Steelers hiring McCarthy

[Superman]

If they said no, we can't blame them. We have no QB worth a **** in house, but to assume they did is conjecture. Nobody was hiring McCarthy before the SB plays out to play devil's advocate, even if that's the case. IF they said no. I'd take a chance on Kubiak over who we got though, he won't be 70 years old in a few years. The Rooney's in charge now suck.

exactly. We should have waited to see how today's games played out before rushing to the podium to announce the geezer hire. McCarthy would still be found at the local Dunkin Donuts next week, if we missed out on Shula, Scheelhaase or Kubiak.

but since this is done ... speculation should now be on who the OC and DC will be.

Sucks - or may not - that we go through this again in 5 years.

 

[deljzc]

I think what I am most uninspired about it that this hire represents the same mentality of just trying to squeeze out as many wins as possible and not any type of long-term planning on how to make a great team.

It's like every hand in this situation is just out for themselves. Omar is going to keep milking old players to make sure he doesn't get fired. McCarthy just want to make sure he isn't "worse" than Tomlin and not have a "losing season' (like that means anything). I think even the players just care about keeping their cushy paychecks and starting spots.

I just don't and haven't seen any type of "cohesive" plan in this organization for ages. They might be leader of "men" but the "organization" is actually the most important part. If we anen't putting the company ahead of each individual employee, then it doesn't work. And that attitude starts with the CEO/President and what he demands.

It's just such a "blah" hire.

Again.... this entire off-season is turning into some fool's gold obsession of just winning a playoff game (again, like that means anything in the scheme of things), instead of understanding that winning playoff games is a byproduct of doing EVERYTHING ELSE RIGHT.

Lots of hope and no plans in this organization.

We will see. I'm still more excited than I was 2 weeks ago. But I'm certainly not as excited as I should be.

 

[SteelerFan448]

There's speculation on the Twitters that the Rams' assistants may have wanted a McVay type coaching staff, with separate run and pass game coordinators and in general, a much larger staff than the Steelers are willing to pay, and that's why the Steelers didn't continue to pursue them.

I've seen us compared to the Browns in this thread, but they're interviewing Scheelhaase next. This would be something the Bengals would do. Oof.

DK brought that up in a podcast. I'm guessing whether it was DK or another insider someone brought it up and everyone ran with it. Btw, the Steelers should modernize their approach.

 

[bermudasteel]

exactly. We should have waited to see how today's games played out before rushing to the podium to announce the geezer hire. McCarthy would still be found at the local Dunkin Donuts next week, if we missed out on Shula, Scheelhaase or Kubiak.

but since this is done ... speculation should now be on who the OC and DC will be.

Sucks - or may not - that we go through this again in 5 years.

 

[slashsteel]

I didn’t arrive to the party till about 10 pages into this thread yesterday as I worked and didn’t even know about the hiring. To me,this was about the worst candidate they could hire among their interviews.

Now,that being said,I’ve read through all the comments. I truly hope Mike McCarthy hasn’t read this thread. I mean he’s one of Pittsburgh’s own stories. Because the hatred of this sign is quite evident. Of course now that it’s official I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. I’ve said for many years now whether it was for CMT or now CMM it was The owners decision. The verbiage should be directed to him.

Diving a little deeper here for me I think there was a huge opportunity to wipe away the stink that has happened regularly to this once proud organization the last 7+ years. The fans needed a breath of fresh air. CMM is not that. Perhaps it’s unfair to him but I think we were all ready for a bright young mind to come along,not another retread. It was a chance to wipe the slate clean. Do a reboot.
I will be able to tell exactly the way this organization is going by the way of the announcement of our next starting QB.

By the way….i know CMT made 16 million. I’m sure our new Mike will make about 10-11 million. I never read anywhere that he was in demand. Will Rooney pocket these savings or put the $$$$ into hiring quality assistants.

He will pocket it of course. Their hires will continue to be underwhelming.

Perhaps if they would have had a legitimate search and not hired an old buddy there would be more to be encouraged about.

 

[slashsteel]

if true this would be very dissapointing. A stale franchise with little hopes of been great ever again

Or at least until Rooney steps down.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

I tired myself out yesterday complaining about this hire.
Now that it's a new day, I have more of a 'meh' attitude.
Am I coming around or just getting comfortable in my sadness?

I lower my expectations to match reality.
For example:
If McCarthy wins a playoff game within 9 years it would be an improvement.
If he loses a playoff game by less than double digits it would be an improvement.

 

[slashsteel]

I lower my expectations to match reality.
For example:
If McCarthy wins a playoff game within 9 years it would be an improvement.
If he loses a playoff game by less than double digits it would be an improvement.

