It certainly seems like we might be talking about Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin potentially becoming the next head coach of the Washington Redskins for at least a little while longer thanks to a few Sunday morning reports.
According to Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports on Sunday morning, Redskins owner Daniel Snyder is expected to make strong push to acquire Tomlin from Steelers after the 2019 season ends.
“Snyder, who has long been a fan of Tomlin, has gotten to know the Super Bowl-winning coach more personally over the years, at league meetings and through several mutual friends and peers, and would be willing to give Tomlin a top-of-the-market salary and full authority over the organization, the sources said,” according to La Canfora. “He views Tomlin as the kind of coach, leader and face-of-the-franchise Washington sorely lacks — the perfect point person with the media and sponsors and to help efforts to get a stadium built in downtown Washington, DC.”
However, not long after La Canfora’s report hit the internet, Adam Schefter of ESPN filed a report stating that he’s been told that a trade of Tomlin to the Redskins after the 2019 season ends as one that’s very unlikely to happen.
“I don’t see Mike going to Washington,” the source reportedly told Schefter. “That is so far-fetched. It’s so far out there. It would have to be a deal that the league never has seen before and would change the way business is done in football, and I don’t see that happening.”
With Tomlin currently under contract with the Steelers through 2021 and with a one-year option being available after that, it would require him to be fired or traded for him to no longer be the head coach in Pittsburgh. While becoming the head coach of the Redskins would get Tomlin closer to Newport News, Virginia, where he grew up, and closer to the University of Maryland, where one of his sons currently goes to school and plays football, it’s still hard to envision there being anything more to just easily connected dots when it comes to him ultimately becoming Washington’s next head coach in 2020.
This past Tuesday, Tomlin didn’t exactly do a great job of squashing the rumors that Snyder is rumored to want him as the Redskins next head coach.
“I’m not worried about that, to be quite honest with you,” Tomlin said on Tuesday when asked to comment on the Redskins report. “You’re the first person to mention it to me in a public setting.”
Tomlin was then immediately asked what his reaction to that question be in a private setting.
“About the same I’m giving you,” Tomlin said. “Guys, I’m the head coach of a 1-4 football team that’s going on the road to play a Hall of Fame caliber quarterback with my third quarterback. You think I’m worried about anything this week other than that?”
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN chimed in on the Tomlin to Redskins reports Sunday morning.
“I’m told Tomlin has zero interest in that job now, he has zero interest in that job later on,” Fowler said Sunday morning during an interview. “Now, look, in the coaching business anything can change in three or four months, but I’m told Tomlin is very happy in Pittsburgh. He works for one of the best families in the league in the Rooneys, and he’s not a climber, he’s not looking to do another job. And if things were even to go south, he would likely target a different position because of Washington’s dysfunction.”
Maybe after the Steelers play the Los Angeles Chargers Sunday night Tomlin will again be asked to squash any speculation that he wants out of Pittsburgh and would like the opportunity to become the next head coach of the Redskins.
Personally, I can’t see the Redskins trading for Tomlin because it would possibly require them giving up two first-round draft picks to do so. Additionally, would Tomlin really want to be the next head coach of a team that doesn’t have any first-round draft capital? I don’t think that sounds too appealing.
Here’s to hoping this rumor/story doesn’t linger much longer but I have a sneaky feeling it will.
