The Pittsburgh Steelers will face the Denver Broncos on Sunday, and that matchup includes two veteran NFL head coaches facing off in Mike Tomlin and Sean Payton. Tomlin, however, enters this matchup against Payton with a 0-3 record so he’ll be looking for his first win ever against the Broncos head coach on Sunday.
Sunday will mark the first time that Tomlin has faced Payton during his term as the Broncos head coach. The three previous times he’s coached against him came when Payton was the head coach of the New Orleans Saints.
The first time that Tomlin coached against Payton was on Halloween night in 2010. That game between the Steelers and the Saints took place in New Orleans and the Saints won it by a score of 38-31.
In November of 2014, Tomlin and Payton faced off a second time with this contest between the Steelers and the Saints taking place in Pittsburgh. The Saints and Payton, however, won that matchup at Heinz Field by a score of 35-32.
In December of 2018, Tomlin got his third chance to finally beat Payton as the Saints hosted the Steelers at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Once again, however, Payton’s team got the best of Tomlin’s team, and once again by a margin of three points as the Saints beat the Steelers 31-28.
With Payton about to face Tomlin on Sunday for a fourth time, he was asked this past week if he has a friendly rivalry with the Steelers’ longtime head coach.
“No, I would say we’re friendly though,” Payton told the Broncos media. “I consider him one of my—as you do this long enough, pretty soon you’re not as familiar with the other coaches that are getting hired. He’s a good friend, and he’s obviously a heck of a football coach. We didn’t play a lot because I was in the NFC, and he was in the AFC. He’s done a great job there for a long period of time. The most impressive thing you would say is his body of work. We like to use that term—his body of work is really impressive.”
While Payton is 3-0 against Tomlin all-time, his three wins included now-retired QB Drew Brees under center. This time against Tomlin and the Steelers, Payton will have a rookie quarterback under center in Bo Nix.
Tomlin, on the other hand, has fared well against true rookie quarterbacks during his career as he enters Sunday’s game with a 24-6 record against them. The last rookie quarterback that Tomlin lost to was Dorian Thompson-Robinson of the Cleveland Browns and that happened just last season.
Overall, Tomlin has not fared well against the Broncos regardless of who their head coach was especially when the game was played in Denver. Tomlin is 4-5 against the Broncos all-time and 1-5 against Denver on the road. In case you’re curious, the Steelers versus Broncos series has been played 34 times (including 8 postseason games), with Denver winning 20 times and Pittsburgh winning 13 times. They’ve also tied once.
As Saturday begins to wind down, the Steelers are 2.5-point road favorites over the Broncos.
