APPittsburgh has had only three head coaches since 1969, and the Steelers aren’t planning to look for a new one any time soon.
The Steelers announced today that Mike Tomlin has signed a two-year contract extension, through the 2018 season.
“I am pleased to announce we have extended Mike Tomlin’s contract through the 2018 season,” Steelers President Art Rooney II said in a statement. “Mike has proven he is one of the top head coaches in the National Football League, and we are confident he will continue to lead the team in our pursuit of another Super Bowl championship.”
The 43-year-old Tomlin has gone 82-46 in the regular season in eight seasons as head coach, has been to the playoffs five times and has won a Super Bowl. The Steelers are pleased with those results, and Tomlin is pleased to be in Pittsburgh a long time.
“I very much appreciate this contract extension, but my sole focus has been and will continue to be meeting the challenges that lie ahead for the 2015 season,” Tomlin said. “These past nine years in Pittsburgh have been a wonderful experience for my family, and I look forward to pursuing what is the Steelers’ goal every year – bringing another Super Bowl championship to the City of Pittsburgh.”
The Steelers hired Chuck Noll in 1969 and he remained head coach until 1991. They then hired Bill Cowher in 1992, and he stayed until 2006. Tomlin, hired in 2007, will stay until at least 2018, and quite likely a lot longer than that. Pittsburgh will have at least half a century of stability at the top.
Huge mistake!
Did they provide an incentive is his contract for special teams tackles on kick offs?
Hell of a coach and no BS guy.
Nike should extend him too. He does have a contract with Nike right ?
-Jacoby Jones
That’s why we have the most Super Bowl rings. Love the Rooney family!
12th man Tomlin through 2018……LOL!
atta boy Mike
o playoff wins since being blasted out of the playoffs many years ago by Tim Tebow!
google your team cheats to see the fact that only the Denver Broncos have cheated more than the Pittsburgh Steelers in NFL history… what a legacy!
The rest of the league thanks you for this, just keep him away from the sidelines.
Wow after the beatdown he took in the playoffs last year I wouldn’t have extended him past week 4 of this year where he’ll take another beating off to a 1-3 start!
Two days until camp… Tomlin is 1-1 in SBs and 2-1 against the Ravens in the Playoffs. The Steelers are 4-1 against the Ravens in the Playoffs.
We own the Browns and the Bungles. A 5-1 2015 Division record. Back to back division champs. I’ve been saying it for 4 months and said it last season.
Glad he didn’t get tripped up during negotiations.
Smart franchise. Excellent coach. For opposite, Dallas Cowboys and Jerry Jones.
Special teams coach of the year.
This is something that all owners need to understand. Assuming that you originally hire really good people, stability in your Front office and coaching staff leads to long term success.
The Steelers, Packers, and Patriots have all had a great deal of stability and every one is in the playoffs almost every year. Meanwhile teams that have a constant turnover are always losers.
People forget that the Browns had Bill Belichick as HC and FIRED him.
Good coach, not the best but his team plays hard for him and he has had success. My only beef with him is his horrid clock management and lack of half time adjustments.
I love Mike T! He fits our city. He fits our mentality. He fits our Steelers!
Mike “Trippin” Tomlin … gets to stay.
Smart move – ’cause he’d have a job like 2 seconds after being fired by Steelers.
Unenlightened Yinzers still yearning for the days of when William Laird Cahhhhhhrrrrrr would guide them to 7-9 and remind everyone that there’s a Fine Line in this business …
Three coaches since 1969… That is pretty amazing. And all 3 are Super Bowl winners. Hard to believe Tomlin already has 82 wins at age 43.
You can’t argue with Mike’s success. It will be interesting to see if he injects more of his Tampa2 influence on the defense now that Lebeau has moved on.
The sideline jokes are very predictable. I hope we at least get some that are creative and funny.
Thank you Rooneys!!!
-Rest of AFC North
At least now he doesn’t have to rely on that “House” reunion.
Does anyone have a video of Tomlin sticking out his foot, trying to trip Jacoby Jones? Not the one where he jumps out of the way, but a tripping video? Anyone?
Tomlin has SB and a couple of AFC championships under his belt, but what has he done lately? Two one and dones in the last 4-5 years? 4 more years is a long time.
I guess we will see this year.
Ehhhhhhhhxcellent. (tents fingers)
Guy is classless pretending not to know where Jacoby was on field. one if he most pathetic things I’ve ever seen from a coach.
Four more years! Four more years! No playoff wins for four more years? LOL.
Here they come, right on time.
The best part is that Tomlin’s team is already beyond the worst of the “rebuilding phase”; if you can even call it that. The Steelers organization has done a great job of reloading young talent while still remaining 8-8 or better. There aren’t too many organizations who can transition that quickly and relatively painless.
