Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has a personality that makes him a coach a lot of players want to play for. Tomlin finished second behind Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell in a survey of what coaches NFL players most wanted to play for, and multiple players have cited playing for Tomlin as a factor for why they came to Pittsburgh. One of those players was recent free agent signee Darius Slay, who had former Seattle Seahawks All-Pro CB Richard Sherman on his Big Play Slay podcast. On the show, Sherman said he always wanted to play for Tomlin.

“You about to get to play for Mike man, that’s going to be cool,” he said. “That’s something that I kind of always wanted to do.”

Sherman spent the first seven years of his career playing for the Seattle Seahawks under Pete Carroll, winning a Super Bowl and making four All-Pro teams, including three times as a first-team All-Pro. His first foray into free agency came ahead of 2018, when he signed with the San Francisco 49ers and spent three seasons there before finishing his career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Steelers certainly could’ve used Sherman, as cornerback was a consistent weakness for Pittsburgh while Sherman was playing some of his best football. It was never a realistic possibility for him to come to Pittsburgh, as the Steelers under Kevin Colbert often avoided big free agency signings and there was never any buzz connecting Sherman to the Steelers.

Sherman’s desire to play for Tomlin does speak to the idea that the Steelers could be a major beneficiary of their new rule proposal, which passed and allows teams to hold Zoom calls with pending free agents during the legal tampering period ahead of the start of the new league year. With Tomlin a coach players want to play under, getting face time with him as they make their free agency decision could be crucial for Pittsburgh landing those players.

A former GM told FOX Sports’ Jordan Schultz that coaches like Tomlin will have an advantage with the new rule, and it could lead to the Steelers pulling in a better haul of free agents down the line. While they never really got the chance to make a move with Sherman, GM Omar Khan has been more aggressive in free agency and via trade, and maybe the Steelers down the line can pull in a top free agent who wants to play for Mike Tomlin.