PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Mike Tomlin period in Pittsburgh is over.
The longest-tenured head coach in main American skilled sports activities stepped down from his job main the Steelers on Tuesday after one more fast playoff exit.
The announcement got here a day after the tip of his nineteenth season in Pittsburgh, the place he was a relative unknown when he was employed to switch Invoice Cowher in early 2007.
“Clearly, I’m extraordinarily grateful to Mike for all of the exhausting work, dedication and success we’ve shared during the last 19 years. It’s exhausting for me to place into phrases the extent of respect and appreciation I’ve for Coach Tomlin,” Steelers president Artwork Rooney II stated in a press release. “He guided the franchise to our sixth Tremendous Bowl championship and made the playoffs 13 occasions throughout his tenure, together with profitable the AFC North eight occasions in his profession. His monitor file of by no means having a dropping season in 19 years will possible by no means be duplicated.”
Tomlin gained one Tremendous Bowl and went to a different throughout his first 4 seasons in Pittsburgh earlier than the membership settled right into a sample of stable if not at all times spectacular play adopted by a playoff cameo that ended with the Steelers on the improper aspect of a blowout.
The 53-year-old Tomlin gained 193 regular-season video games in Pittsburgh, tied with Corridor of Famer Chuck Noll for essentially the most victories in franchise historical past. However their resumes diverged relating to the playoffs. Whereas Noll gained 4 Tremendous Bowls within the Seventies, Tomlin went simply 8-12 within the postseason, dropping every of his final seven playoff video games, all by double-digit margins.
The final got here on Monday evening, when the AFC North champions squandered some early momentum earlier than getting blown out 30-6 by Houston, essentially the most lopsided house playoff loss in workforce historical past.
There have been chants of “Fireplace Tomlin!” because the clock kicked towards zero, although they weren’t practically as impassioned as they have been in late November whereas the Steelers have been getting pushed round by Buffalo in a loss that dropped their file to 6-6.
Tomlin, as is his method, did his greatest to tune out the noise and his workforce responded, the best way it seemingly at all times did throughout his tenure. Pittsburgh gained 4 of its closing 5 video games, together with a sweep of Baltimore that gave the membership its first AFC North title since 2020.
The optimism, nonetheless, dimmed as soon as the Texans asserted themselves. The NFL’s top-ranked protection suffocated Aaron Rodgers and Pittsburgh’s offense whereas the league’s highest-paid protection wilted late.
It was a well-known and irritating sample for a spot the place, as Tomlin famous not lengthy after his introduction, “the usual is the usual.”
And whereas that is still the case for a workforce whose members stroll by six Lombardi Trophies daily on its approach to work, the outcomes had plateaued. The Steelers completed with 9 or 10 wins in every of Tomlin’s closing 5 seasons, typically doing simply sufficient to squeak into the playoffs earlier than being uncovered by a extra proficient opponent.
Tomlin had two years left on the contract extension he signed in 2024, with the membership holding the choice for 2027.
His departure leaves the Steelers searching for a head coach for simply the third time since they employed Noll in 1969.
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