Former Steelers coach Mike Tomlin reportedly will become NBC studio analyst

Brian Batko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Apr 21, 2026

Published in Football

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PITTSBURGH — He’s not going off the grid after all.

Former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin is set to join NBC as an in-studio analyst this NFL season on the pregame show for “Sunday Night Football,” according to a report Tuesday from The Athletic.

Tomlin’s future was the subject of much speculation when he stepped down from his Steelers post in January after 19 seasons. The NFL head coaching cycle came and went without Tomlin trying to get back into that mix, but now it appears he won’t just vanish from the public eye in 2026.

It was actually another Super Bowl champion coach and former Steeler, Tony Dungy, who was let go by NBC this offseason. That created a void for Tomlin, who’s poised to provide a new coaching voice and perspective.

Tomlin has yet to make any public comments since his departure from the Steelers, other than a brief speech accepting an honor at the Ireland Funds Gala last month at Acrisure Stadium. He has been seen popping up at his daughter Harley’s gymnastics meets at the University of Georgia and other sporting events.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see Tomlin, 54, pull off a career move similar to Sean Payton, who spent one season as a TV analyst after leaving the New Orleans Saints. Payton, who was in his late 50s then, jumped back into coaching with the Denver Broncos a year later and reached the AFC championship this past season.

“Everybody’s speculating,” former NFL head coach Ron Rivera told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after Tomlin stepped down. “One thing I’ll say, in retrospect for myself, after nine years in Carolina I probably should’ve taken a year [off]. I think, based on the fact that nothing’s going on right now, he’ll take the year, take a nice, deep breath, give himself a chance to reassess, and decide if he wants to get back into it or not.”

Rivera, who at 64 is now a college football general manager for California in the ACC, also has dabbled in media since he was fired by Washington following the 2023 season. Even way back in January, he suspected that Tomlin could find his way to a studio or a booth.

“Mike’s a tremendous orator, so he’s a guy that if he got on TV, he might be very good at it, as well,” Rivera said. “He’s very articulate. I think if Mike takes a year off, he’ll have a choice next year.”

Of course, even in relatively recent Steelers history, there’s precedent for a long-tenured coach to go the TV route and never look back. Bill Cowher was 49 when he resigned from the Steelers after 15 seasons, and the general consensus was that he’d take only a year off from coaching.

But to this day, Cowher is an analyst for CBS, and he’s never been back on the sideline.

In an interview with Rich Eisen prior to the wild-card playoff loss to Houston, Tomlin referred to himself as "institutionalized.”

“I gotta have it, you know?” Tomlin said on Eisen’s show. “I just love the challenges week in and week out that this job provides. … I’ve been on a team every year of my life, man, since 1980, so I just really appreciate it.”

We’ll see how much Tomlin appreciates life in TV, which comes with plenty of money and not nearly as much pressure. His daughter is the youngest of his three children and is a sophomore at Georgia, so she has two seasons left on the mat.

If Tomlin was burned out by the end of yet another up-and-down season, he now has the opportunity to recharge his batteries while keeping himself busy with football. The Tomlin-isms from his Tuesday afternoon and postgame news conferences will have a new home.

“Coach Tomlin is [the] right man for the job!” Steelers defensive lineman Cam Heyward posted on social media Tuesday, after news broke that Tomlin was headed to NBC.

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