It has been five months since Mike Tomlin resigned as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. His goal was to spend more time with his family and give the Steelers “excitement and optimism associated with new leadership.” The Steelers have that now with Mike McCarthy, and Coach Tomlin has already made a splash with his new NBC broadcasting gig. But the league – specifically the Steelers’ divisional rivals – might still be on the lookout for the coach who had 19 straight winning seasons.

On a recent edition of Not Just Football with Cam Heyward, the veteran defensive tackle for Steel City sat with former NFL coach Jon Gruden and talked about “Tomlinisms,” among other things. When Heyward asked Gruden what it would take for a team to make a move for Mike Tomlin, Gruden compared the situation to when the Broncos gave a first-round pick to the Saints for Sean Payton, and declared, “coaching matters!” Just this conversation was enough to stir unretirement speculations again.

Allison Koehler of the Steelers Wire connected Mike Tomlin to four teams recently: the Jets, the Colts, the Buccaneers, and, surprisingly, the Cincinnati Bengals.

“Zac Taylor (Bengals head coach) reach a Super Bowl and made two early playoff trips, but Cincinnati has now missed three straight postseasons and just posted its first losing record since 2020,” writers Koehler. “Joe Burrow’s injuries explain part of the decline, though a fourth consecutive miss could end Taylor’s run. Any Tomlin trade speculation would be wild given the rivalry, divisional politics and Pittsburgh’s history with its coach.”

The Bengals are the surprise here because they play in the same AFC North division as the Pittsburgh Steelers. This means Tomlin could go head-to-head against the team he coached for 19 years regularly.

Now, Mike Tomlin is set to join the panel of NBC’s Football Night in America this 2026 NFL season. The length of his contract with NBC is unknown, but reports from when he signed up suggest that his contract is quite flexible, allowing him to return to coaching if the right team comes calling. And Koehler projects a scenario where Tomlin joins Cincy only if Zac Taylor fails to have any success this season, but they’d have to go through Pittsburgh to land Tomlin.

The Steelers still hold Tomlin’s rights through the 2027 season, and any team wishing to get “Tomlinisms” on their team would have to trade with Pittsburgh. Jon Gruden, in conversation with Cam Heyward, notes that a team would have to part with a first-round draft pick for Tomlin (just like Coach Payton with the Broncos). Tomlin would then rebuild the coaching staff, and that would help the players develop more than anything else.

“If you get a guy like Mike Tomlin, he’s going to hire a good group of coaches, and he’s going to develop players, that’s worth a lot more than a first-round pick, if you ask me,” Gruden said.

Cincinnati’s being part of this conversation isn’t just speculation, though. The Bengals went 6-11 in 2025, shuffling through Jake Browning and Joe Flacco as quarterback after Joe Burrow got sidelined. Despite that, Bengals owner Mike Brown retained Taylor and gave him a vote of confidence in January, alongside player personnel chief Duke Tobin. If Taylor can’t capture postseason success with a healthy Joe Burrow this season, Brown might be inclined to look at other options.

In a different squad, going against his old crew twice a year, would Mike Tomlin be able to finally break his losing playoff record? He isn’t chasing a headset anymore, but the AFC North could still chase him if things don’t work out. Whatever happens, Pittsburgh holds all the keys.