Mike Tomlin Shares Some Warning Signs The Season Could Be Heading In The Wrong Direction, Including ‘Player Only Meetings’

Mike Tomlin spent 19 seasons managing an NFL locker room, and he has a strong opinion on what it means when players lock coaches out of the room to fix problems themselves.

Appearing on the latest episode of the New Heights podcast, Jason Kelce asked Tomlin what goes through a head coach’s head when his team calls a players-only meeting. Tomlin didn’t need long to respond.

“I think you’re dead,” Tomlin said. “When you have player-only meetings, it doesn’t feel good,” he shared, pointing to his heart.

“Hey, if this happened, I’d like to not hear about it. The fact that you’re hearing about it is what makes it BS, you know what I mean? Like, ‘We had a players-only meeting.'”

Kelce agreed, calling these meetings “just a formality” once nothing else is working.

The question was not hypothetical. On October 12, the Dallas Cowboys defense held a players-only meeting at the Star in Frisco following a 24-16 home loss to a Tampa Bay team that ended 0-4. Linebacker DeMarvion Overshown told reporters the group went over its standards “bullet by bullet.”

Dallas is currently 2-3 under Brian Schottenheimer, who called Tampa Bay’s loss a “growing pain.” The defense ranks 31st in the league in total defense at 395.4 yards per game and dead last against the run at 168.4 yards per game. The Cowboys recently brought Mike Pettine out of retirement as a senior defensive assistant, with first-year defensive coordinator Christian Parker taking to the booth on game days.

“We’re going to coach defense not on the field, but above it,” Jerry Jones said.

This is the second time in three weeks that Tomlin has targeted the Cowboys’ defensive unit. After Dallas played Baltimore on September 27, he called the Cowboys’ defense “somewhat sloppy” during coverage of NBC’s Sunday Night Football.

Earlier in the clip, Tomlin heard his take on “combustible personalities” on the sidelines, and how, when the conversations stop and there are a bunch of closed office doors around the establishment, “you’re dead.”

Tomlin resigned in Pittsburgh on January 13, 2026, a day after the Steelers’ 30-6 loss to Houston in the Wild Card round. He came away with 193 regular season wins, tied with Chuck Noll for the franchise record, a Super Bowl XLIII title, another Super Bowl appearance and something no other coach in the league could match: 19 seasons without a losing record. He has since joined NBC’s Football Night in America panel, taking the seat occupied by Tony Dungy.

Tomlin built his reputation on a locker room that policed ​​itself without needing to announce it. His problem is not that the players talk to each other. These are players talking to the media and talking to each other. Once a meeting hits the headlines, it feels less like a liability and more like a signal that the normal management chain isn’t getting it done.

Anyone who has coached at any level has seen a version of this. The best teams I’ve been around conduct their business in the locker room every day, and no one outside the building ever knows it happened. When the meeting itself becomes a story, the problem usually runs deeper than poor performance.

Dallas has the chance to prove Tomlin wrong Sunday night in Green Bay, with Tomlin on the NBC set.

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