After 19 seasons, Mike Tomlin determined to y from the Pittsburgh Steelers. He’ll spend the 2026 NFL season as an analyst as a substitute.
However given Tomlin’s success within the NFL — and the truth that he didn’t retire — rumors are going to pop up any time a high-profile job turns into accessible. Whereas Tomlin seems pleased along with his new function, he did reveal the one younger quarterback he would love to educate proper now.
No, it’s not Joe Burrow or Lamar Jackson, two quarterbacks he noticed numerous when he was with the Steelers. It’s Buffalo Payments star Josh Allen, who Tomlin mentioned is “s” throughout an look on the PFF NFL Present.
"Who do I wanna coach? I'd take Josh Allen." – Mike Tomlin has vehement reward for the Payments QB1 😤 | h3
— PFF (@PFF) 6
Apart from Allen’s age — he’s 30 — it’s powerful to argue with Tomlin’s alternative. Over the previous six seasons, Allen has emerged as arguably the very best quarterback in soccer. He’s been a robust MVP candidate in 5 of these seasons, pulling off an MVP win in 2024. As Tomlin defined, Allen can get it completed along with his arm or his legs, and is among the many greatest twin threats within the league as nicely.
Whether or not Tomlin really will get an opportunity to educate Allen, nevertheless, appears fairly unlikely. Whereas Tomlin stepped away from the Steelers, the pinnacle coach is reportedly nonetheless below contract with the crew. He can’t merely put his title within the hat if the Payments’ job all of a sudden turns into accessible. The Steelers — which nonetheless maintain Tomlin’s teaching rights — must commerce him away.
The Payments, in the meantime, probably aren’t out there for a brand new head coach within the subsequent couple seasons. After y firing Sean McDermott in January, the crew determined to rent Joe Brady as its subsequent head coach. Brady will presumably get just a few seasons within the function earlier than the crew strikes on … until issues actually collapse below his management.
Assuming Brady will get a number of years on the job, Tomlin wouldn’t have a practical shot to educate Allen till the quarterback was not thought-about “younger” for his place. Tomlin acknowledged he was stretching the definition of a younger quarterback by selecting Allen, who’s already been within the NFL for eight seasons.
Every time Tomlin decides to get again into teaching, he ought to draw loads of curiosity from different NFL groups. Tomlin famously by no means posted a shedding season with the Steelers, and a variety of different NFL franchises would kill for that sort of consistency proper now.
For now, Tomlin has the luxurious of with the ability to wait on a premier job to open up earlier than he returns. It won’t be with the Payments, however Tomlin will virtually definitely put himself in place to excel straight away in his subsequent head-coaching function.
