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Shortly after the\u00a0New York Giants\u00a0confirmed on Monday that they had\u00a0parted ways\u00a0with head coach Brian Daboll, some members of the NFL community linked the Giants with Mike Tomlin of the\u00a0Pittsburgh Steelers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tomlin signed a three-year contract extension in June 2024\u00a0that reportedly\u00a0pays him around $16M per year, meaning the Steelers will still hold his rights following the ongoing season. During a Wednesday appearance on Pittsburgh sports radio station 93.7 The Fan, Steelers insider Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette discussed whether or not the Giants could land Tomlin’s services via an offseason trade.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“In years past, the Steelers would never do that,” Fittipaldo explained, per\u00a0Ross McCorkle\u00a0of Steelers Depot. “They would never even listen to the offer. They wouldn’t even take the phone call. I can’t sit here and tell you that it’s 100 percent gonna be that way again, but I would tend to think it would be.”<\/p>\n
Rumors about\u00a0Tomlin’s future hovered over the Steelers last winter, even though there was never any real indication that Pittsburgh considered making a change. The Steelers have a history of not firing head coaches, as they’ve employed\u00a0just three\u00a0since 1969.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That said, Pittsburgh hasn’t notched a playoff victory under Tomlin since the 2016 season. The 2025 Steelers won four of their first five games but have since fallen to 5-4. Meanwhile, it’s unclear if quarterback Aaron Rodgers will retire after this season. Pittsburgh’s current QB1 turns 42 years old in December.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I don’t think they’ve lost faith in that building just because of a rough month here,” Fittipaldo added about how the Steelers view Tomlin. “I think something really bad would have to transpire in the last two months of the season for them to even consider that. From the Steelers’ perspective, I still don’t think that would be in play.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
That “something really bad” could involve the Steelers losing their hold of first place in the AFC North standings. The suddenly hot Baltimore Ravens are at 4-5 and are closing in on Pittsburgh, but the Steelers will have an opportunity to earn a win over a division opponent when they host the Cincinnati Bengals (3-6) this Sunday. As of Thursday morning, ESPN BET had Pittsburgh as a 5.5-point favorite for that matchup.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It would be just the\u00a0Browns\u2018 luck, wouldn\u2019t it, to have two first-round picks (one likely a Top 5 pick) in a 2026 NFL draft that has depth and quality at a number of positions \u2026 but not so much at quarterback. It\u2019s a legacy that stretches back more than three decades, the Browns\u2019 inability to draft and develop a top-line quarterback, and there is real fear that the 2026 draft might not be the one to help them much.<\/p>\n
Still, after five games of\u00a0Dillon Gabriel, and unless there is a late-season revelation on\u00a0Shedeur Sanders\u00a0as a future star, the Browns will need to pick a quarterback in six months. The pool might be slim, but at Cleveland.com, they\u2019ve got a path for the Browns to get a guy who has shown some toughness and grit\u2013and who happens to be 6-foot-5, a nice contrast to the diminutive Gabriel.<\/p>\n
The quarterback: Fernando Mendoza of undefeated Indiana.<\/p>\n
Now, it should be noted that the mock draft does feature a big break for the Browns, in that the team lands with the fourth pick and none of the Top 3 pick a quarterback. That\u2019s plausible, since two of the worst teams in the league\u2013the Titans and\u00a0Giants\u2013appear to have QB1s in place. A third, the\u00a0Saints, could decide they need to give last year\u2019s second-rounder,\u00a0Tyler Shough, a shot.<\/p>\n
So the Browns get the pick of the QB litter.<\/p>\n
Writes\u00a0Tim Bielik of Cleveland.com: \u201cMendoza right now is QB1 and his game-winning drive at Penn State on Saturday only solidified that standing. He has just about everything a quarterback needs except for an elite deep ball. Mendoza has taken the next step as a quarterback under Curt Cignetti and looks like the type of QB who could turn a team like the Browns back around quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is some debate on who is the top quarterback in this draft, with Ty Simpson of Alabama getting some of that attention, and Oregon\u2019s Dante Moore also in the mix. And the one worrying aspect of it all is that none of those three were considered sure-fire first-rounders heading into this season. If only Arch manning had lived up to his hype, this might be an easy call.<\/p>\n
Still, the Browns are unmistakably in the market for a quarterback, and Mendoza shines as a sort of anti-Gabriel\u2013big and strong, poised in the pocket, while being both accurate and willing to take risks down the field.\u00a0According to Pro Football Focus, Mendoza is not all that bad with the deep passes, completing 18 of his 33 passes of 20 yards or more this year.<\/p>\n
(Worth noting: Gabriel is 2-for-8 on such passes with the Browns thus far.)<\/p>\n
Mendoza\u2019s completion percentage (71.3%) is excellent, and he has racked up 2,342 yards on the season in 10 games. The only games in which he did not top 200 yards passing were blowouts against Old Dominion and UCLA.<\/p>\n
The good news for the Browns on their second first-rounder is that, should the team turn to more offensive help with that pick, there is a deep pool of first-round-worthy receivers on hand, and Cleveland should do what it can to pluck one of them.<\/p>\n
The Cleveland.com mock has them landing USC\u2019s Makai Lemon, who has been one of the most productive pass-catchers in college football. But Jordyn Tyson (Arizona State), Carnell Tate (Ohio State), Chris Bell (Louisville), and Denzel Boston (Washington) are also worth watching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Shortly after the\u00a0New York Giants\u00a0confirmed on Monday that they had\u00a0parted ways\u00a0with head coach Brian Daboll, some members of the NFL community linked the Giants with Mike Tomlin of the\u00a0Pittsburgh Steelers.\u00a0 Tomlin signed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t