Insider: Steelers, Mike Tomlin Partnership Year-to-Year

Mike Tomlin will remain with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the 2025 campaign after there were some fleeting questions regarding his longterm future with the organization this offseason.

Pittsburgh's five-game losing streak to close out the 2024 season left a sour taste in the mouths of everyone associated with the organization, though no monumental changes were made from a personnel standpoint.

NFL Network's Tom Pelissero indicated on the the "Rich Eisen Show", however, that despite signing a three-year extension last June, Tomlin is on a "year-to-year" basis with the Steelers moving forward.

When asked to clarify that statement, Pelissero shared his belief that Tomlin is essentially holding the cards in this situation.

“My belief is Mike Tomlin will be the head coach of the Steelers for as long as he wants to be,” he said. “But he’s entering his 19th year. There is not a lot of precedent in the modern NFL, Bill Belichick aside, for somebody going on 20 years with one team. It just doesn’t happen.”

Pelissero added that Tomlin, as expected, has a ton of influence within the organization given his track record of success and the fact that he hasn't endured a single losing season in his 18 years at the helm.

“Mike Tomlin, we all know, has never had a losing season in Pittsburgh,” he said. “He has a lot of influence over all aspects of the organization personnel. Look no further than Aaron Rodgers, who Mike Tomlin stumped for from the start."

Tomlin, who's currently the longest-tenured head coach in the four major North American professional sports, has the 12th-most wins in NFL history with 183 and has led the Steelers to the playoffs on 12 occasions while taking home the Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl XLIII.

Given the relationship between the Rooney family and Tomlin, it's hard to imagine a world in which they move on from one another. With an ongoing six-game losing streak in the playoffs, however, Pelissero noted that the results and feelings percolating around the locker room are both huge factors in whether or not that partnership continues for the foreseeable future.

“The results influence everything here,” he said. “Mike Tomlin’s own wishes influence things. I don’t foresee – and nothing about the history of the Rooney family would indicate that they would fire Mike Tomlin. I talked with Art Rooney about this last summer. What he said was, 'My standard is as long as the locker room is still listening to the coach and we believe in the coach, there’s no reason to make a change.'"