The future of Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has once again become a topic of discussion after the team ended the regular season on a four-game losing streak, and on The PM Team on 93.7 The Fan, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio said it might not just be Tomlin’s whose future is worth watching after Saturday. Florio said that if the Ravens lose, it “wouldn’t be crazy” if the team moved on from head coach John Harbaugh.
“I’ve been curious about the Ravens and John Harbaugh just because he’s been there for so long and if they should lose on Saturday night and they go one-and-done, does that lay the foundation for a mutual separation? I think you could make the argument [for] whoever loses this game,” Florio said. “It wouldn’t be crazy. For the loser, either way, for that to be what we would regard as a surprise come Monday or Sunday or Tuesday or whenever, but maybe in hindsight it shouldn’t have been.”
Tomlin has been with the Steelers since 2007 while Harbaugh has been with the Ravens since 2008, and the two are the longest-tenured head coaches in the league. Either of them moving on from their current job, by choice, by an organizational decision or a mutual parting of ways would come as a surprise. While Harbaugh and the Ravens have had more playoff success in recent years, making it to the AFC Championship Game last season, they haven’t been able to make a Super Bowl appearance with Lamar Jackson, who is a candidate to win his third MVP award.
That could lead the Ravens to look to make a change, especially if they go one-and-done and lose to a division rival at home in the Steelers. As for Tomlin, a loss would mark Pittsburgh’s fifth straight one-and-done in the postseason. After a 10-3 start, finishing with the same 10-7 record and Wild Card Round exit as in 2023 won’t go over particularly well.
Both decisions would certainly qualify as a surprise, and I don’t think the likelihood of either is all that high. But where there’s smoke there’s fire, and it’s a possibility at least worth considering that both Tomlin and Harbaugh may be coaching for their job on Saturday night. It would’ve been unfathomable to think even a month ago that we’d be having these discussions about Tomlin once again, but with the way the Steelers season ended, it’s at least possible that the team thinks about moving on.