I like how the fans of other AFC North teams are celebrating his extension, I know I am. He won the division last season when nobody gave him a shot all while still “rebuilding”. That doesn’t say a whole lot for the rest of the AFC north, does it?
Contract = Nothing but a worthless piece of paper with ink on it.
Stillers were a successful fake punt away from going 0-2 against the Clowns last year.. Not buying 5-1 against the division. Probably 3-3.
Steelers fans, don’t let Baltimore trolls bother you.
Here are Harbaugh and Tomlin’s career win percentages as HC:
.646
.641
I’m not saying which belongs to which coach because it obviously does not matter.
Some of you are morons.
Typical Pittsburgh blunder. The guy inherited Cowher’s team and barely beat the weakest SB team in history. Since then, his team has finished 3rd in the AFC as often as it has finished 1st and he’s only made the playoffs half the time. And NO playoff wins since Jan. 2009, not to mention the Tebow humiliation and Big Ben scandal which continues to haunt and drag down the team. Congrats on getting four more years of that. LOL.
I meant no playoff wins since Jan 2011. LOL.
What is the over/under for Steeler playoff wins from now through 2018?
0.000
THANKS PUTZBERG!
-AFC NORTH
Steelers must be trippin’ over this signing.
We might sweep. No less than 5-1.
guess it pays to have a rapist as your QB?
What’s he done since all of Cowhers players left? Thought so. Look for more of the same.
Very good coach of a very good team. Unlike that slimeball backstabbing crybaby John Harbaugh.
Excellent l move, quality coach and a stand up guy.
I’m a Raven fan, and I approve of this signing.
Good Coach sometimes needs to make smarter decisions during games but overall glad he got a 2 yr extension. Now lets go out and get that 7th ring for Steeler Nation Mike T.
Good move. Great coach & leader.
Just look at all the anti Steeler crybabies
I’m a Saints fan. But, that’s why Pitt has the most superbowls. They will stay with thier coaches.
Tomlin has won a super bowl and has NEVER had a losing season as head coach. Enough said.
Think I would either want him or John Harbaugh if Belichick called it quits. Both are smart coaches.
most overrated coach in football. people who like him do so solely based on his persona as portrayed by the media. Based purely on his coaching (or lack thereof) he’s horrible. Poor motivator. Poor leader. Bad with time management. Not an X and O guy. He inherited a franchise QB and two coordinators with SB talent. He walked into a SB ring against maybe the worst team to ever make the SB (Cardinals). Nothing he’s done since (losing to bad teams, getting thoroughly outclassed by GB in SB, poor drafts) has instilled confidence. He is the Doc Rivers of the NFL. As a Steeler fan myself, I keep asking his fanboys to list the things hes good at (what makes him a good coach) and besides being along for the ride since the team has Ben and a great GM and inevitable success that anyone would have in his shoes…I’m met with silence. That’s because he brings absolutely nothing to the table. If you don’t call plays/game plan, if you are a poor leader and bad on the sideline..then what do you do? Oh! He’s black and has some semi quotable press conferences that idiots and the media eat up. Gotcha!
Typical Pittsburgh blunder. The guy inherited Cowher’s team and barely beat the weakest SB team in history. Since then, his team has finished 3rd in the AFC as often as it has finished 1st and he’s only made the playoffs half the time. And NO playoff wins since Jan. 2009, not to mention the Tebow humiliation and Big Ben scandal which continues to haunt and drag down the team. Congrats on getting four more years of that. LOL.
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Cardinals the weakest super bowl team? Why couldn’t anyone else beat them to make it there then?
Big Ben’s scandal is ancient history. You know, like your players killing and beating their GFs
Three more seasons to try and trip players from the sidelines. Awesome!
as a life long Steelers fan I have mixed feelings about this move. Yes Tomlin is a good coach, but let’s be honest about things. He won his superbowl with Cowhers team not his, he has not had a good track record in the draft and despite always being competative his teams tend to be out coached alot. I’ve always thought Tomlin was at his best at giving sweet 1 liners and quotes to the media but comes up short in the coaching department. Regardless I’ll stick with him for another few years and we will see where things go from there.
Your tears and whining help me sleep at night.
jrob23 says:
Jul 23, 2015 1:12 PM
most overrated coach in football. people who like him do so solely based on his persona as portrayed by the media. Based purely on his coaching (or lack thereof) he’s horrible. Poor motivator. Poor leader. Bad with time management. Not an X and O guy. He inherited a franchise QB and two coordinators with SB talent. He walked into a SB ring against maybe the worst team to ever make the SB (Cardinals). Nothing he’s done since (losing to bad teams, getting thoroughly outclassed by GB in SB, poor drafts) has instilled confidence. He is the Doc Rivers of the NFL. As a Steeler fan myself, I keep asking his fanboys to list the things hes good at (what makes him a good coach) and besides being along for the ride since the team has Ben and a great GM and inevitable success that anyone would have in his shoes…I’m met with silence. That’s because he brings absolutely nothing to the table. If you don’t call plays/game plan, if you are a poor leader and bad on the sideline..then what do you do? Oh! He’s black and has some semi quotable press conferences that idiots and the media eat up. Gotcha!
