Mike Tomlin resigned from the Steelers on Jan. 13, stepping away after 19 seasons with a 175-word statement. On Thursday, he made his first public comments since leaving.
Tomlin and his wife, Kiya, were honored with the Patricia R. Rooney Community Impact Award at the Ireland Funds Gala. His acceptance was a little over a minute.
“It’s often said we’re not here for a long time; we’re here for a good time. Like you have to choose,” Tomlin said, via video from Brooke Pryor of ESPN, “and I think our experience here in Pittsburgh and with the great Steelers organization exemplifies that: We were here for a long and really good time.
“It’s been an honor to serve the greatest organization in sports. It’s been an honor to be a part of this great community, to call it home, for our kids to call it home. We’re in somewhat of a nomadic business, and so we don’t take that for granted, and our kids get an opportunity to call Pittsburgh home. It’s been an honor to serve the community in which we live, the values that we hold, and it will continue.”
The Steelers replaced Tomlin with Mike McCarthy.
Steelers Clips
Free agent fullback Connor Heyward has agreed to terms with the Raiders on a two-year deal, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports. The deal has a maximum value of $5.5 million with $2 million fully guaranteed.
The Steelers sought the return of Heyward, but he instead will join Klint Kubiak’s offensive in Las Vegas.
Pittsburgh made Heyward a sixth-round pick in 2022, and he spent his first four seasons there. He played all 68 possible games, seeing action on 874 offensive snaps and 1,124 on special teams.
He has 62 touches for 449 yards and five touchdowns in his career.
Heyward has also made 28 tackles and recovered a fumble.
The Bears will now be without both of their starting safeties from 2025.
Via NFL Media, the Steelers have agreed to terms with Jaquan Brisker. It’s a one-year, $5.5 million deal.
Brisker, a second-round pick in 2022, started all 17 games in 2025 and both playoff games. He started 15 games in each of his first two years; injuries limited him to five games in 2024.
Previously, starting Bears safety (and 2026 first-team All-Pro) Kevin Byard signed with the Patriots, on a one-year, $9 million deal. The Bears, in turn, have signed former Seahawks safety Coby Bryant to a three-year, $40 million deal.
The Steelers’ 2025 starting safeties — DeShon Elliott and Jalen Ramsey — are both under contract for 2026.
The Giants are adding another target for Jaxson Dart.
Free agent wide receiver Calvin Austin has agreed to a one-year contract with the Giants, his agents told Adam Schefter.
Austin has played his entire career with the Steelers, who drafted him in the fourth round in 2022. Last year he caught 31 passes for 372 yards and also returned 15 punts for 101 yards.
Giants head coach John Harbaugh saw Austin up close twice a year when his Ravens played the Steelers, and he was apparently impressed enough to want him with the Giants, who are rebuilding their roster and trying to find more playmakers.
On multiple occasions in recent months, Aaron Rodgers pointed out that he will be a free agent in 2026. Four days into the process, he still is.
Near the end of the 2025 regular season, he expressed confidence that he’ll have options if he decides to play another year.
“Whenever the season ends, I’ll be a free agent,” Rodgers said at the time. “So that’ll give me a lot of options if I still want to play. [Not] a lot of options, but there’ll be options I would think, maybe one or two, if I decide I still want to play.”
It’s getting harder to identify those options, as quarterback-needy teams address their needs. The Dolphins signed Malik Willis. The Colts re-signed Daniel Jones. The Falcons reportedly will sign Tua Tagovailoa. The Vikings are focused on Kyler Murray. The Raiders, who weren’t interested in Rodgers last year, seem to be poised to make Fernando Mendoza the No. 1 overall pick.
The only obvious remaining option, other than Pittsburgh, is Arizona. Nathaniel Hackett, one of Rodgers’s trust-tree coaches, is the offensive coordinator. Mike LaFleur, the Rams’ offensive coordinator a year ago when Rodgers was Plan B if Matthew Stafford was traded, is the head coach. But the Cardinals are caught in the basement of one of the best divisions in football; it would be a steep uphill climb for Rodgers to cap his career with a playoff berth.
That leaves Pittsburgh as the only viable option. And Pittsburgh seems to be waiting for him, even if (as Rodgers said last week) there have been no “progressive conversations” about another run.
As Cam Heyward put it last year, you either want to be a Steeler or you don’t.
Meanwhile, the Steelers’ potential alternatives are landing elsewhere. Of the remaining possibilities, Kirk Cousins would make the most sense for Pittsburgh.
The lack of suitors for Rodgers makes Pittsburgh’s apparent willingness to wait even more confounding for Steelers fans who wonder whether their favorite team is content to watch potentially better options go elsewhere while showing patience for someone who has yet to decide that he’s willing to run it back without Mike Tomlin.
