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Update: 1:00 PM ET
After Florio shared his thoughts on the matter earlier, he was “forwarded the relevant language” by someone with access to the NFL’s internal policies and procedures.
“It depends on the terms of his contract,” Florio wrote in his amended article. “Generally speaking, the rules provide that the team holds the rights to a resigned or retired coach for the remaining duration of the contract. If there’s one year left, it’s one year. If there’s two years left, it’s two. (And so on.) For Tomlin, who has one year left, the situation is complicated by the fact that the Steelers have an option for 2027, which they could (in theory) exercise.”
This contradicts his earlier thoughts, though he added that the specific terms of Tomlin’s contract could differ from the status quo of how contracts typically work.
Most likely, the length of Tomlin’s hiatus would matter. If he steps away for 2026, the Steelers could end up without compensation. It would depend on when Tomlin’s contract actually ends. If it’s at the start of the new league year in 2027, which comes in March, there would be a window next offseason to execute a trade if he returns to coaching.
Read the original story below, with the new information provided by Florio in mind.
With Mike Tomlin no longer the Pittsburgh Steelers’ head coach, attention has shifted to a key question. Do the Steelers still retain his contractual rights, and could that control translate into compensation in a future trade?
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio explained how this works with coaching contracts.
“Whenever he does come back to coach, the Steelers will be entitled to compensation even if he takes a year off. Even if he takes five years off, whenever he comes back, the Steelers will be able to say, ‘We have a contract with Mike Tomlin for one more year. You can’t just hire Mike Tomlin without compensating us first,’” Florio said Wednesday on YouTube. “If it happens now, if it happens next year, if it happens five years from now, if it happens at any point down the road, the Steelers have a claim.”
This has happened with a couple coaches in recent memory. The Arizona Cardinals held Bruce Arians’ rights after their split because he technically resigned. When he was getting hired by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they made a trade happen for a late-round pick swap after a year off from coaching.
Sean Payton is the more notable example. After a Super Bowl-winning career with the New Orleans Saints, he took a year off from the NFL before getting traded to the Denver Broncos. That trade fetched the Saints a first-round pick and included a future mid-round pick swap.
Some have speculated about whether the Steelers would release Tomlin from his contract as a show of respect, but ESPN insider Peter Schrager said that is not expected to happen. The Steelers would be foolish to not attempt to use that significant bargaining chip in their back pocket to extract draft value from a team that covets Tomlin. That also gives them some control in where he goes, so he doesn’t end up with an AFC North foe.
All we’ve heard as Steelers fans for the last several years is how sought after Tomlin would be as a candidate if he was available for hire. That should create significant compensation for Pittsburgh, though Florio cautions it could have limits if the break is lengthy enough.
“The longer the time goes by in between, I think that depreciates,” Florio said. “Whatever it would take now to get Mike Tomlin, it’s gonna be less a year from now. It’ll be even less a year after that.”
If Tomlin wanted to avoid a situation where his theoretical future team sets itself back to acquire him, he could attempt to flex his leverage by saying he will honor his final year with the Steelers. They, of course, would be in no position to make that happen, which would create an interesting situation. I doubt either side would let it come to that.
According to reports, Tomlin plans on taking at least a year off from coaching. But if he gets the itch to return, which I reckon he one day will, the Steelers can get something in return. Even in departure, Tomlin could deliver one final parting gift for the Steelers in the form of draft compensation.
It should be noted that there are conflicting reports about whether Tomlin’s rights carry over beyond the term of his current contract, which runs through the 2026 season. This is Florio’s interpretation as a former labor attorney-turned NFL analyst.
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