Insider Wonders if Mike Tomlin Would Opt Out of Contract Extension

There were rumblings this past season that Mike Tomlin could look to step aside after the 2023 season, but that obviously didn’t come to fruition. Tomlin will be the Pittsburgh Steelers head coach in 2024, and it’s expected that he’ll have his contract extended at some point this offseason.

“I expect to be back and I would imagine that those contract things are going to run their course,” Tomlin said at his season-ending press conference in January. “Art and I have a real good, transparent relationship. We communicate continually, often. I don’t imagine it’s going to be an issue and I imagine it’s going to get done in a timely manner at the appropriate time.”

Mike Tomlin should have his contract extended before or during training camp, but Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wonders if Tomlin would rather opt out of an extension and go year-to-year instead.

The Steelers went year-to-year with former general manager Kevin Colbert late in his career, but he’s over a decade older than Tomlin, and there’s been no signs of Tomlin wanting out of the game. A year-to-year agreement would indicate that.

At the NFL owner’s meeting in Orlando in late March, Rob King of Steelers.com asked Tomlin about coaching the Steelers for the foreseeable future. And Tomlin gave an answer that suggests he has more fire now than ever.

“Absolutely. I love what I do. I love where I do it. I love who I do it with. I answer that question rather easily, to be quite honest with you,” Tomlin said. “Certainly, we have things like contracts and things to address. But just in spirit, in terms what I do, the energy I bring to what I do, the desire to step out of that car every day and step into that facility, it hasn’t waned in any way. If it’s done anything different, it has intensified.”