The situation seems to require more urgency from the Steelers. They surely need a veteran, if they decide to let Will Howard show what he can do. Maybe they’ll bring back Justin Fields if/when the Jets cut him. Maybe they’ll sign the best available option (like Joe Flacco) if/when Rodgers tells them he’s not coming back.
Regardless, Steelers fans who were dismayed by the team’s willingness to wait and wait and wait for Rodgers in 2025 are feeling that same angst all over again. This isn’t Rodgers in his prime. This is a 42-year-old veteran who seems to be trying to recapture a little of the glory of MVP seasons gone by.
Wherever it goes from here, it won’t be easy for the Steelers to end a drought of playoff wins that, as of this year, could hit double digits.
The Bucs have agreed to terms with core special teams player Miles Killebrew.
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports that Killebrew will sign a one-year, $1.8 million deal with Tampa, following special teams coordinator Danny Smith from Pittsburgh.
Killebrew, who turns 33 in May, played only five games last season before a knee injury ended his season.
He recorded five total tackles for Pittsburgh in 2025.
The veteran special teams ace was a Pro Bowler in 2023 and 2024 and first-team All-Pro in ’23.
In his career, Killebrew has played 766 defensive snaps and 2,957 on special teams. He has totaled 166 tackles, two sacks, six passes defensed and a forced fumble.
Yes, quarterback Kyler Murray will visit the Vikings on Thursday — his agent, Erik Burkhardt, has confirmed that to NFL Media.
But here’s the interesting twist, via Tom Pelissero of NFL Media: Burkhardt told him that Murray plans to meet by Zoom on Wednesday night and Thursday with executives from three to five teams that potentially have a quarterback need in 2027.
Possibilities (as we see it) include the Jets, the Steelers, the Browns, the Falcons, and the Rams.
It gives Murray an opportunity to get a head start on free agency next year, which underscores the likelihood he’ll sign a one-year, $1.3 million deal for 2026.
That makes a no-tag clause critical. He needs to be able to hit the market next year, if for whatever reason he plays well and doesn’t get a solid offer to stick around with the Vikings, or whoever he signs with.
The Vikings continue to be the clear favorite. There’s really no one else. And, as of last season near the trade deadline, the Vikings were one of the teams in which Murray was interested.
The Steelers re-signed offensive tackle Jack Driscoll to a one-year contract on Wednesday, the team announced.
Driscoll was signed to the practice squad in 2025 and bounced between the active roster and the practice squad. He did not play a down last season.
The Eagles drafted Driscoll in the fourth round in 2020.
He spent five seasons with the Eagles, appearing in 67 games, starting 18.
Driscoll was with the Dolphins during the 2024 offseason and training camp before rejoining the Eagles.
He has seen action at guard and tackle.
With Malik Willis, Tua Tagovailoa, Geno Smith, and Daniel Jones off the board for 2026, the next available (inevitably) quarterback to watch is Kyler Murray.
The Vikings have been strongly linked to Murray, who has $36.8 million in full guarantees from the Cardinals in 2026. He can take a one-year deal for the minimum based on his years of service ($1.3 million) and stick the Cardinals for the $35.5 million balance.
It becomes a great deal for the cap-strapped Vikings, who could have Murray and J.J. McCarthy under contract for the coming year at a total cap charge of less than $7.3 million.
With the Dolphins, Falcons, Jets, and Colts now out of the mix for a potential Kyler courtship, Murray’s options are limited. The Steelers are waiting for Aaron Rodgers. Who else needs a potential starter for 2026? The only team that could conceivably enter the conversation is the analytics-obsessed Browns, who may not be able to resist the opportunity to acquire the “asset” of a former No. 1 overall pick for the minimum.
Last year, as the trade deadline approached and we poked around the possibility of a Murray deadline deal, we learned two things: (1) there were too many moving parts to make a trade happen; and (2) Murray’s preferred destinations were the Raiders (due to the presence of Chip Kelly) and the Vikings (due to the presence of Kevin O’Connell).
Kelly is long gone from Las Vegas. That leaves one team.
The bettors seized on it, even before the other seats were filled. Minnesota opened as a -110 favorite to be Murray’s next team. The odds moved to -295, before the bet went off the board.
So, yes, Murray to Minnesota makes the most sense. And he’ll likely be the next domino to fall in the annual offseason quarterback carousel.
Veteran safety Darnell Savage plans to be a Steeler in 2026.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that Savage has agreed to a one-year deal with the AFC North team.
Savage opened the 2025 season with the Jaguars, but was released after appearing in two games with the team. He signed with the Commanders and appeared in eight games before being released again in December. Savage landed with the Bills and saw action for them in two regular season games as well as one playoff contest.
Savage had 21 tackles and a forced fumble across the three stops. The 2019 Packers first-round pick has 371 tackles, 10 interceptions, a sack, three forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries for his career.
