It feels like Mike Tomlin has been the Steelers head coach for my entire life. It's not true — I was a senior in high school during his first season — but in a league where head coach longevity isn't a huge thing, Tomlin's run with the team feels like it's lasted a long, long time, though it sounds like he might be wearing out his welcome.
At least one team tried to end that run in 2025, with the Chicago Bears reportedly making a run at trading for Tomlin. It didn't happen — the Steelers weren't willing to engage in those discussions and the Bears moved on to Ben Johnson, which is by far the better move in retrospect.
Let's talk about why the Bears came out on top, plus why a few other teams in need of coaches last offseason were also right to not go after Tomlin.
Chicago Bears
Let's start with the team that we know tried to trade for Tomlin and that is lucky that attempt was rebuffed.
I understand that no assistant coach is a "sure thing" when it comes to how they adjust to being an NFL head coach. Just look at the other former Lions coordinator to take a head coaching position this cycle: Aaron Glenn. His Jets tenure has been a disaster so far. If a team thought Johnson was being propped up by working under Dan Campbell, I understand.
But the most important thing for this Bears franchise entering 2025 was to set quarterback Caleb Williams up for success. You had to find out if he could be a franchise quarterback, so hiring an offensive-minded head coach was the right move. Tomlin had experience, but hiring him meant you'd still need to find the right offensive coordinator for Williams.
Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jaguars franchise had relatively stable coaching for a long time after the team entered the league, with Tom Coughlin manning things for eight seasons and then Jack Del Rio for eight full seasons and part of a ninth. Since then, Doug Marrone's four seasons (and part of a fifth) are the longest run from one coach.
So you could see the appeal of Tomlin, right? He's a reliable figure who's also only 53 years old, so the Jaguars could get 10 years out of him. Liam Coen did a very good job as the offensive coordinator in Jacksonville, but as mentioned with Johnson above, there's no such thing as a sure thing when a coordinator takes a head coaching job.
But Coen has found success in Jacksonville, with the team going 7-4 to start the year. There are question marks about quarterback Trevor Lawrence, but Coen has been able to win with him so far. If the team opts to make a change at quarterback in the future, they'd rather have Coen calling the shots for the new guy than entering the purgatory of the Mike Tomlin Quarterback Search.
New England Patriots
The Patriots probably weren't going to trade for Tomlin since Mike Vrabel was out there on the market, as the team zeroed in on the former New England player pretty quickly, but let's just play the "what if" game here.
New England had the most stable situation in the league for years with Bill Belichick calling the shots, and the one year without Belichick saw the team go 4-13. Maybe that's a situation where you go after the thing you had before — a veteran coach with a defensive background who has shown he can take a team to the Super Bowl.
It would have been a bad call. The process for hiring Vrabel was off, as the team zeroed in on him a little too fast and didn't feel like it was seriously considering anyone else, but it proved to be the right call. Vrabel and the Patriots are a perfect fit, and he was able to bring Josh McDaniels along with him for a third stint as the Patriots' offensive coordinator. At this stage, it's hard to imagine McDaniels getting another head coaching shot, so this combo can basically guide Drake Maye through his prime.