Tim Benz: Mike Tomlin's abrupt press conference exit felt calculated. So what's he calculating?

By now, you’ve probably seen Mike Tomlin walking off the podium mid-question to end his press conference following the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 31-17 playoff loss in Buffalo on Monday.

Tomlin was about to be asked about his contract status as he heads into his final year of his deal when he abruptly exited stage left.

"Mike, you have a year left on your contract…"

Mike Tomlin: ???? ✌???? pic.twitter.com/ouAncRXTzy

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 16, 2024

To me, that felt calculated. I’m sure Tomlin expected the question, and he expected to give that response.

I’m not so sure what the calculation is. But I think I have a pretty good idea.

It could be that he was trying to deflect attention away from his players — a defense that struggled against the Bills’ attack, an offense with a quarterback situation in a state of flux heading into the offseason. Maybe Tomlin was intentionally shifting the spotlight on himself to take the heat off his players.

That sounds convenient and cozy. I’ve got a more likely theory, though.

Tomlin is obviously savvy enough and informed enough to know that such a question might be asked given that Fox, ProFootballTalk and ESPN have all aired reports during the course of the week that Tomlin may at least consider leaving the Steelers by his choice and take a year off from coaching. That would allow him to—potentially with compensation for the Steelers—shop his skills to the rest of the NFL.

If his intent is truly 100% to stay in Pittsburgh and extend his contract, the easy thing for him to say in that situation is, “We’re 10 minutes out from our season ending. There will be time for me to address that at our annual season-ending interaction later this week. I’ve got no interest in talking about such matters at this juncture.”

I know. It’s like he really said it himself, right? If Tomlin wanted to tamp down a narrative, he knows how to do that.

He also knows acting completely out of character will do nothing of the sort. Stomping off the stage — a move I can’t remember Tomlin ever doing — does nothing but exacerbate the conversation about what he may be thinking.

Frankly, I’m guessing that’s exactly what he wants.

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What Tomlin has done now is ramp up speculation and conversation. It’ll get all of the national network media shills who work as his off-the-books public relations representatives to start pounding the drum on his behalf.

All the hot-take national TV shows will be littered with monologues about how stupid the Steelers would be to let him go and how dumb Art Rooney II would be to go a single day without backing up the Brinks truck to keep him as the Steelers coach.

Of course, that’s completely ignoring the fact that the Steelers are now seven years removed from their last playoff win and are currently on a five-game playoff blow-out, losing streak.

But, hey, it makes them look enlightened because, as you may not be aware, Mike Tomlin has never had a losing season. Hence, that’s the script they read.

When the Steelers were at 7-7, having lost to three straight non-playoff teams, this isn’t the posture Tomlin took. During those weeks, he was all about accountability and heaping the blame on himself.

Interestingly, this week, between the Steelers’ three-game win streak to rise from the ashes and become the No. 7 seed in the AFC playoffs, that’s when all the national reports started to trickle out about how Tomlin may want to take some time off or reevaluate his situation in Pittsburgh.

What timing. What a coincidence. “Oh no, Coach T! Please don’t go. How could the Steelers ever field a team without you?”

It couldn’t possibly be that Tomlin’s representation floated such a possibility to Adam Schefter talking about how much “his wife likes Los Angeles,” could it? It couldn’t possibly be that Tomlin dropped that hint directly to his media BFF Jay Glazer to get this ball rolling and start driving up his price for a contract extension, could it?

If you went online after the loss in Buffalo on Monday night, there was more chatter about Tomlin in the wake of his little performance theater routine at the podium than there was the result of the game itself.

He may not be a coaching commodity yet, but the internet is certainly starting to speak that prospect into existence.

Hey, it worked with me. I’m writing about it. Guilty as charged.

Or, Tomlin just felt himself losing his cool at a question he didn’t like and felt was ill-timed, so he ducked out before he really snapped and made himself look bad. That could be true too.

But Tomlin is too smart for that. He’s too prepared for situations like this. Whether it’s questions about college coaching jobs or QB depth charts, Tomlin knows how he wants to portray himself in the public eye.

He may not be as expeditious as he often thinks he is. But he’s got a game plan.

For his sake, whatever it is, I hope it works out better for him than any of the game plans the Steelers have cooked up in their last five playoff games.