Fittipaldo: ‘Things Would Have To Go Really, Really Bad’ For Mike Tomlin’s Contract To See Early Termination

With Mike Tomlin extended through the 2027 season, it begs the question of how safe his job is—or isn’t—over the life of this new contract. Art Rooney II made it clear that the organization is growing impatient with the lack of playoff success, so if that success does not come, could Tomlin’s contract come to a premature ending?

Outside of Matt Canada’s mid-season firing last season, the Steelers have been tremendously consistent with how they do business around contracts. They do not often terminate contracts but rather wait until they expire to move on.

“The Steelers don’t listen to their fans when it comes to business decisions like these executive decisions; who’s gonna be the GM, the coach, stuff like that. That’s strictly a Rooney family decision, and that’s the way they’ve always operated,” said Post-Gazette Steelers insider Ray Fittipaldo in a video posted on YouTube. “He was six and two in the postseason after his first four seasons. He’s three and eight since.

“So that playoff success is probably gonna have to come sooner rather than later. But again, if they don’t win a playoff game this year after the 2024 season, he’s not going anywhere. He is tied to this team through 2027. Things would have to go really, really bad, probably for a couple years if that’s gonna happen.”

Ultimately the Rooney family made the decision that Tomlin is the right guy for the job to usher the Steelers into their next era. Ben Roethlisberger was with the organization for the majority of Tomlin’s career, and they are still in search of that next franchise QB to bring about another era. The 2024 season has a chance to be successful with Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, but there are still significant questions surrounding that position with neither player under contract beyond this year.

But what would “really, really bad” have to look like for the Rooney family to decide it’s time to move on? That is hard to tell. If Tomlin had a losing season or two for the first time in his career, that would probably be a good start. This season has a lot of promise, so ending up with his career-worst record could at least warm up the seat a bit moving into 2025.

The other side of this equation is having GM Omar Khan and assistant GM Andy Weidl helping build up the team. We can’t judge their 2024 draft class or free-agent additions yet, but the first year was solid all around. As long as the team continues moving in the right direction, which it seems to be, then we can probably expect to continue seeing Tomlin through the 2027 season and maybe beyond that.

Just look at the players’ reactions to how well-liked he is in the locker room. That stuff matters.