A timeline of the Mike Tomlin tenure as coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers:
Jan. 22, 2007
With team president Art Rooney II saying “Mike’s core values are a good match for our organization,” Tomlin’s introductory news conference as coach is staged at team headquarters on Pittsburgh’s South Side.
Sept. 9, 2007
The Steelers win Tomlin’s debut, 34-7 against the Cleveland Browns. He went 28-9-1 in the regular season in the Turnpike rivalry — never losing at home — but would notably lose a playoff game to Cleveland to end the Steelers’ 2020 season.
Jan. 5, 2008
Tomlin loses his first playoff game as coach, 31-29 to the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Steelers started that season 9-3 but lost four of their final five counting the postseason.
Jan. 18, 2009
A Troy Polamalu fourth-quarter interception return for a touchdown punctuates a 23-14 win against the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship game that followed a regular season in which the Steelers led the NFL in total defense and scoring defense.
Feb. 1, 2009
Six weeks shy of his 37th birthday, Tomlin becomes the youngest coach to lead a team to a Super Bowl win when the Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals in a thriller. Thirteen years later, the Los Angeles Rams’ Sean McVay eclipsed the record by about 10 months.
Feb. 6, 2011
Though the Steelers fell to 8-8 in the first non-playoff season of Tomlin’s career in 2009, they were AFC champions again for the 2010 season. They went 12-4 and beat the Ravens and New York Jets in the AFC playoffs but fell behind 21-3 in the first half of Super Bowl XLV. Though the Steelers pulled back to within three points, the Green Bay Packers held on. The MVP? A 27-year-old named Aaron Rodgers.
Jan. 8, 2012
The infamous “Tim Tebow Game” that marks an unofficial turning point for the Steelers franchise and the Tomlin tenure. The Steelers had played in eight of the previous 17 AFC championship games, including two in Tomlin’s first four seasons. After losing in overtime to the Tebow-led Denver Broncos in a wild-card game, though, the Steelers have in 15 seasons made just one title game.
Dec. 30, 2012
The Steelers win 24-10 at the Browns to wrap up their season in a game matching the bottom two teams in the AFC North. The game is notable because it goes down as the only one of the 329 Tomlin coached for the Steelers during which the team took the field knowing it was already eliminated from playoff contention.
Nov. 28, 2013
A Thanksgiving Day loss at the Ravens that severely damaged the Steelers’ playoff hopes is more remembered for Tomlin inadvertently tripping up Baltimore return man Jacoby Jones while Tomlin was on the field of play watching on the M&T Bank Stadium video board. The loss dropped the Steelers to 5-7, blunting a rally from an 0-4 start. The Steelers finished 8-8, eliminated three hours after capping a three-game winning streak to end their season.
Jan. 9, 2016
In the first season after the team parted ways with legendary defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau, the Steelers win a wild playoff game at Cincinnati when a pair of Bengals take personal foul penalties to put the Steelers into range for the winning field goal. Without stars Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell the following week, though, the Steelers lose at the eventual Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos in the divisional round.
Jan. 8, 2017
Chris Boswell kicks six field goals, and the Steelers beat the Chiefs, 18-16, in a divisional round playoff game delayed seven hours because of an ice storm in the Kansas City area. It remains the Steelers’ most recent postseason win. They lost the AFC Championship game at New England the following Sunday.
Sept. 15, 2019
Ben Roethlisberger suffers a season-ending elbow injury during the first half of the home opener, an event that ultimately leads to the Steelers’ second consecutive non-playoff season. Still, that the Steelers rebounded from a 1-4 start to get into position to earn a postseason berth down the stretch is viewed as one of Tomlin’s best jobs as coach. Undrafted rookie Devlin “Duck” Hodges made six starts that season.
Dec. 2, 2020
The Steelers improve to 11-0 with a snoozer of a 19-14 win against the Ravens played on a Wednesday afternoon — delayed multiple times from Thanksgiving six days prior — in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic. The Steelers lose five of their next six to close out the season, including the humiliating home playoff loss to Cleveland.
Jan. 16, 2022
Roethlisberger plays his final NFL game, a 42-21 playoff loss in Kansas City. With his retirement left the final vestige of the Bill Cowher era, and it left Tomlin without the security blanket he’d had over his first 15 seasons as an NFL coach — a future Hall of Fame quarterback.
March 15, 2024
Tomlin’s first big swing at replacing Roethlisberger was 2022 first-round pick Kenny Pickett — and on this date, the Steelers officially punted on the Pickett experiment via a trade to the Philadelphia Eagles. Pickett went 14-12 as a starter for the Steelers but had a historically low touchdown rate (1.8% of his passes) and threw as many interceptions (13) as touchdowns as a Steeler.
June 6, 2025
After cycling through Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, Mason Rudolph, Russell Wilson and Justin Fields at points over the 2023-2024 seasons, the Steelers sign Rodgers after a prolonged spring flirtation. Rodgers is open about his admiration for Tomlin factoring into his decision to join the team. Rodgers shows flashes of his four-time NFL MVP form — but also spurts of play looking like a 42-year-old past his prime — in helping the Steelers to their 13th playoff berth, eighth division title and 19th non-losing season of Tomlin’s 19-year tenure.
Jan. 13, 2026
A day after the Steelers’ playoff losing streak is extended to seven with a 30-6 loss to the Houston Texans, Tomlin steps down as coach. He leaves tied with one of his Hall of Fame predecessors, Chuck Noll, in ninth place in NFL history with 193 regular-season wins. But after winning five of his first six playoff games, Tomlin went 3-11 in the postseason over the remainder of his Steelers tenure.