Mike Tomlin spent 19 seasons managing an NFL locker room, and he has a firm opinion on what it means when the players lock the coaches out of the room to sort things out themselves.
He's not a fan.
Appearing on the latest episode of the New Heights podcast, Jason Kelce asked Tomlin what goes through a head coach's mind when his team calls a players-only meeting. Tomlin didn't need long to answer.
"I think you are dead," Tomlin said. "When you're having players only meetings, it doesn't feel good," he shared, pointing to his heart.
"Hey, if it did occur, I'd like not to hear about it. The fact that you hear about it is what makes it BS, you know what I mean? Like, 'We had a players-only meeting.'"
Kelce agreed, calling those meetings "just a formality" once nothing else is working.
The question wasn't hypothetical. On October 12, the Dallas Cowboys defense held a players-only meeting at The Star in Frisco after a 24-16 home loss to a Tampa Bay team that came in 0-4. Linebacker DeMarvion Overshown told reporters the group went through its standards "bullet point by bullet point."
Dallas currently sits at 2-3 under Brian Schottenheimer, who called the Tampa Bay loss "growing pains." 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 moving up to the booth on game days.
"We're going to coach the defense from not on the field, but up above," Jerry Jones said.
This is the second time in three weeks Tomlin has taken aim at the Cowboys defensive unit. After Dallas played Baltimore on September 27, he called the Cowboys defense "somewhat negligent" during NBC's Sunday Night Football coverage.
Earlier in the clip, Tomlin was provided his take on "combustible personalities" on the sidelines, and how when conversations stop, and there's a bunch of closed office doors around the facility, "you're dead."
Tomlin stepped down in Pittsburgh on January 13, 2026, one day after the Steelers lost 30-6 to Houston in the Wild Card round. He left 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 over the seat Tony Dungy held.
Tomlin built his reputation on a locker room that policed itself without needing to announce it. His issue isn't players talking to each other. It's players talking to the media about talking to each other. Once a meeting becomes a headline, it reads less like accountability and more like a signal that the normal chain of leadership 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 handle their business in the locker room every day, and nobody outside the building ever knows it happened. When the meeting itself becomes the story, the problem usually runs deeper than one bad performance.
Dallas gets a chance to prove Tomlin wrong on Sunday night at Green Bay, with Tomlin on the NBC set.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.