Mike Tomlin to step down as Pittsburgh Steelers coach after 19 years
The Pittsburgh Steelers were knocked out of the playoffs by the Houston Texans on Monday Night and on Tuesday head coach Mike Tomlin stepped down.
All good things come to an end, and in Pittsburgh it seems that the Mike Tomlin era has reached it’s breaking point in the Steele City. According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler and Adam Schefter, Tomlin is stepping down after 19 season as the head coach of the Steelers.
Tomlin steps down
Tomlin told his team he was stepping down during their end of season meeting at 2 p.m. ET Tuesday afternoon. This comes after the Steelers were eliminated from the playoffs by the Houston Texas on Monday night.
Mike Tomlin will have options with what he wants to do next. He can take the year off, he can have a job in television as an analyst, he gets to do what he wants. But it won’t be coaching the Steelers. https://t.co/vjNJSyWIqR
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 13, 2026
Tomlin was reportedly on the hot seat since the end of last season when the Steelers failed to win a playoff game for yet another season but Pittsburgh kept him around for another year and built a team they hoped would compete for a Super Bowl. Tomlin led the Steelers to the AFC North title on the final week of the season, but once again they fell short in the playoffs.
In his 19 seasons as the coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers he did something that has never been done in the history of the NFL. He led the Steelers to 19 straight seasons of .500 football or better. Pittsburgh fans haven’t seen a losing season in two decades because of the consistency of their coach but the short comings in the playoffs started to wear on fans in the Steele City.
Texans loss the final straw for Mike T
The loss to the Texans on Monday night stretched their playoff slump to seven straight postseason games without a win. The last time Tomlin and the Steelers won a playoff game was January 15th of 2017 when they beat the Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional Round. Since their loss to the New England Patriots the following week, they reached the playoffs six times and lost in each of those games.
The Steelers are 0-7 in their last 7 playoff games:
— Kalshi Football (@KalshiFB) January 13, 2026
Pittsburgh lost those 7 games by an average of 15.1 points pic.twitter.com/jObt504Zz9
Tomlin’s tenure in Pittsburgh got started off with a bang. He was named head coach of the Steelers at the age of 34 and after leading Pittsburgh to the playoffs in his rookie year, he won the Super Bowl in his second year. He got to the Super Bowl again in 2011 and the Conference Championship in the 2016 season, but after the Steelers failed to win another playoff game.
Tomlin was just the third coach to man the sidelines in Pittsburgh since Chuck Knoll was hired back in 1969. Knoll served as coach from 1969 to 1991 and Bill Cowher took over after that until Tomlin was hired in 2007. Now the coaching search is on in the Steele City as Tomlin contemplates his next move. He will have plenty of suitors if he does want to coach next year, and if not there will be TV stations lining up to bring him aboard as an analyst.
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