Steelers Now
For now, Mike Tomlin plans to stick to his new gig as a broadcaster. Fans will see the former longtime Pittsburgh Steelers head coach on NBC’s “Football Night in America,” breaking down the day’s gridiron action as only he can.
Cam Heyward, who’d played for Tomlin since 2011, asked former Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden what it would take for another team to extract Tomlin’s rights from the Steelers.
“You saw Sean Payton do that just recently,” Gruden said Wednesday on the “Not Just Football” podcast. “It was a first-round pick, I think, the Broncos gave up to get him. I think coaching matters. Of course, you’re talking to an ex-coach. … Because that head coach is gonna hire a group of coaches, and that really is huge. The player development is bigger now than it ever has been before. Most of these college players that we’re getting today, they’re not finished products, man, for a lot of different reasons.”
According to ESPN’s Bill Barnwell, the Steelers don’t even have a player on their current roster right now that would be worth more than a first-round pick in a trade. Gruden believes his former assistant coach would fit that bill.
“If you get a guy like Mike Tomlin, you know he’s gonna hire a good group of coaches and he’s gonna develop players. That’s worth a lot more than a first-round pick if you ask me,” Gruden said.
Ronde Barber, who played under both Gruden and Tomlin in Tampa Bay, believes the latter — a close friend of his — is done coaching for good.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: What Would It Take to Trade For Ex-Steelers HC Mike Tomlin?
