Like or not, the Pittsburgh Steelers have hired Mike McCarthy as their next head coach.
McCarthy, the Pittsburgh native returns to the Steel City after sitting out a year following his dismissal as the Dallas Cowboys head coach following the 2024 season. Prior to that, McCarthy had coached the Green Bay Packers from 2006 to 2018, leading them to a Super Bowl win over the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV in 2010.
The old Steelers coach and the new Steelers coach. Photo Credit: AP, Tribune Review
In addition to beating the Steelers in the Super Bowl, McCarthy beat them in 2024 with the Cowboys and in 2021 with the Packers.
- So if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
Right?
I guess that’s how it works. One thing is for sure, Art Rooney II stuck to his word when he said he wasn’t looking to follow the same template his father and he followed in selecting Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin.
- McCarthy has an offensive background and he is not young, coming in at age 63.
The move is perplexing in a lot of ways, except perhaps for one.
Rooney, the Rosters and Perhaps Rodgers?
Credit Art Rooney II with something from the get go: He’s not willing to mail it in for a season for the sake of draft position. Seriously. Credit him for that.
As the Fantasy Football and Social Media General Manager mentalities have contaminated the conversation around professional football, the idea that losing is good for the sake of improving draft position has a lot of currency.
Who can forget (and who really debate the wisdom of) “Suck for Luck?”
One of the biggest arguments against retaining Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh has been, “He’s too good for his own sake. He coaxes out 9 and 10 win seasons out of talent that should only win 6 or 7 games so the Steelers are always drafting in the 20’s….”
- The argument’s appealing on paper.
- Probably was worked for many a Fantasy Football owner.
Yeah, well the Chicago Bears have drafted in the single digits for most of the last 10 years, and it’s taken them multiple head coaches, multiple general managers and multiple first-round quarterbacks to field a winning team that looks like it could be a sustainable contender.
Looked at through this lens the Steelers Mike McCarthy becomes easier to understand.
- He’s got 18 years of coaching experience and logged 174 wins.
He’s won in Green Bay, a stable franchise, and he’s posted 3 back-to-back 12 win seasons in Dallas, where Jerry Jones takes pride in meddling.
A simple way to interpret Art Rooney II’s decision to hire McCarthy is a vote of confidence in the Steelers current roster. For all of the talk about the age of the Steelers roster, a good chunk of that is coming from Cam Heyward and Aaron Rodgers pulling up the average.
They also appear to have a good core of young, talent that’s still has plenty of upside (even if the loss to the Texans made clear that the offensive line needs more time to mature.) Clearly, the Steelers need to bolster their wide receiving corps and stabilize their secondary.
But the idea that they have a roster, outside of the quarterback position, that can win in the near future is plausible, even if it is not necessarily probable.
- But the Steelers lack a quarterback.
McCarthy has a good track record with quarterbacks, but unless McCarthy is truly a magician, Mason Rudolph and Will Howard don’t exactly channel the 2026 version of Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers.
Ah, yes, Aaron Rodgers. When he was with the Jets, he reportedly said he would continue playing for McCarthy. Perhaps this improves his chances of returning.
Aaron Rodgers Runs it In. Photo Credit: Jared Wickerham, Steelers.com
If so, the Steelers should welcome the prospect — Rodgers is clearly better than any quarterback to suit up since Ben Roethlisberger retired….
…But one would have to hope that 73 year-old Art Rooney II didn’t hire a 63-year-old coach with the hope of tempting a 43-year-old quarterback to play for one more year.
Must Be McCarthy, Then Why Now?
The timing of the Steelers decision is also a head-scratcher. The Los Angeles Rams have two candidates that the Steelers interviewed coaching in the NFC Championship game. Both are highly regarded.
Why not at least wait until the game is over and maybe have a shot at interviewing them in person? Its not like anyone was beating down the door to hire McCarthy before the Steelers could.
As Alan Saunders argues, the decision to pull the trigger on McCarthy now, represents a process breakdown at a minimum.
So, the Mike McCarthy Era of Steelers Football Begins…
Like it or not, Mike McCarthy is now head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He’s the first coaching-retread the franchise hired since Art Rooney Sr. brought Bubby Parker to Pittsburgh in the late 50’s.
McCarthy’s track record suggest that he brings a certain floor to the Steelers in terms of ensuring an ability to contend. But the fear here, as well as parts elsewhere is that he also might come with a ceiling.
In picking Mike McCarthy, might be breaking from precedent established with the last three coaching hires, but he’s clearly also opting against striking out in a bold, new direction.
Art Rooney II grew up watching his grandfather badly run a football team and then got to see his father excel at running a football team. He’s been an NFL executive since the Steelers 1992 season. He’s actively participated in 2 head coaching searches that have resulted in 4 Super Bowl appearances and brought 2 Lombardi’s back to Pittsburgh.
- Clearly he knows “a little bit” more than I do about what makes a good NFL head coach and how to identify one.
I sincerely hope that he’s right about McCarthy and that I and the rest of the skeptics are wrong.
