It didn’t take long for the focus to shift from the Pittsburgh Steelers’ season-ending loss to the futures of Mike Tomlin and Aaron Rodgers.
Tomlin and Rodgers declined to expound on the uncertainty around their returns after Monday night’s 30-6 home loss to the Houston Texans in the wild-card round of the playoffs.
“I’m not going to make any emotional decisions,” Rodgers said. “Disappointed. Obviously, such a fun year. A lot of adversity, but a lot of fun. Been a great year overall in my life, the last year, and this is a really good part of that, coming here and being a part of this team. So it’s disappointing to be sitting here with the season over.”
Rodgers, 42, could consider retirement after his 21st NFL season, and the quarterback acknowledged after Monday’s defeat that he will now “get away and have the right conversations” about what comes next.
Meanwhile, there remains rampant speculation over whether Tomlin and the Steelers could part ways after 19 seasons with him as head coach, including nine in a row without a playoff victory.
“I’m not even in that mindset as I sit here tonight,” Tomlin said. “I’m more in the mindset of what transpired in this stadium, and certainly what we did and didn’t do. Not a big-picture mentality as I sit here tonight.”
Rodgers, a Super Bowl champion and four-time NFL MVP, spent his first 18 seasons with the Green Bay Packers.
He then endured a disappointing two-year tenure with the Jets, during which he missed practically all of the 2023 season due to an Achilles tear before going 5-12 in 2024.
After the Jets released him, Rodgers signed a one-year contract with the Steelers in June and helped lead them to a 10-7 record and their first AFC North title since 2020. Rodgers passed for 3,322 yards and 24 touchdowns with seven interceptions in 16 games in the regular season.
Pittsburgh’s offense struggled, however, against the Texans’ dominant defense, which scored two defensive touchdowns and limited Rodgers to 17-of-33 passing for 146 yards and an interception.
Rodgers’ final pass was intercepted by Calen Bullock, who returned it 50 yards for a touchdown.
Meanwhile, Tomlin is a Super Bowl champion with a career record of 193-114-2. He has never finished with a losing season as a head coach, but the Steelers have lost each of their last seven playoff games.
Tomlin would be expected to receive considerable interest from teams with an open head-coach job — the Giants are among those with a vacancy — but some believe he would consider taking a break from coaching and go into TV next season.
“Mike T. has had more success than damn near anybody in the league for the last 19, 20 years,” Rodgers said.
“More than that, though, when you have the right guy and the culture is right, you don’t think about making a change. But there’s a lot of pressure that comes from the outside, and obviously that sways decisions from time to time. But it’s not how I would do things and not how the league used to be.”