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Tomlin does not really get any recognition other than from players so how can you call him overrated? If the Cardinals were so terrible, how did they win enough games to make the playoffs and how did they even get through the Nfc playoffs? They had Kurt Warner slinging passes and Larry Fitzgerald in his prime. I will agree that Tomlin sometimes lacks in his motivation skills and he allows the team to be almost unprepared for big games or games against weak opponents. He must be doing something right to have 82 wins in 8 years without a losing season. Outclassed by Green Bay in the Super Bowl? A Rashard Mendenhall fumble and bad play calling in the last drive sealed that game.
Something to be said about stability, look at old the terrible clubs in the League, yep that is what i thought.
jtbsteeler says:
Jul 23, 2015 12:02 PM
We might sweep. No less than 5-1.
————
What’s the point of a home playoff game if you’re all going to leave in the 3rd quarter?
jjackwagon says:
Jul 23, 2015 12:07 PM
What’s he done since all of Cowhers players left? Thought so. Look for more of the same.
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Well it is going to take another 3 or 4 years before all of Cowher’s players are gone so I guess we will not know until after that right?
While other teams churn and twist with every contract, the Steelers sign anchors and focus on winning. That’s how trophy’s are won.
One of the top winning percentages of active coaches. Super Bowl winner. Every year he’s voted in the top 3 coaches NFL players want to pay for. Get out your Google and look for yourself. So who cares what trolls think?
As long as the ‘core’ of your foundation is sound, then continuity has its place.
The Browns not only had Belichick and fired him — they also had Paul Brown, and fired him.
Noll had some tough years, and the Steelers saw the bigger picture and exercised patience. Super Bowl glory was to follow.
Same for Cowher. He had a couple of 6-10 years in there, and folks were calling for his head – but the Steelers were rewarded for holding to their convictions.
Tomlin also has detractors, many of them a product of being uber-spoiled. But Coach Mike is legit, and it’s nice to see the Rooneys don’t panic and freak out like so many of the “internet critics” do.
Every Steeler Head Coach since the Noll hire in the last sixties has won at least one Super Bowl and all have won multiple AFC Championships and appeared in multiple Super Bowls. No other franchise can truthfully say that.
If Gruden won a Superbowl with Dungy’s players, the same can be said for Tomlin winning with Cowher’s players. Tomlin is less of a great coach than the Steelers are and always have been a stable franchise. He is a good coach, but not great.
Reminder that James Harrison has beat his girl multiple times.
again, I ask the fanboys. What is he legit at? name is strengths. Please I beg you
He is coach this year, no doubt.
2018 is only three years beyond this one. This just means he has this year and next before he may be canned and they eat his contract in 2017/2018. Given he has won a Superbowl that would take a huge letdown.
This really only translates to he is guaranteed this year and two more. After 2017 if he hasn’t been extended and is a lame duck, he will likely be let go. But again, that is only if the team has a big letdown.
With only three coaches in forever he likely gets a least the next four years. Harbaugh and Tomlin are likely to still be here in 2018. Lewis is 50/50 and the Browns will likely have fired/hired/fired/hired by then.
gobolts says:
Jul 23, 2015 10:53 AM
Tomlin has SB and a couple of AFC championships under his belt, but what has he done lately? Two one and dones in the last 4-5 years? 4 more years is a long time.
I guess we will see this year.
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What has he done lately? Won the AFCN. He is an excellent coach that fits The Steelers. Steelers Nation the original nation
A glorified cheerleader.
Useless when it comes to actual X’s and O’s.
With a star running back suspended for getting stoned behind the wheel, a QB who’s addicted to throwing end zone picks, and a coach who leads by trying to trip up kick returners, this team is on a collision course. If the Bengals can figure out a way to beat them, Steelers could go 0-6 in the division. LOL.
Tomlin wasn’t trying to trip jones knew Tomlin was standing on the sideline while running towards tomlin obiously tomlin didnt expect jones running towards him while looking at himself on the jumbo screen
With a star running back suspended for getting stoned behind the wheel, a QB who’s addicted to throwing end zone picks, and a coach who leads by trying to trip up kick returners, this team is on a collision course. If the Bengals can figure out a way to beat them, Steelers could go 0-6 in the division. LOL.
Another busy day for the shallow end of the gene pool. Best comment was that four years was a long time….sure it is if you are twenty and judging from so many unintelligent posts that represents most of the commenters so far.
