Unless something unexpected happens, it seems like a lock that Mike Tomlin will be returning for the 2025 season for his 19th year as the Pittsburgh Steelers’ head coach. Frustrations are at an all-time high after a sixth-consecutive loss in the playoffs, which has caused many to call for a mutual divorce between Tomlin and the Steelers.
Micah Parsons thinks that would be a terrible idea for Pittsburgh and explained from a player’s perspective what makes Tomlin so great.
“We’ve been seeing a lot of stuff with Tomlin, people should trade for Tomlin, other execs said we should move on, but are you mad?” Parsons said via The Edge podcast on Bleacher Report’s YouTube. “Tomlin hasn’t had a losing season in his career. I think he’s one of the most beautifully gifted coaches in the NFL when it comes to building people around him and making them elite, making them better.”
Parsons cited one of the earlier episodes of HBO’s Hard Knocks where Tomlin challenged Nick Herbig to beat Orlando Brown in the Bengals game. Herbig rose to the occasion and did exactly what Tomlin was calling for.
“When you have a coach that instills belief, instills that type of determination throughout the week and proclaims that for your success and it happens, man, you should never go against that,” Parsons said. “I think the Steelers would be delusional to move on from Tomlin.”
Parsons chooses to believe that personnel issues are the true culprit, saying the Steelers need to solve issues with their o-line, receiving corps, and QB situation. Tomlin has a hand in all those decisions, and he obviously is responsible for player development and the hiring of coaches to put everybody in positions to succeed. No matter how good of a motivator he is, perhaps he has too many responsibilities on his plate. Maybe he isn’t good enough at delegating, which is one of the biggest parts of being a successful leader.
Regardless of that debate, Parsons’ opinion of Tomlin shows one of the other big positives that the Steelers’ head coach has going for him. Players want to play for him. He is capable of attracting free agents to the team because players usually hold a very high opinion of Tomlin. Davante Adams just said he would 100 percent want to play for Tomlin, for example.
