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PITTSBURGH -- Mike Tomlin approached the throng of Pittsburgh Steelers supporters standing outside the tunnel to the visiting locker room on Sunday, sunglasses unable to hide his gleeful intensity.
"What's up? What's up!" the longtime Steelers coach said over and over again while handing out emphatic hand slaps to players and assistants after a 15-10 victory over Cleveland that pushed his team's record to 4-3.
The win also moved Tomlin's career regular-season victory total to 149, the same number his predecessor -- recently minted Hall of Famer Bill Cowher -- racked up over the same number of seasons (15) in Pittsburgh.
Their resumes are strikingly similar. Both Cowher and Tomlin have been to two Super Bowls. Both have won one. Cowher's teams reached the playoffs 10 times. Tomlin is at nine and counting, with Pittsburgh -- despite an offense that remains very much a work in progress -- in the mix for a 10th at the season's midway point. Tomlin's next losing season with the Steelers will be his first.
This is why the speculation bafflingly trafficked as "news" during the team's bye week that Tomlin's name was on the radar for open jobs at places such LSU and USC was "a joke" to him. It's why his "never say never, but never" response when asked about the possibility of leaving a franchise that changes coaches once a generation -- if that -- went viral.
Tomlin signed a contract extension in April that runs through 2024, a tacit agreement from the front office that the 49-year-old has earned the right to see what he can do after quarterback Ben Roethlisberger retires -- whenever that may be. Tomlin wasn't kidding when he said he has one of the best jobs in professional sport. One of the most stable too.
While outside sentiment on his coaching acumen can swing from week to week and season to season -- a quick scan of social media on Sunday nights and Monday mornings in the fall consistently reveals that there's a segment that still thinks he's not up to the gig regardless of the result -- make no mistake: Tomlin remains very much in control of his locker room and his team.
Having a quarterback destined for the Hall of Fame helps. So does having a dose of humility. Tomlin's decision to call for a fake field goal late in the first half of a tie game on Sunday turned disastrous.
The Browns weren't fooled when kicker Chris Boswell started running to his right with the ball in his hands. Boswell's fluttering pass to nowhere fell incomplete and Boswell was lost for the afternoon after getting drilled by Cleveland's Jordan Elliott, a hit that landed Boswell in the concussion protocol.
"I shouldn't have called it unless we were ready to run it with detailed execution and it's obvious that we weren't," Tomlin said. "That's on me."
Ultimately, it didn't matter. The defense kept Cleveland's running game in check. Rookies Najee Harris and Pat Freiermuth scored highlight-reel touchdowns. Roethlisberger made plays when he had to.
And a season that looked on the version of being lost at 1-3 has the Steelers and their equal parts fiery and stoic coach in the mix heading into November, just as always.
Maybe it'll work out this season. Maybe it won't. Tomlin isn't getting ahead of himself, a painful lesson he's learned through the years. Yet he remains as hyper-focused on the task in Pittsburgh now as he was the day in January 2007 when he replaced Cowher as a relatively unknown 34-year-old.
"It is days like (Sunday) that give you an indication of what you could be," he said. "We'll continue to write that story positively or negatively, but today was a good day."
INGRAM TRADED
PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Steelers traded veteran outside linebacker Melvin Ingram to Kansas City on Tuesday for a sixth-round pick in the 2022 draft.
The teams made the announcement a few hours before the NFL's trade deadline.
The move gives Kansas City's struggling defense some much-needed help and gives the 32-year-old Ingram a chance to start over.
Ingram signed a one-year contract with the Steelers in July but saw his playing time decrease in recent weeks. He sat out last Sunday's win over Cleveland with what the team called a groin injury amid reports that Ingram was hoping to be traded elsewhere.
"I enjoy working with Melvin," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said Tuesday. "It just didn't work out the way we envisioned, the way he envisioned. And sometimes it happens in free agency."
Tomlin did not confirm that Ingram asked to be moved, but hinted Ingram had become dissatisfied in recent weeks.
"It's better to have volunteers as opposed to hostages," Tomlin said.
Ingram spent the first nine years of his career with the Los Angeles Chargers before joining the Steelers on the eve of training camp. He played a fair amount early in the season while Steelers star T.J. Watt and second-year outside linebacker Alex Highsmith dealt with injuries.
Ingram's snaps declined as October wore on. He was on the field for just 17 plays during a win over Seattle on Oct. 17 before sitting against the Browns.
The Steelers promoted Taco Charlton from the practice squad to the active roster on Sunday. Charlton was a 2017 first-round pick by the Cowboys, whom the Steelers signed to the practice squad in September.
Charlton did not have a tackle while playing 10 snaps, but impressed Tomlin enough to earn a spot on the 53-man roster Tuesday after Ingram was sent to Kansas City.
The Chiefs (4-4) are tied for last in the AFC West as the season nears the midway point thanks in large part to a defense that is struggling to get stops. Kansas City is 29th in the league in yards allowed and has just 11 sacks through eight games.