Generally speaking, a coach who walks away from his contract can’t take a job with another NFL team, absent compensation to his former team.
After posting on that wrinkle regarding the future NFL employment of former Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, someone with access to the NFL’s internal policies and procedures rules forwarded the relevant language.
As to Tomlin, or any coach, here’s the answer: It depends on the terms of his contract.
Generally speaking, the rules provide that the team holds the rights to a resigned or retired coach for the remaining duration of the contract. If there’s one year left, it’s one year. If there’s two years left, it’s two. (And so on.) For Tomlin, who has one year left, the situation is complicated by the fact that the Steelers have an option for 2027, which they could (in theory) exercise.
The situation also may be complicated by the specific terms of Tomlin’s contract. The rules expressly acknowledge that the team and the coach may negotiate any terms they want regarding the coach’s and the team’s rights in the event of a resignation or retirement.
Tomlin’s contract could, in theory, toll the remaining term, giving the Steelers indefinite rights to compensation. Tomlin’s contract could, in theory, make him a free agent immediately. It all comes down to the terms of his contract.
And because NFL head-coaching contracts aren’t available publicly or through databases to which many have access (like player contracts), it won’t be easy to know exactly what Tomlin’s contract says.
It’s unlikely that the agreement lets him leave whenever he wants and immediately join another team. The question is whether the team loaded into the document the ability to seek compensation from another team, if he returns after the date by which his contract would have otherwise expired. (Again, the impact of the option year is a complication that can be resolved only by seeing the contract itself.)
So there’s the full and complete answer: There’s no way of knowing the answer as to Tomlin or any coach without seeing the contract. And, given the fact that plenty of contracts aren’t drafted with sufficient precision when it comes to the terms no one really cares about on the way in, there’s a chance Tomlin will have one interpretation of the contract — and the Steelers will have another.
Since he reportedly doesn’t plan to coach in 2026, it’s not an issue for now. By next year, it could be.
Still, after Tomlin’s predecessor, Bill Cowher, resigned 19 years ago, at least some within the Steelers organization believed his return would entitle the Steelers to compensation. If that belief was rooted in contract language that made its way into Tomlin’s contract, that same belief may exist as to him.
