Mike Tomlin stepped down as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers on Tuesday afternoon, throwing another wrench into what's already been a wild NFL coaching carousel. Sure, Tomlin didn't win a single playoff game across his last decade in Pittsburgh, and it seemed like both sides needed a change, but that doesn't change the fact that he put consistently competitive teams on the field no matter what personnel he had to work with. That's an awfully valuable skill, one that will put him in high demand among the teams currently looking to fill their head coaching vacancies.
Unfortunately for those teams, though, hiring Tomlin isn't as simple as bringing him in for an interview and writing a check. If you want Tomlin to lead your franchise, you're going to have to pay the Steelers first.
Why would an NFL team trade draft picks for a head coach?
Put simply: because the right head coach can change everything. Finding a quality head coach might be the hardest thing to do in the NFL this side of finding a franchise quarterback. It's much, much more art than science, with no real set criteria for success — whether you target a hot-shot coordinator or a CEO type, a legend at the college level or a long-time NFL assistant, old or young, offensive or defensive or special teams, league. history is littered with successes and failures in equal measure.
So the chance to bring in a head coach that you know is built for success at the NFL level is worth its weight in gold. The problem is that those guys, by definition, don't hit the job market very often — and prying them away from their former team with a pick or two is the only way to get a deal done.
It's far from common, of course. One team has to be willing to part with a coach that another team thinks is valuable enough to burn draft capital to acquire. Oh, and on top of all that, the coach themselves has to be open to a change of scenery. Every so often, though, the conditions do align ... which brings us back to Tomlin.
Explaining Mike Tomlin's Steelers contract
"Stepping down" is the operative phrase here. The Steelers did not fire Tomlin on Tuesday; he quit, meaning that his contract with the team wasn't terminated. And, because he still had one more guaranteed year on his deal (plus a team option for 2027), that means that Pittsburgh retains his coaching rights until it expires — similar to what happens when a player retires.
The upshot is that Tomlin isn't a free agent, free to sign with whichever team he pleases. If one of the eight non-Steelers vacancies is interested in making Tomlin its new head coach — and it seems like a whole lot of them will, based on his considerable resume and early reports — they're going to need some help from Pittsburgh to make that happen. And Pittsburgh will, inevitably, be expecting something in return for letting Tomlin head to a rival.
Have NFL teams traded for head coaches before?
Again, circumstances that would lead to a successful trade for a head coach don't come around very often. But there are as many as eight notable instances throughout league history, dating back decades. The five biggest are below.
1970: Don Shula
Calling this a trade isn't strictly accurate, but it is the first instance of a draft pick changing hands in exchange for a head coach. Don Shula's relationship with Colts brass had soured, so when the Dolphins offered him a record contract to jump to Miami, he was all too happy to take the deal. Baltimore cried foul, accusing the Fins (not unfairly) of tampering. As recompense, then-commissioner Pete Rozelle sent Miami's first-round pick in 1971 to the Colts. We'd say it still worked out pretty well for the Dolphins in the end, though.
2000: Bill Belichick
When Bill Parcells stepped down as Jets head coach after the 1999 season, it seemed all but certain that his long-time defensive coordinator, Bill Belichick, would replace him. Until Belichick shockingly turned his introductory press conference into a resignation press conference, instead accepting an offer from the rival Patriots. Because Belichick was still under contract with New York at the time of the move, New England sent a first-round pick in the 2000 draft, plus a fourth- and seventh-rounder in 2001, to the Jets in exchange for a fifth-round pick in 2001 and a seventh-round pick in 2002.
2002: Jon Gruden
"Tampa Bay came to me and they said they wanted Gruden. I felt that I put the price tag so high that they wouldn't agree to it. And they did." That was how Raiders owner Al Davis explained the decision to send Gruden packing after a 40-28 record over four years as the head coach in Oakland.
Gruden replaced the fired Tony Dungy in Tampa Bay, while the Raiders received first-round picks in 2002 and 2003, plus second-round picks in 2002 and 2004 and $8 million cash. It was a lot, to be sure, but Gruden immediately paid it off, leading the Bucs to a Super Bowl win in his first season in Tampa ... against the Raiders, no less.
2019: Bruce Arians
After two straight disappointing seasons, the writing was on the wall for Arians in Arizona. Rather than fire him, though, they allowed him to retire instead, spending the 2018 season as a media analyst. One year later, he was ready to jump back into coaching — but because the Cardinals still controlled his rights, any team that wanted him would have to give up something in exchange. In the end, the Bucs sent their sixth-round pick in exchange for Arizona's seventh-rounder in the 2019 draft. In Arians' second season with his new team, he lured Tom Brady to Tampa and won a Super Bowl.
2023: Sean Payton
Payton might be the closest analog to Tomlin of the bunch. He amassed a 152-89 record in 16 seasons as head coach of the Saints before following long-time QB Drew Brees into retirement at the end of the 2021 season. That retirement lasted for exactly one year: In January of 2023, Payton accepted an offer to become the next head coach of the Broncos, with Denver agreeing to send a 2023 first-round pick and 2024 second-round pick to New Orleans in exchange for Payton and a 2024 third-round pick.
It's safe to say that worked out pretty well for the Broncos, who are now the AFC's No. 1 seed. In fact, it worked out for most if not all of the teams who traded draft capital to land their next head coach — which should have teams feeling just fine about doing the same for Tomlin.
Potential Mike Tomlin fits that would trade with Pittsburgh
Miami Dolphins
If I had to pick a leader in the clubhouse right now, it would be Miami. Owner Stephen Ross loves nothing more than a splashy hire — he served a six-game suspension for trying to lure Payton out of retirement with a massive nine-figure deal back in 2022 — and the Dolphins could very much use Tomlin's toughness, program-building acumen and defensive chops.
Of course, Miami currently finds itself in much the same sort of QB purgatory that the Steelers were trapped in for the last few years of Tomlin's tenure. But for a team that has struggled to find consistent contention in this millennium, that shiny win-loss record might be too much to ignore.
Las Vegas Raiders
Tomlin is known as a tone-setter, someone who knows how to establish a professional culture. Arguably no team in the NFL is more in need of that right now than the Raiders, which have been floundering for the better part of 25 years. If anyone can break through that malaise, it's someone as no-nonsense as Tomlin, who if nothing else will demand that his players buy in, play hard and drag every opponent into the mud. There might be a ceiling on how good he can be at this point in his coaching career, but Raiders fans would likely kill for a 10-7 finish these days.
Atlanta Falcons
To make a head coaching trade work, you need a desperate owner, someone who wants the shiniest object on the market and will pay whatever necessary to get it. Doesn't that sound a lot like Arthur Blank right now? He's desperate to get this underachieving Falcons team back to the playoffs, and the opening at GM means that he can even hand Tomlin full personnel control if he wants it. Plus, combining a Tomlin defense with Bijan Robinson and Drake London could be an awfully successful recipe.