This is a similar situation to the one that played out in New Orleans with Sean Payton
By Andy Backstrom
Mike Tomlin voluntarily ended his 19-season run as Pittsburgh Steelers head coach on Tuesday. Tomlin made the decision after what he described in a statement as “much thought and reflection.”
He decided to step down. The Steelers didn’t fire him.
That distinction’s important.
Tomlin, 53, has two years remaining on his contract, meaning that, since he resigned, the Steelers will retain his coaching rights. If Tomlin wants to coach for another NFL team before the end of the 2027 season, Pittsburgh will have to trade him.
Although Tomlin reportedly has a no-trade clause in his contract, the expectation is that he’d give the Steelers permission to send him to a team of his choice.
In exchange, the Steelers would receive compensation, similar to the way the Denver Broncos had to compensate the New Orleans when they hired Sean Payton as head coach ahead of the 2023 season.
The Sean Payton trade
At the end of January that year, the Saints dealt the rights to hire Payton and their 2024 third-round pick for the Broncos’ 2023 first-round pick and 2024 second-round pick.
After the 2021 season came to an end in New Orleans, Payton stepped down from coaching the Saints. That marked the conclusion of his 16-season run with a franchise he helped revitalize. Under Payton, the Saints marched to the tune of nine playoff appearances and one Super Bowl victory.
He was 58 when he pressed pause on his coaching career. He was under contract through the 2024 season. So when the Broncos looked his way after Nathaniel Hackett’s abysmal 4-11 stint, they had to get creative, especially because they were down draft picks due to the Russell Wilson trade.
Payton’s now in his third season with the Broncos, who are the AFC’s top seed in the playoffs. It seems like the year away from coaching did him well. He spent that time as an analyst for Fox Sports.
It’s possible Tomlin also tries his hand at TV. In fact, Fox Sports, ESPN, NBC and CBS all will have interest in him, according to The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand, who pointed out that Fox Sports has not replaced Jimmy Johnson on “Fox NFL Sunday,” and that CBS’ “NFL Today” just lost Matt Ryan to the Atlanta Falcons’ president of football position.
Other times NFL coaches have been traded
There have been seven other head coaches dealt across the league since 1997.
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1997: Bill Parcells traded from New England Patriots to New York Jets for a 1999 first-round pick, 1998 second-round pick and third- and fourth-round picks in the 1997 draft as well as a $300,000 donation to the Patriots’ charitable foundation
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1999: Mike Holmgren traded from Green Bay Packers to Seattle Seahawks for a second-round pick
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2000: Bill Belichick, along with a fifth-round pick and a seventh-round pick, traded from Jets to Patriots for a first-round pick, fourth-round pick and seventh-round pick
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2002: Jon Gruden traded from Oakland Raiders to Tampa Bay Buccaneers for two first-round picks, two second-round picks and $8 million
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2006: Herm Edwards traded from Jets to Kansas City Chiefs for fourth-round pick
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2019: Bruce Arians, plus a seventh-round pick, traded from Arizona Cardinals to Buccaneers for sixth-round pick
These trades have fared well for the teams acquiring a new head coach. Gruden and Arians led the Bucs to Super Bowl wins. Belichick, of course, was an architect of a two-decade Patriots dynasty that featured Tom Brady and resulted in six Lombardis. Holmgren’s Seahawks made a Super Bowl appearance, too.