It's hard to imagine Mike Tomlin walking away from coaching

Two years ago, after the Steelers lost a wild-card game at Buffalo, Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin walked away from the podium in the middle of a question about his future. Last night, after the Steelers lost a wild-card game to the Texans, Tomlin answered it.

“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.”

At some point, he’ll be in a big-picture mindset. What will he do?

It’s hard to imagine Tomlin not coaching. Coaches coach. He went from playing college football at William & Mary in 1994 to coaching in 1995, at VMI. He has coached every year since then.

What else would he do? It’s believed by some that he has a TV offer in his back pocket (if he doesn’t, he’d have one immediately, if he wants one). Would it be enough for Tomlin to be in the game without really being in the game?

If he believes it’s time for a change, changing professions may not be the option. Would he change teams?

That outcome would likely require a trade, unless the Steelers decide to let him walk away without compensation in honor of the 19 years he had given to the organization. It also would require a destination that he would view as better than the place where he has been since 2007.

Of the current options, would he regard any of them as being as good as Pittsburgh? Plenty of the teams currently looking for coaches could do a lot worse (and have) than Tomlin. But Tomlin would have to want to go to the Cardinals or the Browns or the Raiders or the Giants or the Ravens (that would be something) or the Titans or the Dolphins or the Falcons.

For now, the question is whether Tomlin wants to spend a 20th year with the Steelers. On one hand, why wouldn’t he? On the other hand, hearing the “fire Tomlin!” chants during the Week 13 loss to Buffalo may have caused him to rethink sticking around in a place where, come next year, those chants could get louder.

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