4 dream Mike Tomlin replacements the Steelers will never hire in football purgatory

The 2024 season ended familiarly for Pittsburgh Steelers fans. The team got off to a hot start, staggered against quality competition down the stretch, made the playoffs as a Wild Card team, and got blown out in the Wild Card Round. The Steelers have now lost six playoff games in a row with their last postseason win coming in 2016.

Does Mike Tomlin deserve all of the blame for Pittsburgh's postseason shortcomings? Of course not. He is, objectively, an excellent coach. There's something to be said about being a head coach for 18 seasons and not finishing with a losing record a single time.

However, the NFL is a 'what have you done for me lately' kind of league, and Tomlin simply has not done enough lately. He might not have the best rosters to work with, but how many coaches can stick around in the same position for nearly a decade without a single playoff win? How much meaning is there to make the playoffs if you get blown out in the Wild Card Round every time?

Parting ways with Mike Tomlin is a difficult decision that the Steelers almost certainly won't but probably should make. Yes, he's a great head coach, but things have gotten stale in Pittsburgh. Steelers fans have had enough of the organization's acceptance of mediocrity and would like the franchise to try something new.

Again, Tomlin almost certainly isn't going anywhere. By deciding to keep him around, the Steelers are choosing to pass on these four dream head coaching candidates before even giving them a chance to win the job.

4) Marcus Freeman would have been an electric hire for the Steelers to make

Instead of sticking with what they already know, the Steelers could've made an outside-the-box hire by poaching Marcus Freeman away from the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Freeman might only be 39 years old, and he might only have three full seasons of head coaching experience at the collegiate level, but the job he has done with Notre Dame has been nothing short of extraordinary.

Freeman has the Fighting Irish one win away from winning a National Championship after clinching a spot in the season's final game. In just three seasons, he has taken Notre Dame to heights Steelers fans haven't seen in over a decade.

The NFL is not college, and there undoubtedly would've been some risk that'd come with hiring Freeman, but based on what he has accomplished at Notre Dame, it would've been a worthwhile one. This would have been a hire Steelers fans would be thrilled with.

3) Joe Brady could've helped revamp a struggling Steelers offense

Similarly to Freeman, Joe Brady is a very young mind who has had a ton of recent success. He took over as the Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator last season and helped turn around their reeling offense. That offense only took a step forward this season, and has done so despite a loss in talent.

The Bills ranked ninth in both rushing yards and passing yards while also ranking second in points per game this past season. Having Josh Allen helps, obviously, but who else is there? James Cook is a solid back, but he isn't among the league's elite at that position. Their leading receiver with Stefon Diggs' departure was Khalil Shakir. An argument can be made that this Steelers team has as much, if not more skill position talent.

They'd have to solve the quarterback position, but there's reason to believe Brady could have, at the very least, get more out of the Steelers offense than others have in recent years. Pittsburgh's offense was middle of the pack at best this past season and finished slowly. They were even worse prior. Opportunity missed.

2) The Steelers are passing on young offensive guru Liam Coen in favor of Mike Tomlin

The formula that seems to work best in the modern NFL is hiring young, offensive-minded head coaches. Liam Coen, like Brady, fits in that mold. Coen is another under-40 option with somewhat limited coaching experience, but he proved in his first season as Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator that he's one of the great offensive minds in the game today.

The Bucs ranked 20th in the NFL, averaging 20.5 points per game last season. Their 224.2 passing yards per game ranked 17th in the NFL. Their 88.8 rushing yards per game ranked dead last. Their 313 total yards per game ranked 23rd in the NFL. This season, the script flipped. The Bucs ranked fourth in the NFL, averaging 29.5 points per game in the regular season. They ranked third in passing yards (250.4), fourth in rushing yards (149.2), and third in total yards per game (399.5). They went from being subpar in every facet offensively to elite everywhere you turn.

The Bucs did this despite a season-ending injury to Chris Godwin and dealt with a Mike Evans injury as well. The only major change Tampa made to its much-improved rushing attack was bringing in Bucky Irving in the fourth round of the NFL Draft. Coen got Baker Mayfield to play the best football of his career by far, as well.

Whether Coen wants to make the transition to head coaching so quickly or would have been interested in the Steelers position are questions we probably won't get the answers to this offseason, but he could've changed the trajectory of this franchise as well.

1) Ben Johnson could have helped take this Steelers organization to the next level

No candidate on this offseason's head coaching carousel is held in higher regard than Ben Johnson, especially with Mike Vrabel off the board. Johnson is yet another creative offensive mind who would be the ideal candidate for the Steelers to hire in Tomlin's place.

Johnson's Lions had, by virtually any metric, the best offense in the NFL this past season. Detroit ranked second in passing yards per game (263.2), sixth in rushing yards per game (146.4), second in total yards per game (409.5), and led the league in points per game (33.2). The Lions are stacked with skill position talent that the Steelers can't compete with right now, but it isn't as if Jared Goff is even close to the most talented quarterback in the sport. Johnson just gets the most out of what he has at his disposal.

Johnson's creativity and ability to get the most out of offenses paired with Pittsburgh's already elite defense creates the possibility of a match made in heaven. Unfortunately, the Steelers will never find out if Johnson is even interested in coming to town.