‘I could see Tomlin taking a breather’: Could Mike Tomlin really walk away from Steelers and take a year off?

Mike Tomlin has the Pittsburgh Steelers back on top of the AFC North at 7-6, the firing talk has cooled off, and on the surface it looks like a normal December in Pittsburgh. Behind the scenes, it is anything but calm. Between a contract option that runs through 2027, whispers about his camp leaking details, and new chatter that he might step away like Mike Vrabel did, Tomlin’s future is suddenly a real conversation again. At the same time, his name is being thrown around in Michigan rumors while the Wolverines scramble to replace Sherrone Moore after firing him for an “inappropriate relationship” with a staffer. The first wave of speculation around Tomlin was simple: would the Steelers finally fire him if this season went bad. That talk cooled after Pittsburgh beat the Baltimore Rave