Steelers Trading Mike Tomlin In 2023 Would Not Shock One NFL Insider

On Wednesday afternoon during his regularly scheduled appearance on 93.7 the Fan’s PM Team/w Poni & Mueller, Mike Florio from Pro Football Talk dropped a bombshell. He did not douse the fire that started with the ostentatious co-host Andrew Fillipponi’s theory that the Steelers should explore a trade for their popular head coach.

“I don’t think teams do that enough,” Florio said about trading coaches. “It happened a couple of times in the past decade. We know it’s going to happen with Sean Payton at some point.  I’m talking about trading for a guy like Jon Gruden with the Raiders, Buccaneers come in with a couple of first-round picks, boom they do the deal. There was compensation for Herm Edwards, compensation for Bruce Arians who was already retired by the Arizona Cardinals. It wouldn’t surprise me if (David) Tepper does it.”

The Steelers play the Carolina Panthers on Sunday at 1 p.m. and David Tepper, who owns the team used to be a minority owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He owned five percent of the team for almost a decade and is intimately familiar with Tomlin who was the coach during his tenure with the black and gold. The Panthers are flush with four early-round draft picks and could parlay the picks they got from San Francisco in the Christian McCaffrey trade as a package to lure the Steelers into trading them the 16-year veteran, Tomlin.

“Another person to keep in mind, not necessarily for the Panthers, is Bill Belichick,” Florio continued. “There are storm clouds brewing, they wouldn’t fire him or let him walk away with no compensation. Maybe Tomlin to Carolina, it wouldn’t surprise me if it happens. I am surprised that vehicle isn’t used more often to hire highly accomplished Super Bowl winning coaches.”

Bill Belichick and Tomlin are often compared to one another because of the long-term success both have had in the AFC. They both have significant tenure and while the natives might be restless, a large portion of both fan bases would scream bloody murder at the thought of either heading up another NFL franchise. They are firmly entrenched as part of both cities’ cultures.

NFL head coaches don’t coach for decades like Don Shula, Chuck Noll and Tom Landry anymore. This generation of players tunes even the best coaches out eventually and a decade in one job is a testament that a coach is well-liked, successful and probably on his way out.

“I think that in New England the fan base is more vocal,” Florio concluded. “Here is a more accurate take, regardless of how loud the fan bases are the Kraft’s are more likely to listen than the Rooney’s will. The Rooney’s are more likely to ignore it. You may ignore it to the point where you see a lot of yellow seats popping up and a dip in the ratings locally like they saw last year.”

“People act like the Rooney’s have figured out some great formula of stability and it’s always been this way, before they got Chuck Noll, they were firing guys left and right. If they fired Mike Tomlin, and I’m not saying they should, if it’s going to happen it’s better that it happen in a trade. But they are never going to fire him.”

This isn’t the first time that Florio has criticized Art Rooney II and it won’t be the last. He is one of the staunchest Tomlin defenders in the media, and he doesn’t think the organization has the stomach to fire him, but a trade would solve the problem. The Carolina Panthers on paper don’t seem like a more talented team than the Steelers but if they are willing to retain Tomlin’s services for draft picks, Pittsburgh should listen.