It’s a little earlier in the season than normal, but it seems like the “fire Mike Tomlin” crowd pops up toward the end of every year as an understandable vent for its frustrations when the Pittsburgh Steelers go on a losing streak. After losing three of the last four games with all three losses coming on primetime television in embarrassing fashion, the cries for a change in Pittsburgh are growing louder.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette beat writer Ray Fittipaldo doesn’t get the sense that any changes are coming, at least not based on what’s happened so far.
“In years past, the Steelers would never do that. They would never even listen to the offer. They wouldn’t even take the phone call. I can’t sit here and tell you that it’s 100 percent gonna be that way again, but I would tend to think it would be,” Fittipaldo said of the recent baseless Giants-trading-for-Tomlin speculation after the firing of Brian Daboll via 93.7 The Fan’s Morning Show. “I don’t think they’ve lost faith in that building just because of a rough month here. I think something really bad would have to transpire in the last two months of the season for them to even consider that.
“From the Steelers’ perspective, I still don’t think that would be in play.”
Pittsburgh has been through some rough times in recent years with multiple three- or four-game losing streaks in the months of December and January. The Steelers have also been embarrassed in the playoffs too many times to count over the last decade with an eight-year playoff-win drought. Yet in the middle of it all, they showed a sign of faith in Tomlin by giving him a three-year contract extension in the offseason before the 2024 season.
He is contractually tied to the team through 2027 at a reported $16.67 million per season. That’s a lot of money to waste if the Steelers decide to part ways with him.
Art Rooney II keeps speaking of growing frustration with the Steelers’ lack of playoff success. And they have certainly invested in change over the last offseason with a radically transformed roster. The additions of Aaron Rodgers, DK Metcalf, Darius Slay, Jalen Ramsey, and Jonnu Smith signified a clear strategy. You don’t add star veterans toward the end of their respective careers to build for the future.
The story of the 2025 season hasn’t been fully written. Unlike like their collapse in 2024, there is a chance that things click in December and January for once. Steelers fans have been conditioned to expect the opposite in recent years, but that is a possibility. If it doesn’t, what would it take to move on from Tomlin? If the Steelers lose every game the rest of the way would that finally be enough?
At least for Fittipaldo, he doesn’t get the sense that they are close to making that decision right now.
