Sources – Mike Tomlin tells Steelers he’ll be coach in ’24

PITTSBURGH — Mike Tomlin informed Pittsburgh Steelers gamers and coaches Tuesday that he plans to educate the workforce in 2024, a day after he walked out of a information convention when requested about his contract, sources informed ESPN.

Tomlin, who has a yr left on his contract, has given no indications of desirous to step away in current weeks, a supply near the state of affairs informed ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, and Tomlin “simply needs to educate soccer.” The supply added that contract extension talks might intensify this offseason.

A day after the Steelers’ wild-card loss to the Buffalo Payments, defensive deal with Cameron Heyward, the longest-tenured Steelers participant, voiced his help for Tomlin and strongly rebuffed the hypothesis round his coach’s future.

“I will simply say this about Mike T, why are we so involved with someone who has a yr on their contract, has been locked in and has wished to only play, coach soccer?” Heyward mentioned. “We do not ask anyone else if they should come again for one more yr or anything. I simply suppose it is doing him a disservice. This man’s been locked in from the very get-go, however but we’re fearful about if he is coming again or not. He is been locked in, and I respect it as a result of that is solely created extra dissension for gamers and coaches.

“We simply wish to give attention to one aim. He needs to give attention to one aim, and I simply suppose that is truthful to him. I feel all people likes to speak about, ‘Oh, he would possibly take a yr off. He would possibly do that. He is solely acquired one yr.’

“I simply suppose, why would he reply a query like that? He is fearful about attempting to win a playoff recreation after which final night time we simply misplaced an enormous playoff recreation. Why does he want to deal with that now? That is not the time or the place and I respect the query, however I simply suppose for him generally, Coach T’s earned that to only be singularly centered on one aim, and we have requested this query week in and week out. It is simply not truthful to the method.”

Tomlin isn’t any stranger to the Steelers’ contract cycle. Although the Steelers have beforehand prolonged coaches not less than two seasons faraway from the tip of their offers, Tomlin signed a three-year extension in 2021 when there was one yr remaining on his earlier contract. Hypothesis round Tomlin’s future intensified late within the 2023 season because the Steelers battled via a three-game dropping streak, and questions on management and accountability inside the locker room had been raised.

As he praised his coach’s consistency, Heyward mentioned he hasn’t observed a change in his head coach that may counsel he has misplaced his fireplace for the job.

“My thought is he will be the coach right here,” Heyward mentioned, “and if anyone’s pondering it must be anyone else, and also you’re asking for a complete lot extra than simply that. Mike T needs to be a Pittsburgh Steeler, is a Pittsburgh Steeler. Why anyone else for anything?”

Talking for the primary time since injuring a knee within the regular-season finale, star pass-rusher T.J. Watt echoed Heyward’s sentiments. Watt additionally mentioned nothing “groundbreaking” was mentioned in Tuesday’s transient workforce assembly.

“I wish to play for Mike T,” Watt mentioned. “That was big in my contract talks. I do not wish to play for anybody apart from Mike T. You guys perceive and see in the way in which I speak about him, how a lot I respect and respect him as a coach, as a person, as a pacesetter. That is my endorsement for him.”