The Seattle Seahawks reached the destination Mike Tomlin knows well.
Now comes the part the former Pittsburgh Steelers coach believes can trip up a champion.
Tomlin, who won Super Bowl XLIII during his 19-year run in Pittsburgh, offered Seattle a pointed reminder during an appearance on “The Dan Patrick Show.” The Seahawks enter 2026 with the rare challenge of trying to repeat as Super Bowl champions.
“Sometimes when you’ve been to the destination recently, you want to hurry up and cut to the chase, and you absolutely can’t,” Tomlin said, according to a clip shared by “The Dan Patrick Show” on Sept. 3.
The message lands at an interesting time for Seattle. Its first regular-season game since hoisting the Lombardi Trophy comes Sept. 9 against the New England Patriots, the same team it beat 29-13 in Super Bowl LX.
Tomlin Knows the Trap Seahawks Are Trying to Avoid
Tomlin’s advice comes with experience Seattle can use.
The Pittsburgh Steelers went 12-4 in 2008 and won Super Bowl XLIII in Tomlin’s second season as head coach.
One year later, Pittsburgh finished 9-7 and missed the playoffs. The Steelers found their way back to the Super Bowl following the 2010 season, but the title defense never reached January.
That history gives Tomlin’s warning some import over a generic message about avoiding complacency. A championship can shorten the offseason, increase outside attention and make the end goal feel unusually close before the next season even begins.
Seattle is receiving the advice from Tomlin at a fitting moment in his own career. He stepped down after 19 seasons with Pittsburgh and joined NBC’s “Football Night in America,” where he will make his regular-season debut before the Seahawks-Patriots opener, via NBC Sports.
So, he’s currently in position to watch Seattle’s response up close.
The Seahawks will have no shortage of reminders about last season when they take the field. The championship banner, the national spotlight and the opponent all point backward. Tomlin’s point was that the work required to get there again still starts at the beginning.
Macdonald Sounds Like He’s Taking Tomlin’s Advice
Mike Macdonald has been pushing a similar message for months.
At the NFL annual meeting in March, Macdonald dismissed the idea that Seattle should enter 2026 thinking primarily about protecting its championship.
“That’s not a thing. We’re not defending anything,” Macdonald told Seahawks.com.
Macdonald instead described the upcoming season as a new journey for his team, a stance that goes neatly with Tomlin’s warning against rushing toward another February finish.
Seattle has plenty worth carrying over.
The Seahawks went a franchise-best 14-3 in the regular season and earned the NFC’s No. 1 seed en route to a dominant Super Bowl victory over New England.
Macdonald’s defense allowed the fewest points in the NFL last season as well.
The standard is different now. Seattle spent much of 2025 establishing itself as a championship-caliber team, so this season begins with the league measuring the Seahawks against the trophy they raised in February.
The challenge is separating those accomplishments from what comes next.
The NFL gave Seattle a paltry amount of time to ease into that exercise, with a Super Bowl rematch in Week 1 naturally inviting comparisons and questions about whether the Seahawks can do it again.
Tomlin’s advice cuts through all of that.
Seattle knows where the road can end, and Macdonald’s job is making sure his team is willing to travel every part of it again.
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