Peter Schrager: ‘There’s a chair waiting’ for Mike Tomlin on TV

All eyes will turn to Pittsburgh on Sunday night when the hometown Steelers take on the Baltimore Ravens to decide the AFC North champion and the final AFC spot in the postseason.

And while the game is quite intriguing on the field, many in the media are already discussing the implications the game will have off the field. Earlier this week, for instance, ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter suggested that the coach that loses this game — be it Steelers coach Mike Tomlin or Ravens coach John Harbaugh — could find themselves either on a different sideline next season, or in front of a camera.

Now, another ESPN personality is endorsing this possibility, at least for Tomlin. On Wednesday’s edition of First Take, ESPN NFL analyst Peter Schrager suggested “there’s a chair waiting” for Mike Tomlin on television should he ultimately decide to take a break from coaching.

“Having worked at Fox, having worked at NFL Network, and now here at ESPN, there’s a chair waiting … for Mike Tomlin to make a lot of money talking football if he so wishes.”

– Peter Schrager on the possibility of Mike Tomlin taking a TV job pic.twitter.com/EVR86anOMj

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 31, 2025

“Having worked in the TV game for quite some bit, I will tell you, having worked at Fox, having worked at NFL Network, and now here at ESPN, there is a chair waiting — whether it be in the booth or on one of these wonderful, warm, weather-controlled sets — for Mike Tomlin to make a lot of money talking football if he so wishes for a year. Or, he can pick his spot of open vacant jobs,” Schrager said.

Now, Schrager is far from the first person to suggest Tomlin could have a very lucrative career in television if he wanted. Those rumors have been circulating for years. But Schrager does bring experience at numerous outlets to the table, and he’s probably had discussions with executives at each place about who is on their broadcaster “wish list.” No doubt, Tomlin would go in the first round of any fantasy broadcasting draft.

The question, as it has always been, is whether or not Tomlin wants that life. He’s been a head coach in the NFL for nearly two decades. He’s had any number of opportunities to jump into a career in media, but so far he’s always chosen to coach football.

At this point, maybe these rumors are what they are: fantasies from network executives.