Over the last two months of the 2023 season, there was endless speculation regarding Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, especially after the Steelers fell to 7-7 in mid-December.
Would he take some time off? Would the Steelers trade him away and stockpile some draft picks and start anew? Would he want to re-sign and take a job elsewhere? It created a bunch of storylines surrounding the Steelers, ones that are only going to get louder here in the offseason after the Steeles lost to the Buffalo Bills in the Wild Card Round, 31-17.
For Steelers team captain and star defensive lineman Cameron Heyward, that speculation and the questioning of Tomlin’s status in Pittsburgh created a distraction for Steelers players and coaches, which affected them down the stretch.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday from inside the Steelers’ locker room on the South Side, Heyward pushed back on the talk surrounding Tomlin, again making a passionate defense of his head coach after doing so Monday following the loss in the Wild Card matchup.
“My thought is, he’ll be the coach here. Mike T wants to be a Pittsburgh Steeler. He is a Pittsburgh Steeler,” Heyward said, according to a tweet from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Ray Fittipaldo.
The speculation started in early December when Fox Sports insider Jay Glazer, a close friend of Tomlin’s, speculated that the Steelers should listen to trade offers for Tomlin, raising questions and concerns that maybe that comment came from Tomlin himself since the two are so close. Then, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported later in the month that the long-time head coach could decide to take some time off like former Saints head coach and current Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton once did.
For Heyward, Tomlin is still under contract and has never spoken about his future, unless it was incredibly stupid speculation, like the USC job opening a few years ago in which he dropped the great line about there not being a booster check big enough to lure him to USC.
But after Tomlin walked off the podium Monday night after the loss to the Bills in the middle of a question from a reporter regarding his future, that’s only fueled speculation surrounding Tomlin. Heyward is frustrated with it.
“…Everybody likes to talk about, ‘Oh, he might take a year off. He might do this. He’s only got one year.’ I just think, why would he answer a question like that? He’s worried about trying to win a playoff game and then last night we just lost a big playoff game,” Heyward said to reporters, according to video via KDKA-TV’s Richie Walsh on Twitter. “Why does he need to address that? Now, that’s not the time or the place and I appreciate the question, but I just think for him in general, Coach T’s earned that to just be singularly focused on one goal.
“We’ve asked this question week in and week out. It’s just not fair to the process.”
Heyward certainly has a point. When it comes to Tomlin and his future, it has been a story that’s been locked onto and beaten to a pulp from the media’s perspective. That’s understandable. He’s one of the biggest names in the NFL, coach or player. He’s been around 17 seasons in Pittsburgh, and he’s a future Hall of Fame head coach.
With just one year left on his contract and Tomlin getting up there in age (from a football perspective), it’s fair to question what his future looks like, especially with the lack of playoff success in the last decade and the struggles the Steelers have had in a transition period. He’s earned the right to decide what he wants to do, but that creates storylines, too.
Still, the conversation created some distractions for the Steelers, who had to answer questions about Tomlin’s future time and time again throughout the late stages of the season. That can be irritating and weigh on the players, especially when they have a tall task in front of them.
