As hot seat warnings add up for head coaches of struggling teams in the NFL, there’s no denying the X-factor for the pending hiring cycle: WWMTD?
That is, what will Mike Tomlin do?
While it’s pretty much a given that Sean McDermott, the former Buffalo Bills coach
and Tomlin’s fellow William & Mary alum, will get back on the market in the coming months as a top candidate, Mike T. is dealing from a different deck.Tomlin, 54, would likely rank as the No. 1 candidate on the market, but he absolutely loves his new TV gig with NBC and is blowing up – or just heating up – as part of the Sunday Night Football crew.
In other words, Tomlin has some serious options. How will he approach the prospect of coaching again?
“I’m just enjoying the day, bro,” Tomlin
replied to USA TODAY Sports this week.
Fine. And granted, he was at work, prepping for the pregame show, when asked. Not the best time. But he’s on record with a never-say-never declaration and his name will keep popping up. He’ll have time to consider the landscape. There’s buzz in Dallas and Philly, in Washington and L.A. (Chargers, that is).
And when New Orleans Saints owner Gayle Benson expressed disgust with the performance of her 1-4 team and mentioned Kellen Moore (and GM Mickey Loomis) by name, well, they go on the hot seat list, too.
Cris Carter, the astute Hall of Fame receiver, mentioned Tomlin by name as he processed the coaching blunder by Nick Sirianni that cost the Eagles a victory in London against Jacksonville. After the Eagles took the lead with 8 seconds on the clock, Sirianni instructed his kicker to put the kickoff in play rather than boot a touchback. Then Ameer Abdullah’s 53-yard return set up the Jaguars for Cam Little’s 57-yard game-winning kick. Oops.
“This is what I thought about: Man, what would Mike Tomlin look like in Philadelphia?” Carter told Kay Adams on the Up & Adams podcast. “What would Mike Tomlin have done in that situation?”
Mike Tomlin coaching landing spots
A similar question could have been asked by Commanders fans in the wake of the gaffe that allowed the clock to run out after Jayden Daniels was slow get-up following a run, rather than executing a clock-killing spike to set up a potential winning field goal.
When Tomlin was asked about it by host Maria Taylor on NBC’s pregame show, he succinctly detailed exactly what needed to transpire in the situation.
A calling card? Maybe, maybe not.
If Tomlin, who never had a losing campaign in 19 seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers, coaches again next year, his former team would likely have to be compensated. The Steelers reportedly have an option for 2027, which would be the final year of a three-year extension signed in 2024.
That scenario shapes up as something similar to what happened with Sean Payton, who worked for Fox Sports in the season after he stepped down in New Orleans. The Broncos then hired Payton in 2023 and traded a first-round pick in 2023 and fourth-round choice in 2024 to get the coach.
And if Tomlin does hit the market, imagine how teams would clamor for him like they did for John Harbaugh. Remember, after Harbaugh became available after leaving the Ravens in January, no fewer than seven teams expressed interest. Harbaugh, Tomlin’s old A-North rival, narrowed his list of potential teams to three. Then his five-year deal with the Giants was announced 11 days after his firing in Baltimore.
Conversely, Tomlin could be ramping up for extended run in TV like Jon Gruden and Bill Cowher. Gruden was an analyst on Monday Night Football for nine years until he was lured back to the Raiders (only to encounter other issues). Cowher, a studio analyst for The NFL Today on CBS, never returned to coaching after stepping down from the Steelers after the 2006 season.
Tomlin’s engaging TV presence, with quick wit, can take him a long way in that business for a long time. Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy, who Tomlin essentially replaced, worked for NBC for 17 years.
Yet Tomlin’s heart as a coach, accented by that same quick wit, can’t be underestimated. There’s something to be said about the desire to be in the middle of the action.
So, even if it’s not in 2027, like Cowher and Gruden when they launched in TV, Tomlin would be a hot name the following year. And the next year. And so on.
WWMTD? Stay tuned in. One way or another.
Follow Bell on X: @JarrettBell
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mike Tomlin looms over NFL hiring cycle before it even starts | Opinion
