For the first time in 20 years, an NFL season is approaching without Mike Tomlin serving as one of the 32 head coaches. Undoubtedly, he’ll be at the top of multiple wish lists when the 2026 hiring cycle commences in less than five months.
Will Tomlin’s foray into TV be a one-year thing? Cris Collinsworth posed that question to Tomlin in a fourth-quarter visit to the booth during Thursday night’s Hall of Fame game.
“I haven’t thought a whole lot about it yet, because I don’t feel like I’m missing anything yet,” Tomlin said. “You know, when those regular-season balls start snapping, that’s when I’ll start, you know, getting a little twitch a little bit.”
He’s been part of the NFL’s story, dating back to 2001, his first year as an assistant coach with the Buccaneers. For now, he says, “It’s good to be a part of the storytelling.”
Only he will know whether that’s enough. For Hall of Famer John Madden, who retired from coaching at 42, he never went back. Sean Payton, who would cement his own status in Canton if he becomes the first coach to win a Super Bowl with two different franchises, stayed away for only one year.
One key question surely will be whether the right situation emerges for Tomlin. Most jobs that become vacant have become vacant for a reason. Dysfunctional teams have a hard time flipping the switch to non-dysfunctional.
Still, look at the land rush that emerged for former Ravens coach John Harbaugh, once it was clear that he was ready to keep coaching. Tomlin would have experienced a similar dynamic, if he had been interested in continuing immediately.
The moment he decides to look around, teams will come looking for him. And not just teams that have vacancies. For some owners, the question of whether they could swap out the current head coach for Tomlin could be a key factor in the decision as to whether they’ll keep the coach they already have.
If Tomlin thrives, as he will, on Football Night in America, some of those owners will become even more determined to make a run at getting the man who never had a losing season in 19 years on the job.
So the question posed by Collinsworth to Tomlin won’t be going away, especially since Tomlin has set forth a key benchmark for his overall assessment as to whether he’ll return: When the regular-season balls start snapping.
They start snapping one month from today, when the Seahawks hang a banner before facing the Patriots in a Super Bowl LX rematch.
With Tomlin in the stadium to soak it all in.
