Mike Tomlin addresses rumors linking him to Redskins head coaching job

The Washington Redskins are supposedly planning to make a run at Mike Tomlin now that they have fired head coach Jay Gruden, but Tomlin insists any speculation about him leaving the Pittsburgh Steelers is the furthest thing from his mind at the moment.

While speaking with reporters on Tuesday, Tomlin noted that his team is 1-4 and trying to prepare a third-string quarterback for a primetime game against the Los Angeles Chargers. In other words, he has enough on his mind already.

Tomlin asked about being a preferred candidate for the Redskins job:

“I'm the head coach of a 1-4 football team that's going on the road to play a Hall of Fame quarterback with a third-string quarterback. Do you think I'm worried about anything other than that?”

— Brooke Pryor (@bepryor) October 8, 2019

It seems highly unlikely that Tomlin will be fired by the Steelers during or after a season in which Ben Roethlisberger underwent surgery, and it’s hard to imagine him preferring Washington over Pittsburgh. However, Redskins owner Dan Snyder reportedly has Tomlin at the top of his list, so it remains to be seen how enthusiastically he might pursue the 47-year-old coach.

The Steelers have stuck by Tomlin through rumblings that some important people wanted to push him out, and Pittsburgh is viewed as a model organization while Washington has become a laughing stock. Tomlin voluntarily leaving the Steelers to coach the Redskins would be career suicide.