters and cameras in front of his locker, answering questions as his voice cracked with emotion. Tomlin stood outside the scrum by several feet, intently studying the man he drafted in the first round 15 years earlier.

“[Fans] don’t know what Mike T puts into this,” Heyward said that night, defending his coach. “They don’t know how he goes out of his way to prepare every man. They don’t know about the countless nights that man is in there studying film. Coaches can only do so much, players have to play better. And in those critical moments, players are going to have to step up.”

After roughly 15 seconds, Tomlin broke his gaze, turned and exited the locker room alone, walking through the black double doors for the last time as the team’s head coach just before midnight.

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The morning of truth (Tuesday, 5:30 a.m. to noon)

Shortly after 5:30 the next morning, Tomlin pulled into the Steelers’ practice facility in his light blue Ford Bronco. Though he knew the day would end unlike any in his career, it began the way it always did, with an early morning arrival.

Among the meetings scheduled was Tomlin’s usual, midmorning end-of-season debrief with team president Art Rooney II. The 73-year-old executive anticipated Tomlin would outline his vision for how he and the franchise would move forward together.

But Tomlin saw something different for the organization: a future that didn’t include him. And though it wasn’t the conversation Rooney anticipated having, he wasn’t surprised Tomlin came to that decision.

“I wasn’t shocked, but I wasn’t expecting that decision yesterday, either,” Rooney said Wednesday. “When you get to this stage of a career, obviously he mentioned it himself, that he was nearer to the end than the beginning, and so you could see that coming. … I was certainly willing to take another run at it next year with Mike. And that’s what I was expecting to talk about yesterday, but obviously it went in a different direction.”

The meeting with Rooney lasted no more than 20 minutes, and it concluded several hours before Tomlin was scheduled to meet with the team.

By noon, a select few knew that Tomlin would deliver the news to the players during the 2 p.m. meeting, including Tomlin’s family, Rooney and general manager Omar Khan. Before the meeting, Tomlin huddled with spokesperson Burt Lauten to go over particulars. The team released statements from Rooney and Tomlin after the meeting.

With the franchise unknowingly shifting under their feet, those in the building continued with business as usual. The scouting department held meetings to sort through candidates for futures contracts, staffers drifted in and out of the cafeteria for lunch, and players trickled in for their end-of-season physicals and to clean out their lockers. They grabbed giant trash bags from the equipment room and sifted through the contents of the season.

Rodgers, still publicly noncommittal about his future, sorted through mementos of his Pittsburgh year at his corner locker, grinning as he read personal cards and notes. Several staffers, media members and players approached him in an impromptu, staggered receiving line, some with simple words of appreciation, others with jerseys, a sharpie and a request.

Offensive lineman Andrus Peat brought over a black Rodgers jersey with the tag still on it. Rodgers waved the store-bought merchandise away and fished out what appeared to be a white, game-worn jersey from a bag in his locker. He retrieved a silver sharpie from the equipment room and wrote a message to Peat on the black No. 8.

Elsewhere in the locker room, T.J. Watt, Miles Killebrew and Alex Highsmith sat tucked away in another corner by Watt’s locker, talking as they killed time before the meeting. Tight ends Pat Freiermuth and Jonnu Smith hugged and exchanged jerseys, while quarterback Will Howard and linebacker Jack Sawyer joked around in the equipment room.

The room was subdued, the way it often is after an unceremonious and unsatisfying end to the season, but with seven straight postseason losses — six of them in the wild-card round — it wasn’t unfamiliar.

A handful of players spoke with reporters, discussing the wild-card loss, their own personal growth over the season and the value of Tomlin as their leader.

“One of the best coaches I’ve ever played for, probably the best,” Freiermuth said. “In my opinion, his message hasn’t gotten stale. I believe in him.”

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The ‘Game of Thrones’ farewell (Tuesday, 2 p.m.)

A coach who for nearly two decades emphasized routine was following his own, giving no indication he was about to shock the NFL world inside a modest team meeting room.

He calmly walked through the door at 2 p.m. Tuesday, dressed in his typical garb of a Steelers hat and long-sleeve shirt. The room was about 100 deep among players, coaches and support/personnel staff. In front of gold walls, a white board and projector, Tomlin delivered well-worn themes about a season that ended abruptly and the incredible effort and dedication his team showed him. He discussed consequences and being accountable.

