Should Cowboys Someday Hire Tomlin?

Should Cowboys Someday Hire Tomlin?

In the hours following the Cowboys’ 2023 season’s unceremonious end at the hands of the Green Bay Packers in the Wild Card round,

we looked at prospective successors if Dallas dismissed Mike McCarthy.

That became moot for the time being, as the Cowboys elected to keep McCarthy.

However, the opportunity to hire one of the most intriguing people on that list remains.

Three of the four contenders we discussed in the original piece—Jim Harbaugh,

Bill Belichick, and Mike Vrabel—are not currently under contract with any NFL team.

The fourth name is Tomlin. Tomlin will return to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2024,

the final year of his current contract.

Tomlin, is the longest-tenured coach in the in the NFL,

even expressed optimism about reaching a long-term deal to remain in his current post.

“I expect to be back, and I would imagine that those contract things are going to run their course,

” he added. “Art [Rooney II] and I have a very nice, transparent relationship.

We interact frequently. I don’t think it will be a problem,

and I believe it will be completed in a timely and acceptable manner,

but my mindset is to coach his football team.”

However, until the ink dries on his new contract, Tomlin will be a lame duck in 2024.

He could play out the final year of his deal,

allowing him to choose his destination for 2025: the Steelers, another team, or a year off to rest.

McCarthy isn’t anticipated to earn a contract extension this offseason,

as revealed by CowboysSI.com last Wednesday (and then repeated by the national media over the weekend),

thus he’ll likewise be a lame duck in 2024. And,

while Jerry Jones has shown a strong loyalty to his coaches in recent years,

if the Cowboys fail to reach the NFC Championship Game for the first time since 1995,

he may be forced to make a change.

And Tomlin would make even better sense next offseason than he did this season.

If he does not sign an extension this offseason, Tomlin will be a free agent next year.

Had the Cowboys dropped McCarthy this offseason,

they would  have needed to not only get Tomlin on board,

but also work out a trade with the Steelers,

which probably would have required significant draft compensation going back to Pittsburgh.

In case you missed it, Tomlin has led the Steelers to 17 consecutive winning seasons.

They haven’t won a playoff game since 2016,

but that’s due in part to an aging Ben Roethlisberger and

their inability to find an answer at the position over the last two years.

There are fair complaints of Dak Prescott, particularly his postseason performance,

but he is lightyears ahead of Kenny Pickett and Mason Rudolph. And, while it has been a while,

Tomlin has shown that he can win in January when he has a legitimate quarterback,

with two AFC championships and a Super Bowl victory to his name.

There’s also no doubt that Tomlin could manage both the strain of working for Jones and

the Cowboys’ every-week-is-Super Bowl mentality.

He’s effectively presided over one of the NFL’s best franchises for nearly two decades,

and while the Rooney family isn’t as publicly involved as Jones,

they’re far from a hands-off ownership group.

Being able to handle the media is especially important in a market like Dallas,

and it can be argued that no coach in the sport today is better at

being appropriately dismissive of any possible distractions while still putting a lid on internal difficulties.

The irony is that Tomlin’s Steelers lost Super Bowl XLV to the Packers, who were then coached by McCarthy.

And where did the game take place? What is currently known as AT&T Stadium in Dallas.

We are not suggesting Tomlin will be the Cowboys’ coach in 2025.

But that’s a fun rumor, and it would make for a great tale, and you can definitely see him succeeding at his job.

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