After limping into the playoffs, the Pittsburgh Steelers suffered another first-round loss. After months—years, really—of intense scrutiny of his job, head coach Mike Tomlin has decided to "step down" from the position he's held for 19 years. Like a cowboy at the end of a Western, he now walks off into that proverbial sunset.
At least, that's the story being pushed out. Adam Schefter has reported that Tomlin himself informed the team Tuesday of his plans to step aside. This comes after Monday night's 30-6 loss to the Houston Texans, a game in which Pittsburgh's offense, led by the husk of Aaron Rodgers, was outscored by Houston's defense alone. The scoreline could've been even more lopsided had the Texans' offense been merely decent. Even still, this was yet another playoff game where the Steelers looked overmatched and overwhelmed. The team has not found a long-term solution at quarterback since Ben Roethlisberger's retirement in 2022, and, despite all the credit Tomlin gets for overachieving with deficient teams, has not won a playoff game since 2017. That a 42-year-old Rodgers, potentially on the cusp of retirement himself, gave them their best chance to do so speaks to the organization's issues.
In the end, Tomlin has gotten out ahead of a problem that is unlikely to be solved anytime soon. The roster is old and poorly structured, they don't have a quarterback, and the fanbase had already turned on him, even if the locker room hadn't. Tomlin himself is no longer a spring chicken; once the youngest coach in the league when he first got to the job, the 53-year-old was the longest tenured coach in the league during his final season in Pittsburgh. He won a Super Bowl in his second year in charge in 2008, and got back to another one in 2010, but ends his career with an 8-12 playoff record, tying the longest active streak of playoff losses in a row.
Tomlin could get another NFL job in a snap if he wants to. Or, he could decide to take a breather and do television for a year or 20, like his Steelers predecessor, Bill Cowher. Being an older coach is a lot harder than people think—just ask Pete Carroll or John Harbaugh. In the constantly evolving NFL landscape, there's not all that much separating "veteran wisdom" from washedness. Spending a year arguing with Stephen A. and reminding the football audience that you know ball better than any of the other talking heads wouldn't be the worst idea. It's a lot better than trying to play savior for a team like the Atlanta Falcons.