But Tomlin couldn’t hide his tell for long: His delivery was slightly more subdued than his normal animated self, according to two team sources in the room. The players and coaches had no idea the detour Tomlin was about to take.

Tomlin is an exceptional wordsmith, a byproduct of his mother’s thirst for education while raising him in Hampton, Virginia — most notably an obsession with the World Book Encyclopedia. So, it’s no surprise that Tomlin’s lines punctuated people in the room in different ways, with different recollections.

You deserve better, and right now I can’t deliver, one high-ranking team source recalled Tomlin saying.

Someone else has to move the franchise forward, another team source remembered.

And another, simply: It’s best that I step down.

One coaching source recalled Tomlin referencing the “Game of Thrones” series to highlight the cutthroat nature of coaching — and winning — in the NFL.

“The faces of coaches and players said one word — ‘What?!'” a team source said about observing the moment. “It was dead silent.”

The end was abrupt. Tomlin walked out to a standing ovation, then assumed his normal position after every meeting — standing outside the door, greeting every person as they walked out. He dapped, he hugged, he walked away, the last semblance of normalcy for a franchise that must redefine what that means.

On his final day, Tomlin absorbed the blame. Those in the room knew that was largely unnecessary, even laughable.

“He didn’t need to say that. But that’s Mike,” a coaching source said. “He’ll always take accountability when the ultimate goal is not met, when really, guys know there’s so much more and Mike got the best out of the team.”

That meeting lasted less than half an hour, and by 2:30 p.m., players were peeling out of the practice facility parking lot.

Two hours later, just before 4:30 p.m., a light blue Ford Bronco pulled out of the gates and drove away down Water Street.

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The future: ‘Off the couch’

Cutting through the raw emotion of the meeting was a line delivered by Tomlin during his formal goodbye that stuck with one coaching source: “I’m not interested in coaching anyone else’s team right now,” the source recalled Tomlin saying in that 2 p.m. meeting.

The source took that to mean Tomlin is definitely not coaching in 2026 and might truly take an extended break but left the window open slightly for an eventual return.

Long-snapper Christian Kuntz, a Pittsburgh native, also interpreted Tomlin’s words to mean he wouldn’t be on another sideline in the near future. “He did make a point to tell us he was stepping down and he had no intentions on coaching any other guys but the guys he was looking at,” Kuntz said on his podcast Thursday.

“A few” NFL teams reached out to Tomlin about potential availability in the 2026 cycle, a source said, but it was made clear to them that he’s not coaching next season.

But Tomlin knows the power of a career reset that leads to a second act. That’s because he talks about it often, the coaching source said.

“He talks a lot about ‘getting off the couch,’ coaches who leave the game for a reset and return with new ideas, as ‘different versions’ of themselves,” the coaching source said. “He studies ball because he loves it, so I could see him returning in that way. I’m just not sure when, and it could be a while. It seems like he really just needs a break.”

Rumblings of Tomlin’s need for a break persisted for weeks, and a source close to Tomlin made clear that Tomlin’s decision to step away was not made in haste. This had been the likely outcome well before the playoff loss to Houston, said the source, believing that a departure first became a possibility over the summer. That he told the team 15 hours after the Monday night game accentuates that reality.

“What else is left to chase?” the source said about Tomlin’s mentality through all of this. “He’s been going for nearly two decades there. His kids are all grown up. It’s just time to reset.”

In his Wednesday news conference, Rooney said that Tomlin communicated to him he wanted to spend more time with his family.

“Mike indicated that he did not anticipate coaching at least in the near future,” Rooney said. “I think he wants to spend time with his family and do some of the kinds of things he hasn’t been able to do for the last many, many years. And so if something like that (coaching again) comes up, we’ll deal with it when it comes up, but right now that doesn’t seem to be on his radar.”

What looms large over Tomlin’s future is whether he strongly entertains overtures from television networks looking for the next engaging star. Tomlin, whose quick wit and delivery is perfect for studio-show analyst work, is known to have longstanding, informal offers from several networks, according to an industry source. What exactly Tomlin does next is uncertain, but that option will be waiting for him, and the expectation is that he’ll at least listen.

“As long as he has something to keep the competitive juices flowing,” the source said.

