{"id":174096,"date":"2025-07-01T22:47:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T22:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/174096\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T22:47:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T22:47:19","slug":"dulac-mike-tomlin-not-on-the-hot-seat-unless-the-bottom-falls-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/174096\/","title":{"rendered":"Dulac: Mike Tomlin Not On The Hot Seat ‘Unless The Bottom Falls Out’"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the Pittsburgh Steelers not having won a playoff game since 2016, there\u2019s been loads of frustration directed at head coach Mike Tomlin. Unsurprisingly though, it doesn\u2019t sound like Tomlin will be going anywhere unless it\u2019s on his own accord. Appearing on the You Better You Bet podcast, Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette<\/a> said Tomlin isn\u2019t on the hot seat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the Steelers and Mike Tomlin go their own ways, it\u2019s gonna be up to Mike Tomlin,\u201d Dulac said. \u201cUnless the bottom falls out, and the bottom hasn\u2019t fallen out, nor is it about to. So I think it\u2019s gonna be up to when he wants to leave, is when that\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bottom falling out is subjective. If the Steelers, with their rebuilt roster after an aggressive offseason acquiring Jalen Ramsey, DK Metcalf and Aaron Rodgers, go 5-12 this season, does that mean Tomlin would be at risk of getting fired? As Dulac implied, that\u2019s unlikely to begin with, but it poses an interesting thought.<\/p>\n

Even if the Steelers season ends up being a disaster, it seems unlikely the team would fire Tomlin and pay him not to coach. His recent contract extension takes him through the 2027 season and was worth $50 million over three years<\/a>, so the Steelers would be on the hook to pay out approximately $16.6 million for the final two years if he was let go after this season. That\u2019s not the team\u2019s M.O., and Tomlin likely isn\u2019t feeling any pressure to keep his job.<\/p>\n

Dulac\u2019s report is similar to what most insiders around the league have said. If Tomlin leaves, it will be because he wants a new opportunity elsewhere, be it coaching or taking a broadcast job. There are certainly a lot of fans who would like to see Tomlin go due to the lack of playoff success, and Pittsburgh\u2019s aggressiveness this offseason shows that they\u2019re fed up with the lack of postseason victories.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s highly unlikely that the Steelers aren\u2019t at least in the playoff mix for the majority of the season. They always have been under Tomlin, and their roster this season is talented enough for them to be competitive. It\u2019s been an offseason unlike any we\u2019ve seen in Steelers history with the team making two blockbuster trades and signing Rodgers to try and go all-in this season,<\/a> and the team\u2019s performance shouldn\u2019t put Tomlin\u2019s job at risk.<\/p>\n

But if the Steelers fail to win in the postseason again, the calls for Tomlin\u2019s job from the fanbase and even the national media will continue to get louder. It won\u2019t change the team\u2019s decision-making process and them paying Tomlin not to coach isn\u2019t likely to happen, but Dulac\u2019s line about the \u201cbottom falling out\u201d is at least notable and poses the question of what it would take for the Steelers to move on from Mike Tomlin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Pittsburgh Steelers not having won a playoff game since 2016, there\u2019s been loads of frustration directed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[7,6600,1255,38376],"class_list":{"0":"post-174096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-gerry-dulac","10":"tag-mike-tomlin","11":"tag-you-better-you-bet"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114780416360625525","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}