For the first time, Mike Tomlin opened up about his decision to step down as the Pittsburgh Steelers’ head coach after 19 years in the role. Making his first media appearance on NBC Sunday ahead of Sunday’s game between the Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics, Tomlin shed light on his reasons to step away.

“It’s probably not an overnight decision,” he told Maria Taylor, “but it’s probably not something that I could articulate or share with people. There’s a loneliness with leadership. I just thought it was a good time for me personally. And by that I mean, just where I am in life.

“And I thought it was a good time for the organization to be quite honest with you. We didn’t have a lot of success in the playoffs in recent years. And there’s just some veteran players there, man, guys like Cam Heyward and T.J. Watt, and [Chris] Boswell, man, that I thought just were worthy of the excitement and the optimism associated with new leadership.”

In another portion of the interview, Tomlin said he believes Aaron Rodgers will return as Pittsburgh’s 2026 quarterback.

Hired in 2007, Tomlin found immediate success. He won a Super Bowl in his second year, becoming the youngest head coach at the time to hoist a Lombardi. He returned to the Super Bowl two years later, but lost to Mike McCarthy and the Green Bay Packers. Pittsburgh remained a Super Bowl contender for the next several seasons, but hit a wall beginning in 2017.

As Tomlin noted, his initially sterling playoff record began forming cracks. He lost his last seven playoff games, many in uncompetitive fashion, including a 30-6 loss to the Houston Texans. The game was close until the fourth quarter, when the Texans’ defense ended it in style.

It seems Tomlin felt what Steelers’ fans expressed. The franchise was stuck and stagnant and needed a new voice and energy. Tomlin once cited failure to get center Maurkice Pouncey a ring as among his biggest football regrets, and he didn’t want to do the same to Heyward, Watt, and company.

Tomlin’s decision wasn’t sudden, and it didn’t even come late in 2025. In January, Ronde Barber revealed that before the 2025 season began, Tomlin revealed he expected last year to be his final one coaching. For now, at least. Tomlin may return to coaching in 2027 or beyond. He told NBC he joined the media to stay close to the game and share his thoughts on football with a wide audience. He’ll become a studio analyst for Sunday night’s Football in America this fall.