There comes a point with every franchise where their legendary head coach finally puts down his playbook and headset. Last offseason, we saw Pete Carroll say goodbye to the Seahawks after 14 years in Seattle and 18 as an NFL head coach. Most notably, Bill Belichick — who is considered the greatest coach in the history of the game — finally had his tenure ended with the New England Patriots.
This is a multi-billion-dollar business and nobody should be immune to losing their job if their team isn't producing results. Sadly, this has been the case for some time with Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Pittsburgh is looking to avoid continuing an eight-year drought without a playoff win. At some point, team president and owner Art Rooney II won't be able to put up with the lack of postseason success and Tomlin's nearly two-decade tenure with the team will come to an end.
Recently, Adam Schefter was on Sunday Countdown to talk about head coaches who are 'safe' or 'out' in 2025. While Schefter knows Mike Tomlin's job is safe, he believes teams will inquire about whether the Steelers would be interested in trading their head coach.
Though trading a head coach is rare in the NFL, we saw the Saints trade Sean Payton in 2023, and a Tomlin trade simply makes sense. A Tomlin trade could make sense for both the Steelers and the receiving team.
But getting a trade to happen is even less likely than you would think.
One major contract detail will prevent Steelers from trading Mike Tomlin
Trading a head coach who brought this team a Super Bowl win would be very uncharacteristic of the Steelers, but we know Tomlin isn't going to last forever. Fans are getting restless and ownership needs to find playoff success soon.
Trading Tomlin to a desperate team could fetch Pittsburgh high draft capital while also allowing the Steelers to turn the page to the next era of the franchise. Theoretically, this could be a double win for a team that could be looking to move on from the longest current tenured head coach in the league.
But even if the Steelers got on board with a Tomlin trade, there's a major issue that could prevent it from happening.
On January 6, ESPN Insider Adam Schefter joined The Pat McAfee Show where to talk about a possible Tomlin trade. Schefter noted that teams were pondering the idea and one team actually looked into it... until they uncovered a major contract detail nobody is talking about.
“I know we talked about it on Sunday Countdown and raised the idea that a couple of teams were pondering, and I think one team actually looked into it,” Schefter told McAfee. “And uncovered the fact that his contract has a no-trade clause in it. So even if Pittsburgh wanted to trade him, which we’ve gotten zero indication that it does, they couldn’t do that without his permission because he’s got a no-trade clause in his contract.”
When the Steelers gave Tomlin a contract extension, it included a no-trade clause in the fine print. This means that even if Pittsburgh decides to turn the page and find a trade partner who is willing to load them up with draft capital, Tomlin could hit the veto button.
This is really going to put a dampener on fans who were optimistic the trade rumors could come to fruition. Over the past several years, Tomlin has made it very clear that he doesn't want to be anywhere else.
Sadly, this no-trade clause essentially means that Tomlin can walk away on his own terms. If he rejects any possible trade on the table, Pittsburgh's only options would be to let him play out the remaining years of his contract or fire him and lose out on millions.
The Steelers could do far worse at head coach than Tomlin, who has never had a losing season in his tenure, but this team is beyond stale at this point. It's discouraging to know that a trade is only a possibility if Mike Tomlin approves.