Most owners will say they want to compete to win a Super Bowl every year. For most of those owners, it’s something they feel like they have to say in order to keep the fan base fully prepared to renew season tickets and to show up for games and buy a bunch of overpriced stuff.
In Pittsburgh, they mean it. To a fault.
The Steelers are never willing to strategically take a step back in the short term, in the hopes of laying the foundation for a Super Bowl team. Owner Art Rooney II wants to win it all, every year.
Near the end of Wednesday’s press conference with reporters, Rooney said of the “rebuild” term, “I don’t like that word that much. We’ll try to compete Day One [with our next coach] if we can.”
Put simply, the concept of accepting a lost season is lost on Rooney.
“I’m not sure why you waste a year of your life not trying to contend,” Rooney said earlier in the 15-minute session. “Obviously, your roster is what it is every year. It changes every year, and so you deal with, you know, what you have every year and try to put yourself in position to compete every year. And sometimes you have the horses, sometimes you don’t, but I think you try every year.”
He later made it abundantly clear: “The standard is try to compete to win a championship every year.”
“I’m not going to say, ‘Well, you know, we’re going to take a couple of years to figure this out and then we’ll try to compete,’” Rooney said. “So I think you try every year. And as I said, some years you have the horses to really get there. Some years you don’t. But you try every year, in my view.”
Basically, if the Steelers are ever going to bottom out to the point that they get a prime choice of incoming players, it’ll happen despite their best efforts to avoid that outcome. Which is what led to the ability to draft Hall of Fame defensive tackle Joe Greene in 1969 and Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw in 1970.
Which means that, when it comes to drafting, they’ll need years more like 1974, when they had the twenty-first pick in round one and ultimately engineered a class that included Hall of Fame receiver Lynn Swann (first round), Hall of Fame linebacker Jack Lambert (second round, 46th overall), Hall of Fame receiver John Stallworth (second round, 82nd overall), Hall of Fame center Mike Webster (fifth round, 125th overall), and Hall of Fame safety Donnie Shell — who went undrafted through 17 rounds.
For now, the Steelers’ roster has plenty of holes. And they’ll need, among other things, a long-term answer at the quarterback position.
Lately, since the failure of 2022 first-rounder Kenny Pickett, the Steelers have opted for veteran Band-Aids at quarterback. In 2024, it was Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. In 2025, it was Aaron Rodgers. In 2026, they’ll need someone who can counter the fact that the Ravens have Lamar Jackson and the Bengals have Joe Burrow.
Really, if the Deshaun Watson experiment had worked out for the Browns, the Steelers may have been left in the dust by their division rivals. Moving forward, with Baltimore and Cleveland also hiring new coaches in the current cycle, the risk for Pittsburgh is that the wrong move could spark the kind of chronic down cycle the Steelers haven’t seen since the 1960s.
Which, despite the short-term pain, laid the foundation for a decade of dominance.
Steelers Clips
There are now two more known candidates to replace Mike Tomlin as head coach of the Steelers, including one individual who is plenty familiar with the club.
According to multiple reports, Pittsburgh has put in a request to interview Minnesota defensive coordinator Brian Flores.
Multiple reports also indicate that the Steelers have requested Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver.
Flores, 44, spent the 2022 season with Pittsburgh as the club’s senior defensive assistant and linebackers coach before Minnesota hired him to be its defensive coordinator in 2023. By most accounts, Flores made a positive impact and was well-liked in his one season with the Steelers, making it unsurprising that the club would want to interview him after Tomlin’s departure.
Flores has also interviewed with the Ravens after the fellow AFC North club fired John Harbaugh last week.
Weaver, 45, has served as the Dolphins’ defensive coordinator for the last two seasons. He is also familiar with the division, as Weaver coached for the Ravens from 2021-2023 as defensive line coach and was the Browns’ defensive line coach from 2014-2015.
Weaver also played for the Ravens from 2002-2005 before finishing his career as a defensive end with the Texans from 2006-2008.
With nine head coach vacancies, Brian Flores may end up getting one of the jobs.
But for now, he’s spending some time with a team that may like to have him as a top assistant.
Via multiple reports, Flores is interviewing with Washington for their defensive coordinator vacancy.
The Commanders fired Joe Whitt Jr. after the completion of the regular season. Head coach Dan Quinn had taken back defensive play-calling duties during the season, making the move unsurprising.
After three seasons as Dolphins head coach, Flores spent 2022 with the Steelers as senior defensive assist nd linebackers coach. He’s been the Vikings’ defensive coordinator since 2023, but his contract is up, making him eligible to interview with other teams for a lateral move.
