If you are someone like me, you embrace the idea of a Steelers head coaching change.

And if you are someone like me, you would have preferred to see Mike Munchak get the job. But that ship has sailed.

That's not going to happen. It was never going to happen. Tomlin would have had to go 0-16. The whole team would have had to fail to show up for practice before the Bengals finale. And then maybe — maybe — Art Rooney II would've considered firing his coach.

But probably not. Perhaps he would've at least acknowledged that his team is a "circus."

Despite plodding through six of the last eight seasons without a playoff victory, it's safe to assume Rooney will give Tomlin a contract extension.

That's just what the Steelers do. Or better said, don't do.

Rooneys don't fire coaches. Since Chuck Noll got hired in 1969, we've come closer to seeing a president — or two or three — impeached than we have seen a Steelers coach fired.

Traditionally, Steelers head coaches tend to get a contract extension two years removed from the end of their deal. Tomlin's is up in 2020. So, by Steelers standards, he's up now.

If Tomlin doesn't get an extension this year, in the Rooney universe, he's entering a make-or-break campaign. The way the Steelers tend to do things: two years out becomes the de facto lame duck year.

And Rooney won't let Tomlin languish in that "uncertainty." Or, better said, that Steeler-coaching interpretation of the word.

"Those things we'll get to sort of later in the offseason,'' Rooney said of a new deal for his coach. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

Which bridge? There's a lot of them in this town. And they are often under construction.

Much like Tomlin's defense.

But when Tomlin does inevitably get his contract extension in the upcoming months, I'm not going to get bent out of shape about it. Because it really doesn't matter.

It's not like Tomlin's salary counts against the cap. It's just Rooney's money. And he has plenty of that.

Heck, he just gave Ryan Shazier $8.7 million out of the kindness of his heart. And, because he's a good person, he's probably going to keep paying Shazier for the foreseeable future.

For as loyal as Rooney is — and he is — he's still a businessman. Just understand, Rooney's loyalty to Tomlin is in the dollars. Not the years.

If the Steelers bomb in 2019, it's not as if Tomlin can't get fired. He won't. But it's not like he can't.

If Tomlin isn't going to get fired this year, he might as well get an extension, because otherwise he is going to look like a lame duck. Even when he wasn't a lame duck these past two years, players such as Antonio Brown and James Harrison walked all over him. Imagine what players of lesser standing will do to him if it becomes clear the organization isn't showing support consistent to its normal process.

I see the likely extension of Tomlin as a formality. Nothing more. It means nothing of substance for his future.

Or his departure.

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