Whenever former Steelers coach Mike Tomlin returns to coaching at the NFL level, his new team will have to deal with the Steelers. More specifically, they’ll have to make a deal with the Steelers.
Tomlin exits with a year remaining on his contract. He’s not, and won’t be, a free agent. The Steelers hold his rights, which gives them the right to compensation before he can coach another NFL team.
The practical reality is that, as time passes, the price will fall. Currently, the Steelers would want more than they’d want a year from now. They’d want less two years from now. Especially since, if they drive too hard of a bargain, Tomlin can say, “Fine, I’ll come back to work tomorrow.”
As to the possibility that teams currently with vacancies may be inclined to make Tomlin an offer he won’t refuse to skip TV for making an immediate jump to a new city, remember this — those teams need to work out an eventual deal with the Steelers before Tomlin can even be contacted.
The Dolphins learned that lesson the hard way in 2022, when they hatched a Fargo-esque scheme to hire Tom Brady for a front-office job, line up Sean Payton to be the coach, work out a deal with the Saints at the right time, and then have Brady declare his intention to play for his new employer, probably at some point during the offseason program. In August, the Dolphins were whacked with a significant tampering punishment ($1.5 million fine, forfeiture of a first-round pick, and a suspension of owner Stephen Ross and minority owner Bruce Beal, who led the multi-year effort to tamper with Brady).
When Payton eventually became the coach of the Broncos, the Saints got compensation. When Bruce Arians (after a year in TV) became Tampa Bay’s head coach, the Cardinals got compensation. If Bill Cowher had ever coached again, the Steelers would have been entitled to compensation.
Unlike former Ravens coach John Harbaugh, whose firing make him fair game to be hired without compensation to Baltimore, the Steelers still control Tomlin’s NFL employment rights. And while it’s likely that any team thinking about trying to hire Tomlin would find a way to find out whether it’s worth the effort to work out a deal with the Steelers, Tomlin cannot be hired by another team unless and until a deal with the Steelers is done.