Fan discontent or feeling underappreciated was not a factor at all in the decision, multiple sources close to Tomlin insisted. “All he cared about were his players and coaches and Rooney,” one of the sources said. “He couldn’t please the fans from day one.”

And if 2027 or 2028 mark a willingness for Tomlin to coach at the NFL level, prospective teams will rejoice — as will coaching agents who know the market will reset in a major way.

The Steelers have his contractual rights for one more season plus an option year, meaning the team would be due draft compensation via trade, similar to the New Orleans Saints trading Sean Payton to Denver in 2023 and receiving first- and second-round picks as part of the deal.

Tomlin could then choose a model that fits — whether that’s a total rebuild that he can mold to his liking, or inheriting a predecessor’s win-now roster, similar to the Pittsburgh job he took over from Hall of Fame coach Bill Cowher in 2007.

In the past, Tomlin shared with those close to him that he would enjoy an opportunity to build a team from the ground up, even perhaps over an opportunity with a ready-made roster and infrastructure.

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The fallout: A franchise at a crossroads

Even with Tomlin’s departure, the expectation of ownership doesn’t change. To Rooney, a new coach doesn’t mean the franchise will undergo a full rebuild — even if the roster is closer to a rehab project than a turnkey team.

“I’m not sure why you waste a year of your life not trying to contend,” Rooney said. “Your roster is what it is. It changes every year. And so you deal with what you have every year, try to put yourself in a position to compete every month. Sometimes you have the horses, sometimes you don’t, but I think you try every year.”

The roster, though, is especially bare at the quarterback position as the Steelers enter the offseason.

“We haven’t had [a quarterback] in five years,” a team source said.

And while the Steelers had two future Hall of Famers at the position in that span, each was at the end of his career. Ben Roethlisberger retired following the 2021 season, while Rodgers, 42, might have just played his final season in 2025.

Between Roethlisberger and Rodgers, the Steelers tried to find their next franchise signal-caller from a haphazard group of Kenny Pickett, Mitchell Trubisky, Mason Rudolph, Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. None of them proved capable of the job, which led to the Steelers signing Rodgers to a one-year deal in June 2025.

That leaves the Steelers in a similar spot to the one they’ve faced each offseason since Roethlisberger’s January 2022 retirement: searching for a starting quarterback. And similar to that time, the Steelers are seeking a quarterback at an inopportune time. Not only is the 2026 quarterback class projected to have fewer starter-ready options than initially expected but the free agent and trade options also appear to be lackluster.

The next head coach will have to sort through quarterback questions and other roster challenges, too.

The Steelers need another wide receiver to pair with DK Metcalf, a mega-talented, yet somewhat volatile star who was suspended for the final two games of the season after an altercation with a Detroit Lions fan.

And while the organization hit on an under-the-radar gem in running back Kenneth Gainwell by signing him to a deal near the veterans minimum last offseason, the team MVP and pending free agent might have priced himself out of returning to Pittsburgh, especially if a new head coach brings in his own offensive coordinator.

“There are some promising young offensive linemen and a few pieces on offense but not enough,” one team source said.

The defense is aging in several spots, with one AFC executive questioning whether Watt’s massive cap hit — slated to be $42 million in each of the next two seasons — will produce diminishing returns as he nears his 32nd birthday, potentially limiting roster construction.

And, according to sources, the majority of Steelers assistant coaches are no longer under contract, which speaks further to the uncertainty of the Steelers’ future.

Beyond the roster, a new head coach will also have to follow in the footsteps of a man who set and maintained the culture of a historic organization for nearly two decades, one who has his mantras hanging on walls and printed on T-shirts. And he’ll be tasked with trying to evolve a conservative franchise that has largely spurned modernization into one capable of truly contending in 2026 and beyond.

Just days after walking away, Tomlin’s shadow looms large over one of the league’s cornerstone franchises — and it could remain indefinitely.

“Ever since my childhood growing up, it was Mike Tomlin, Mike Tomlin, Mike Tomlin, Mike Tomlin, and winning and winning and winning,” tight end Smith said. “And the culture that the city has established, football-wise, is based around what Mike Tomlin has done — the culture that he’s built, the way he’s constructed this team, the way he’s treated people in the building, the way he’s cared about this organization so much.

“He’s embodied the true meaning of a Pittsburgh Steeler.”