But PFT reported earlier this week that the Vikings are confident they’ll be able to retain Flores if he does not get a head coaching job.
Marcus Freeman’s name has come up for more than one job in this year’s coaching cycle.
But even though he was the favorite to land the Giants job at one point, Freeman has been consistent in saying that he’s continuing as the head coach at Notre Dame.
In a Wednesday press conference, Freeman was asked about the NFL rumors that have surfaced this offseason and the Fighting Irish HC spun them as being a net-positive.
“I’m the head coach at Notre Dame,” Freeman said. “I’ve said this before that individual recognition, individual success, NFL interest — those are all a reflection of team success and where this football program is. I’ve used some of the interest from the NFL to personally gain wisdom from maybe some of the G.M.s or front-office executives that you get a chance to talk to about your players, but also about what they view as a successful coach. Maybe it’s an NFL coach, but what are some of the things they’ve seen that have made a coach successful in their organization or franchise — and maybe not so successful.
“So, I utilize these opportunities through conversations to gain knowledge myself to be the best head coach I can be of the Notre Dame football program. So, again, that’s where my mindset is. I don’t control the noise, but I know the noise that’s in my head and where my focus is.”
Freeman had made clear his intent to stay on with Notre Dame with a social media post in late December. But even as the rumors persist, Freeman says he doesn’t mind them. In fact, he welcomes the chatter.
“The only statement I put out was let’s run it back,” Freeman said. “I was intentional about that. I don’t need to come out with a statement every time one of these job openings happen. You know I always say the future is uncertain. That’s what I tell our players, it’s what I tell myself — it’s the reality of life. But everything I want and everything that I need personally can be achieved right here as the head coach of this program.
“So, I hope this is something we have to address every year, I really do, because it means we’re having a lot of success right here at Notre Dame. If this isn’t something we’d have to address, then there’s bigger issues within what we’re doing as a football program because as your program has success, these types of things are going to occur.”
Freeman is not planning to be an NFL head coach at this point. But he did pause when asked if he would like to have one of those 32 jobs at some point in his career.
“Do I want to be? I mean, I don’t really — I’ve never done it,” Freeman said. “I don’t know enough about it. Maybe sometime in the future, if it’s the right time and it’s what I think is right for me, then maybe I’ll pursue it. But I don’t love wasting time thinking about things that aren’t right in front of me.
“So, I don’t know what I’ll want in however much length of time from now. I don’t know. But I know right now that I am as convicted and motivated to being the best head coach of the Notre Dame football program as I can be.”
Freeman, 39, has compiled a 43-12 record in his four seasons with the Fighting Irish since taking over for Brian Kelly.
The Steelers are up to two head coaching interview requests and they’re both being sent to the same team.
Albert Breer of SI.com reports that the team has requested an interview with Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula. Rams pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase is the subject of the other request.
Shula has run the Rams defense for the last two seasons and he’s been on his college teammate Sean McVay’s staff since 2017. He’s also been targeted for interviews by the Cardinals, Raiders, Dolphins, Giants, and Titans.
Oddsmakers have installed Shula, who is the grandson of Don Shula, as the favorite to wind up as the next head coach in Pittsburgh. An interview would be the first step toward any bets on that outcome paying off.
Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula is the current betting favorite to be the next head coach of the Steelers, but another member of the Rams’ coaching staff is the first reported recipient of a request for an interview from Pittsburgh.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that the Steelers have requested an interview with the team’s offensive pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase. The Ravens, Browns, and Raiders have also requested interviews with Scheelhaase.
Scheelhaase joined the Rams in 2024 as an offensive assistant and pass game specialist. He was the offensive coordinator at Iowa State in 2023 and spent five years on the school’s staff before moving to the NFL.
The Steelers are just getting the ball rolling on the interview process, which should leave Scheelhaase — and Shula, should the oddsmakers be on target — with plenty of company in the coming days.
The question of Mike Tomlin’s future plans came up during Steelers owner Art Rooney II’s press conference on Wednesday and his answer was in line with everything else that’s been floating around since Tomlin stepped down on Tuesday.
All indications have been that Tomlin does not plan to jump right into another coaching job and Rooney said that Tomlin sent that message when he told Rooney that he was leaving after 19 years in Pittsburgh.
“Mike indicated that he did not anticipate coaching, at least in the near future,” Rooney said. “I think he wants to spend time with his family and do some of the kinds of things he hasn’t been able to do for the last many, many years. If something like that comes up, we’ll deal with it when it comes up. But, right now, that doesn’t seem to be on his radar.”
