Pittsburgh Steelers: Report says Mike Tomlin will make decision on future after season
It has been an interesting season for the Steelers and head coach Mike Tomlin and discussions continue regarding his future.
In his 17th season, Tomlin is the NFL’s longest-tenured active head coach to never have a losing season. Pittsburgh won its last three games to make the playoffs, but that hasn’t ended speculation that Tomlin may not return for the 2024 season.
The Steelers are looking to extend Tomlin’s contract, but he has not yet made a decision about his future and will talk with his family after the season, Pro Football Talk reports. Tomlin still has one more year left on his current contract, and he has never entered the final year of a deal before signing an extension.
Other NFL media insiders have stated that Tomlin’s future for next season has not been decided.
“He has one year left on his contract,” ESPN’s Adam Schefter said, via Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “And there are some people around the league who believe that Mike Tomlin may eventually decide to take some time off like Sean Payton did. Maybe take a year off. … Mike Tomlin has to decide whether What happens here is, not the Pittsburgh Steelers. They’re not firing him. He’s staying, but he’s staying if he wants to. But if he decides he wants to walk, that’s a different subject is.”
Jay Glazer of Fox Sports agreed that the decision on whether Tomlin will return to Pittsburgh next season will be up to him.
“Mike Tomlin, a couple of weeks ago, people were telling him to leave. Are you kidding me?” Glazer said through Cook on Fox. “He’s never had a losing season. Mike Tomlin, it’ll be his choice whether he goes back to the Steelers or not.”
Cleveland Browns: Kevin Stefanski says Deshaun Watson is Cleveland starter, unsure if Joe Flacco will return
Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski made it clear on Sunday that Deshaun Watson is the starting quarterback next season, despite Joe Flacco leading the Browns to the playoffs.
Watson suffered a season-ending shoulder injury on November 12 against the Ravens, but Stefanski said Watson’s rehabilitation after surgery is going well and he is hopeful Watson will return to the field this spring.
“I’m confident he’ll be ready to roll this spring,” Stefanski said, via cleveland.com. “He’s chewing a little.”
Asked if he was going into the offseason with Watson as the starting quarterback, Stefanski said, “Right.”
Asked about the possibility of Watson and Flacco being on the roster together next season, Stefanski said that was a question for general manager Andrew Berry.
“I’ll obviously leave all of those things up to Andrew this offseason,” Stefanski said. “I will say this about Joe. Joe was amazing for this football team. He did a great job, fought like crazy. I know he enjoyed it. For Joe and what he was able to do I have a lot of respect.”
Flacco shared his thoughts on his performance in his final season with the Browns following Saturday’s playoff loss to the Texans. The 38-year-old Flacco and the Browns both have things to sort out this offseason, but the former Ravens quarterback enjoyed his time with Cleveland and said he wants to continue playing. He did not rule out the possibility of Watson returning as a backup.
“Listen, I love it here and we’ve been through a lot right now, just going through the emotions of this game and being in this position and coming up with blanks now, very excited,” Flacco said. “That’s where my head is at. Trying to soak it all in and let it digest a little bit.”
Cincinnati Bengals: Zac Taylor will reevaluate offseason approach, hoping to avoid another 0-2 start
The Bengals have started 0–2 over the past two seasons, with starting quarterback Joe Burrow missing significant time during training camp due to injury.
Burrow is expected to make a full recovery from wrist surgery before the start of next season. Despite Burrow’s timeline, head coach Zac Taylor said he will take a long look at how the Bengals prepare for next season, and hope to avoid another slow start.
“It’s something we’ll really have to look at and assess,” Taylor said, via Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. “How can we start over more quickly than we have in the last two years?
“Whether it’s changing the structure of the way we do things, these are all conversations we’ll have as we move forward because starting 0-2 and putting ourselves in a hole very quickly is obviously not the start we want to have.” We’re exploring. That’s something we have to evaluate and it’s not something we have to do today. But it’s something we have to do over the next six months. Make sure we get our team up to speed “Give us a chance to start over.”
