Mike Tomlin has stepped down as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers after 19 years according to multiple reports, following the team’s 30-6 Wild Card round loss to the Houston Texans—their seventh consecutive first-round exit from the NFL playoffs.
According to ESPN, Tomlin, 53, announced his decision to step down during a team meeting on Jan. 13, hours after the Steelers suffered the devastating loss to the Texans.
The outlet reports that Tomlin is exiting the team with two years remaining on his contract, having signed an extension in 2024 that would have seen him helming the Steelers through 2027. That extension was worth a reported $50 million.
His resignation is understood to have come just hours after Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers vehemently defended Tomlin at a post-game press conference, which the player ended up storming out of following a barrage of questions about the head coach’s future with the team.
Tomlin, who hails from Virginia, began his NFL coaching career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2001, when he was hired as the defensive backs coach. He then moved to the Minnesota Vikings in 2006, before being selected as the new head coach for the Steelers in 2007, two years after the team had claimed victory in the Super Bowl.
That same year, Tomlin splashed out $1.8 million on a new home in Pittsburgh, a stunning Tudor-style mansion that is located in the leafy Squirrel Hill North suburb of the bustling city.
The property, which the former coach and his wife, Kiya Winston, share with their three children—Dino, Mason, and Harlyn—is currently estimated to be worth upwards of $2.6 million, according to Realtor.com.
It is unclear whether Tomlin and his family will continue to live in Pittsburgh following his departure from the team, however ESPN reports that the Steelers will continue to retain his coaching rights through 2027, because he resigned while still under contract.
This means that if Tomlin procures another job with a different NFL team, the Steelers would be eligible for compensation.
Despite his initial success with the Steelers—whom he led to a Super Bowl victory in 2009—Tomlin has had a disappointing few years with the team, resulting in a series of postseason losses.
However, Rodgers, 42, was quick to defend him against criticism after the Steelers’ loss to the Texans, telling reporters that coaches should not always be put in the “hot seat” because of a team’s performance.
Discussing both Tomlin and Matt LaFleur, the head coach of the Green Bay Packers, whom Rodgers previously played for, the quarterback said that these kinds of “snap decisions” about removing coaching staff would not have been made in the same way when he started playing.
“I mean this league has changed a lot in my 21 years,” he said. “You know when you hear conversation about the Mike Tomlins of the world, Matt LaFleurs of the world, those are just two of the coaches I’ve played for. And when I first got in the league, there wouldn’t be conversation about whether those guys were on the hot seat,
“But the way that the league is covered now and the way that there’s snap decisions and the validity given to the Twitter experts and all the experts on TV now who make it seem like they know what the hell they’re talking about. To me, that’s an absolute joke. And for either of those two guys to be on the hot seat is really apropos of where we’re at as a society and a league.
“Because, obviously, Matt’s done a lot of great things in Green Bay, and we had a lot of success. Mike T has had more success than damn near anybody in the league for the last 19–20 years. And more than that though, when you have the right guy and the culture is right, you don’t think about making a change.
“But there’s a lot of pressure that comes from the outside and obviously that sways decisions from time to time, but it’s not how I would do things and not how the league used to be.”
Despite the Steelers’ lackluster performance in recent years, Sports Illustrated still hailed Tomlin as a “the hottest name on the coaching market,” noting that, at the age of 53, he still has many potential years ahead of him on the NFL sidelines.
Tomlin has yet to issue a statement about his resignation, nor has he indicated whether he plans to pursue a position with another NFL team.
However, in the wake of the team’s loss to the Texans, Tomlin brushed off questions about his future with the Steelers, telling reporters in the post-game press conference that he was “not in the mindset” to discuss what would happen moving forward.