Rooney’s aside about dealing with interest when it comes up references the Steelers holding Tomlin’s rights since he was still under contract. There’s some question about how long the team will retain those rights, but it seems like there will be time to sort all of that out before Tomlin will be dipping his toes back into the coaching waters.
Until the Packers announce that coach Matt LaFleur definitely will be back in 2026, there’s a chance he won’t be.
While most teams have no reason after the end of a given season to state the obvious, there’s currently nothing obvious about LaFleur’s future in Green Bay.
On Wednesday’s PFT Live, we pointed out the possibility that the Packers want to see whether someone will contact them with interest in making a deal for LaFleur. And while LaFleur would have to be willing to participate in the two-step process (new team makes a deal with the Packers, new team makes a deal with LaFleur), it may be his only alternative to accepting an extension he doesn’t like or coaching the final year of his current deal.
Appearing on ESPN Milwaukee earlier today, ESPN’s Adam Schefter characterized LaFleur’s status as “up in the air.” (Aaron Rodgers is gonna be upset.) Schefter explained that, if an extension isn’t finalized, it’s possible that some other team will call the Packers about possibly hiring LaFleur.
Regardless of the procedure that applies in situations like this, the reality is that there will be plenty of back-channel communications regarding, for example, whether LaFleur would be interested in one or more of the various vacancies and what it would take to hire him.
Again, all of this ends the moment the Packers declare LaFleur will be the coach in 2026. Until that occurs, anything can happen.
Mike Tomlin won’t be with the Steelers for the 2026 season and it doesn’t sound like Steelers owner Art Rooney II expects Aaron Rodgers to be in Pittsburgh either.
Rodgers signed a one-year deal with the Steelers and said before the season that he was pretty sure it would be his final year as a player in the NFL. Rodgers hedged on that as the year wound down and he said after Monday’s loss that he is not going to rush to make any emotional decisions about his future.
On Wednesday, Rooney was asked at a press conference if he believes Tomlin’s decision to step down will impact any thoughts Rodgers might have about a second season with the team.
“Aaron came here to play for Mike, so I think it will most likely affect his decision,” Rooney said.
The Steelers have Mason Rudolph and sixth-round Will Howard under contract for the 2026 season and Rooney said he’s “sure the quarterback position will be an important part of this discussion with the candidates” to succeed Tomlin.
Generally speaking, a coach who walks away from his contract can’t take a job with another NFL team, absent compensation to his former team.
After posting on that wrinkle regarding the future NFL employment of former Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, someone with access to the NFL’s internal policies and procedures rules forwarded the relevant language.
As to Tomlin, or any coach, here’s the answer: It depends on the terms of his contract.
Generally speaking, the rules provide that the team holds the rights to a resigned or retired coach for the remaining duration of the contract. If there’s one year left, it’s one year. If there’s two years left, it’s two. (And so on.) For Tomlin, who has one year left, the situation is complicated by the fact that the Steelers have an option for 2027, which they could (in theory) exercise.
The situation also may be complicated by the specific terms of Tomlin’s contract. The rules expressly acknowledge that the team and the coach may negotiate any terms they want regarding the coach’s and the team’s rights in the event of a resignation or retirement.
Tomlin’s contract could, in theory, toll the remaining term, giving the Steelers indefinite rights to compensation. Tomlin’s contract could, in theory, make him a free agent immediately. It all comes down to the terms of his contract.
And because NFL head-coaching contracts aren’t available publicly or through databases to which many have access (like player contracts), it won’t be easy to know exactly what Tomlin’s contract says.
It’s unlikely that the agreement lets him leave whenever he wants and immediately join another team. The question is whether the team loaded into the document the ability to seek compensation from another team, if he returns after the date by which his contract would have otherwise expired. (Again, the impact of the option year is a complication that can be resolved only by seeing the contract itself.)
So there’s the full and complete answer: There’s no way of knowing the answer as to Tomlin or any coach without seeing the contract. And, given the fact that plenty of contracts aren’t drafted with sufficient precision when it comes to the terms no one really cares about on the way in, there’s a chance Tomlin will have one interpretation of the contract — and the Steelers will have another.
Since he reportedly doesn’t plan to coach in 2026, it’s not an issue for now. By next year, it could be.
Still, after Tomlin’s predecessor, Bill Cowher, resigned 19 years ago, at least some within the Steelers organization believed his return would entitle the Steelers to compensation. If that belief was rooted in contract language that made its way into Tomlin’s contract, that same belief may exist as to him.