As a vikings fan, I did not like Tomlin at all. He’s totally OVERRATED!!!! Let’s see what happens the next few years. “FAT BEN” is not going to get any better than he was last year.
Please let training camps begin so so we can stop the foolish commentary over what by any objective measure is a non-story.
Imagine for a moment that thsis isn’t the Steelers and Mike Tomlin. “Team X” has a coach in the final year of his contract. The coach has been to two Suberbowls, has a .640 winning percentage and the team won the division just last season. The coach is a young guy, active in community service and has not had a whiff of personal scandal attached to him. The players seem to like playing for him. Gee — what should “Team X” do?
The Steeler extended Tomlin for two years — not ten. If you believe Bleacher Report, they didn’t break the bank to keep him but compensated him commensurate with his performance. Anyone who suggests this was a bad decision is simply projecting their own biases.
Why such a short extension? If the steeler organization along with the yinzers think this bug-eyed coach is so great, why not extend him till 2025? We are laughing at this ridiculous decision while the yinzers are trying to convince themselves this was a great move. Will one of yinz please explain to jrob how coach T is such a terrific coach. Just remember, “excuses are tools for the incompetent”.
If the Defense gets it together, Mike T could be raising another Lombardi soon.
Remember when the trolls were trashing Todd Haley and saying Leveon Bell was a bust and the Steelers should have paid Mike Wallace and Cam Heyward wasn’t any good? Blah blah blah…….I think they have proven as an organization that they know how to run things. Well at least we aren’t talking about 2 lbs. of pressure in a football for a little while anyway….
Now that mom and dad have tucked in the little trolls for the night lets talk about Mike Tomlin. His record of 80+ vs 40+ is hardly chopped liver and in a lot of cities would place him in their ring of honor. He is beyond Cowhers players with just Ben of any consequence so that argument is old…except for a strange citizen. I guess the haters don’t respect black coaches who are smart and articulate….unlike themselves. The Rooneys have been at this much longer than the trolls have been breathing so I’ll continue to have faith in them and not the Internet typing trolls.
Congrats Mike….glad to have you for a couple more. At least you aren’t whining about the refs like Harbaugh or cheating the socks of some ones grandmother like Belicheat..
At $7 million a year, a no playoff winning coach is going to do wonders for morale. Look for everyone to hold out for their share of the salary cap pie. But wait! Steelers have the 2nd fattest salaried QB and one of the most expensive unproductive DEs. Looks like Ben and Cam and Mike are getting fat while everyone else starves.
TebowedOutOfThePostSeasonAndNeverToReturn says:
Jul 23, 2015 11:41 AM
Typical Pittsburgh blunder. The guy inherited Cowher’s team and barely beat the weakest SB team in history. Since then, his team has finished 3rd in the AFC as often as it has finished 1st and he’s only made the playoffs half the time. And NO playoff wins since Jan. 2009, not to mention the Tebow humiliation and Big Ben scandal which continues to haunt and drag down the team. Congrats on getting four more years of that. LOL.
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Hate to tell you (and the other guy too) but that Arizona team was absolutely scorching everybody in the playoffs, and scoring at a record pace. In fact they were better than the Ravens team that got gifted the win against the 49ers thanks to the refs not calling pass interference at the end. As for that “Big Ben scandal” yeah it’s dragged down the team so much that they won the division last season.
I know you’re a product of the Crackmore educational system, but can’t you do ANY better?
jrob23 says:
Jul 23, 2015 3:06 PM
again, I ask the fanboys. What is he legit at? name is strengths. Please I beg you.
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When the Steelers hired Tomlin I was thrilled, and the way he talked about the game and strategy seemed right on (especially compared to ol’ Marty Ball Bill Cowher). Since then, however, I don’t think he’s proven to be quite the football guru we thought he was going to be.
I’ve ripped Tomlin plenty for his shortcomings, but let’s give some credit if we’re going to be fair. The team was on the verge of meltdown this year especially after losing to Tampa, but they turned things around and wound up winning the division with a pretty respectable 11 win season. You don’t do stuff like that with a completely crummy coach.
Tomlin has a charisma with the players, and the ability to keep a team together when things get grim. Don’t underestimate that, not many coaches have that ability. He also hasn’t had a losing season, despite having a defense that’s slowly worsened for the last several years. Now, I don’t think Tomlin is as great as the sports media types think he is, but he’s shown some real leadership ability.
Now how about you answer one: say they would get rid of Tomlin. Who would you rather see in his place?
jrob23 says:
Jul 23, 2015 3:06 PM
again, I ask the fanboys. What is he legit at? name is strengths. Please I beg you
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Tomlin’s strengths lie in his selection of staffing, his relation to his players, and his excellent special teams play.