Steelers News

Rooney On Possible Offseason Contract Extension For Tomlin: ‘We’ll Cross That Bridge When We Come To It’

Will Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin be offered a contract extension between now and the start of the regular season? Steelers team president Art Rooney II was asked on Wednesday during his annual end-of-the-season season with members of the local media if there are currently any plans to get Tomlin signed to a new deal during the offseason and according to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com, he said that topic could be addressed later during the offseason.

“Those are things we get to do sort of later in the offseason, so we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Rooney said.

Currently, Tomlin has two years remaining on the contract extension that he signed in August of 2017 which means that it won’t expire until after the 2020 season. In past years, Tomlin has signed a new extension two years out and thus that’s why Rooney was asked that question on Wednesday.

The Steelers failed to make the playoffs in 2018 and that’s the first time that’s happened since 2013 when the team went 8-8. Earlier in his Wednesday interview, Rooney was asked to evaluate Tomlin’s performance this past season.

“I have to say, when you miss the playoffs nobody gets absolved; coaches, players, scouts, front office, Rooney said according to Will Graves of the Associated Press. “So, I think everybody knows we have to be better including Mike [Tomlin]. There’s no disagreements in the organization about that. We all need to be better.”

So, what does Rooney think about some people saying that Tomlin let things get out of control this past season and that the organization was effectively a circus?
“Well, first, I don’t go on talk radio very often so that’s my first response,” Rooney said. “I don’t know where it comes from. As far as I’m concerned, it’s nonsense. We work hard to get to where we are and like I said, I think if you evaluate this season we didn’t achieve our goal winning the division but we finished a half a game out of the division, in a winning the division, had lots of opportunities to get there. It’s disappointing but not sure that makes you a circus.”
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