5 potential replacements for Dan Quinn with the Atlanta Falcons

Taking a head coach away from the Pittsburgh Steelers is like stealing gold from Fort Knox, it doesn’t happen. Odds are that Mike Tomlin will continue to coach the Steelers for as long as the organization will allow him to. This is a franchise that has had only three coaches since the late 1960s: Tomlin, Bill Cowher before that and the late Chuck Noll before him.

That being said, Pittsburgh will likely miss the AFC playoffs for the second year in a row. The Steelers, like the Falcons, are also 1-4 on the season. They will be without starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger the rest of the way. His backup Mason Rudolph had a scary moment in Week 5’s home loss to the Baltimore Ravens. We can’t expect the Steelers to win more than six games.

But if the Rooney Family decides that an inevitable rebuild is necessary and that the Roethlisberger/Tomlin tandem has run its course, the longtime Steelers head coach could be looking for a former employer. Though he is defensive-minded, Tomlin’s track record of success and the way he conducts himself to the media will play very well in Atlanta.

However, his Steelers teams haven’t exactly been well buttoned up for the last few years. Surely, Tomlin can handle a locker fiasco, which he won’t have a problem with in Atlanta, as the Falcons players tend to hold themselves accountable. All that aside, it would be shocking to see the Steelers let him go. But if Tomlin is a free agent, the Falcons could be a new situation for him.