getting drilled, 30-6, by the Texans<\/a>, the most lopsided home playoff loss in team history.<\/p>\nThere were chants of \u201cFire Tomlin!\u201d as the clock kicked toward zero, though they weren\u2019t nearly as impassioned as they were in late November while the Steelers were getting pushed around by the Bills in a loss that dropped their record to 6-6.<\/p>\n
Tomlin did his best to tune out the noise and his team responded, the way it seemingly always did during his tenure. Pittsburgh won four of its final five games, including a sweep of Baltimore that gave the club its first AFC North title since 2020.<\/p>\n
The optimism, however, dimmed once the Texans asserted themselves. The NFL\u2019s top-ranked defense suffocated Aaron Rodgers and Pittsburgh\u2019s offense while the league\u2019s highest-paid defense wilted late.<\/p>\n
It was a familiar and frustrating pattern for a place where, as Tomlin noted not long after his introduction, \u201cthe standard is the standard.\u201d<\/p>\n
And while that remains the case for a team whose members walk by six Lombardi Trophies every day on the way to work, the results had plateaued. The Steelers finished with nine or 10 wins in each of Tomlin\u2019s final five seasons, often doing just enough to squeak into the playoffs before being exposed by a more talented opponent.<\/p>\n
Tomlin had two years left on the contract extension he signed in 2024, with the club holding the option for 2027.<\/p>\n
His departure leaves the Steelers looking for a head coach for just the third time since they hired Noll in 1969.<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh likely won\u2019t lack for attractive candidates. The club\u2019s stability \u2014 the team has had just three head coaches since 1969 \u2014 combined with its ability to remain competitive even without a franchise quarterback for the last half-decade means whoever gets the job will be given substantial leeway to get the team back to the top.<\/p>\n
The announcement came as somewhat of a shock. Tomlin learned long ago to tune out his detractors, and in the final question he fielded as head coach, he painted an upbeat picture about the team\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always feel optimistic about what we\u2019re capable of doing in terms of putting together a group, certainly,\u201d he said Monday night.<\/p>\n
And with that, he stepped off the dais and into a future that will not lack for options. Long one of the most charismatic people in football, Tomlin could step into television if he wants, as Cowher did after retiring, with no looking back.<\/p>\n
Yet it seems just as likely that he will have his choice of jobs if or when he wants to coach again. Players defended Tomlin \u2014 almost uniformly popular within the locker room \u2014 to the end.<\/p>\n
Tight end Pat Freiermuth called Tomlin \u201cone of the best coaches I\u2019ll ever play for, probably the best. In my opinion his message hasn\u2019t got stale. I believe in him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Freiermuth added that his belief extended to general manager Omar Khan, who will be in charge of finding the right person for one of the most attractive coaching gigs in any league.<\/p>\n
Tomlin\u2019s two predecessors are in the Hall of Fame. Tomlin could very well find himself getting fitted for a gold jacket of his own. Yet rather than try to come back next year and break Noll\u2019s record for regular-season wins, he opted to, as Noll once famously put it, \u201cget on with his life\u2019s work.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the Steelers will try to find the right person to help them return to the standard that the franchise lives by, one it clutched at but never quite grasped during Tomlin\u2019s final years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI am deeply grateful to Art Rooney II and the late Ambassador [Dan] Rooney for their trust and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5005,73,75,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-86421","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-patriots","9":"tag-pittsburgh","10":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","11":"tag-pittsburgh-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}