Should Cowboys Someday Hire Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin?
In the hours after the Cowboys 2023 season came to an unceremonious end via a Wild Card throttling by the Green Bay Packers, we examined potential successors if Dallas fired Mike McCarthy. That proved to be moot for the time being, because the Cowboys decided to retain McCarthy. But the path to eventually hiring one of the most intriguing candidates on that list still exists.
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Of the four candidates we wrote about in the original piece, three -- Jim Harbaugh, Bill Belichick and Mike Vrabel -- aren't currently under contract with any NFL teams. The fourth, Tomlin, is. And as it turns out, Tomlin will return to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2024 for the final year of his current contract. Tomlin, now the longest-tenured coach in the NFL, even expressed optimism about reaching a long-term deal to remain in his current post.
"I expect to be back, and I would imagine that those contract things are going to run their course," Tomlin said. "Art [Rooney II] and I have a really good, transparent relationship. We communicate continually often. I don't imagine it's going to be an issue, and I imagine it's going to get done in a timely manner at the appropriate time, but my mindset is to coach his football team."
But until the ink dries on his new deal, Tomlin is slated to be a lame duck in 2024. He could play out the final year of his contract, setting him up to be able to choose his destination for 2025 -- either the Steelers, another team or taking a year off to recharge.
As CowboysSI.com reported last Wednesday (and then as the national media regurgitated over the weekend), McCarthy isn't expected to receive a contract extension this offseason (of course he's not), which means he will also be a lame duck entering 2024. And while Jerry Jones has proven to be pretty loyal to his coaches in recent years, if the Cowboys don't make the NFC Championship Game for the first time since the 1995 season, he may have no choice but to make a change.
And Tomlin would make even more sense next offseason than he would have this year. Assuming he doesn't sign an extension this offseason, Tomlin would be a free agent next year. Had the Cowboys moved on from McCarthy this offseason, they would have needed to not only get Tomlin on board, but also work out a trade with the Steelers, which probably would have required significant draft compensation going back to Pittsburgh.
In case you haven't heard, the Steelers haven't had a losing seasons in 17 years with Tomlin at the helm. They haven't won a playoff game since the 2016 season, but that's partially because they had an aging Ben Roethlisberger and have been unable to find an answer at the position over the last two years. There are legitimate criticisms to be made of Dak Prescott -- particularly when it comes to his postseason performance -- but he's lightyears better than Kenny Pickett or Mason Rudolph. And while it's been a bit, Tomlin has proven to be able to win in January when he has a legitimate quarterback, with two AFC titles and a Super Bowl victory on his resume.
There's also no question that Tomlin would be able to handle both the pressure of working for Jones and the every-week-is-the-Super-Bowl feeling that comes with the Cowboys. He's successfully presided over one of the NFL's great franchises for going on two decades, and while the Rooney family might not be as publicly involved as Jones is, they certainly aren't a hands-off ownership group. And of particular interest in a market like Dallas is being able to handle the media, and it can be argued no coach in the sport today is better at being respectfully dismissive of any potential distractions, and keeping a lid on internal issues.
The irony here is that Tomlin's Steelers lost in Super Bowl XLV to the Packers, then coached by McCarthy. And where did that game take place? What's now called AT&T Stadium in Dallas.
We're not saying Tomlin will be the coach of the Cowboys in 2025. But it's a fun rumor and it would be a hell of a story, and you can certainly envision him being successful at the job.
