After the Steelers lost their wild-card game against the Bills in the 2024 playoffs, Mike Tomlin was asked about his contract situation. As the team’s head coach was heading into his final year on his current contract. Before the queston was even finished, Tomlin quickly exited the press conference. This left many Pittsburgh fans wondering. A few days later, Coach T would address the drama. While not giving specifics, Tomlin’s demeanor was positive. Despite Tomlin’s hopeful outlook, many news stations predicted that 2024 would be Mike Tomlin’s last year with the team. However, these articles would be put to rest on June 11. It was announced that Mike Tomlin was signing a three-year extension with the Steelers to keep him Pittsburgh through the 2027 season.
This did not come as a surprise to many as it was likely for Tomlin to stay with the Steelers. Due to the history of the team and how good of a head coach Mike Tomlin really is. Since 1969, the Pittsburgh Steelers have had three different head coaches. Which is the fewest since that period. The Steelers are simply not a team that gets rid of head coaches. It is one of the many things that separates the Steelers’ organization from the rest of the league. If Mike Tomlin would have left after the 2024 season, it would have been his own occurrence. Which does not seem in character for Tomlin as he is a huge figure in Pittsburgh and has a great connection with the team and city.
Mike Tomlin is one of the greatest head coaches the league has ever seen. Tomlin has seventeen straight non-losing seasons to start his career, most by any head coach. Coach T has a career record of 173-100-2 which is the fifth highest win percentage among active coaches. Now many will bring up his recent playoff success. While his career record in playoffs being 8-10, Tomlin has gone to two super bowls which is second for active coaches. Tomlin also holds the record for the youngest head coach to win a super bowl. After his new extension is up, Tomlin would be the second longest-tenured Steelers head coach, following Hall of Fame head coach Chuck Noll.
This extension was heavily needed for the Steelers if the team wanted to compete in the future. The Steelers were very smart in making this move as Mike Tomlin is one of the all-time greats in the Steelers organization. As for Mike Tomlin, he gets to coach with one of the best rosters he has seen in his time with the team. Tomlin has the chance to develop and evolve into a franchise guy in Justin Fields and a very young group of stars. The move was great for both parties and will continue the Steelers’ way of keeping head coaches.