I dunno two of those matchups looked like playoff blowouts where he probably got some garbage points… 1 playoff win with the Cowgirls doesn’t scream much better… just an ever so slightly… he isn’t walking into a favorable QB situation either.

 

[Drink IRON City]

I am in the same boat.... his DC and OC will be the deciding factor.

M y thoughts as well !!!



Salute the nation

 

[Drink IRON City]

I lower my expectations to match reality.
For example:
If McCarthy wins a playoff game within 9 years it would be an improvement.
If he loses a playoff game by less than double digits it would be an improvement.

Excellent attitude, needs adopted by many…………………

Have you ever heard of that special holiday,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Groundhog Day.???




Salute the nation

 

[Gildong Sack]

No, reading and comprehension is not to be taken for granted. I said specifically who my comment was for and whether you want to acknowledge it or not its still true that what was reaped was sowed regarding those specific fans. In other words i dont feel sorry for those fans regarding this decision. As far as im concerned they got exactly what they wanted and what they deserve. Everybody who is a Steelers fan being impacted is not even a question, but for certain this coaching decision is not as much of a shock to some people's psyche/ego as it is to others. You dont get where im coming from maybe have your special ed teacher explain it to you.

Yes, the harvest impacted everyone not just the sowers. I might take that special ed advice. Seems to be working for you.

 

[bigben]

Anyone who thinks the Steelers are Super Bowl ready are borderline retarded. If it weren't for all the injuries in Baltimore and Cincy they don't even make the playoffs. Reality matters, I call it like I see it. This team isn't close, a HC getting AARP benefits isn't the answer.

100% agree.
I will also say there isn't a coach out there or Qb that immediately fixes this mess. Its taken nearly a decade to get us here no overniight fixes no matter who the coaches are. We have personnel problems all over the field.

 

[madinsomniac]

I just hope we don't bring back Rodgers. See what we have with Howard. Maybe Rudy starts the season. Trade or cut some veterans depending on the new direction we go on the offensive and defensive side of the ball.

If we do move on from Rodgers ....that will mean we will have a different starter to open the season for the 6th year in a row. Sounds like the Browns.

Rodgers almost certainly is coming back now...
Rooney thinks we are like almost a contender... they wont be blowing up the team, just tweaking and trying to win right now

 

[slashsteel]

Rodgers almost certainly is coming back now...
Rooney thinks we are like almost a contender... they wont be blowing up the team, just tweaking and trying to win right now

That is some grand delusion if he really thinks that. I am not positive he has that viewpoint though. I think he is happy just competing for a playoff win and or a winning season.

 

[Phoenix1172]

The more I think about the new HC hire, the more disappointed I feel. Rooney is apparently following the trend of bringing in aging big name vets that were once good but have been in a career spiral for some time.

Rooney probably thought since he can't have Tomlin as his coach, he better get the only coach to beat Tomlin in a Super Bowl (thanks a lot Mendenhall).

 

[dv13]

https://www.steelernation.com/2026/01/25/steelers-promote-next-offensive-coordinator

Burn it all down. Starting with AR2 and Khan. The only way to vote is with $$, viewership, tix, and merchandise.

 

[slashsteel]

https://www.steelernation.com/2026/01/25/steelers-promote-next-offensive-coordinator

Burn it all down. Starting with AR2 and Khan. The only way to vote is with $$, viewership, tix, and merchandise.

Not that I have any faith in who they decide that is a conjecture piece..

 

[topseed]

Wow. I really did not expect this amount of vitriol for the McCarthy hire. 18 pages and counting. Clearly, I am in the vast minority here, but I'll try to explain why I like this decision, and walk some of you fruitie pies back off the ledge:

1) Offensive success. McCarthy has been an NFL head coach for 18 seasons. He's had a top ten scoring offense on 12 occasions, a full two-thirds of the time. All but 2 of those 12 were top five, so he's had a top five scoring offense more than half of the time. FOUR of those were THE NUMBER ONE TOTAL OFFENSE in the entire league. Those are just ridiculous ratios of success -- weren't most of you crying about the Steelers needing to improve offensively?

2) Experience. McCarthy paid his dues as he rose through the coaching ranks. He was an offensive quality control guy for 2 seasons when he broke into the NFL at age 30. He spent the next 5 years as a QB coach. He spent another 6 as an offensive coordinator before getting a head coaching job at age 43. He understands the quarterback position. Yeah, the guy is 62 years old. So what? Dick Vermeil was 61 in his first season with the Rams, and went 5-11 and 4-12 before winning the Super Bowl at the age of 63.

3) The Mike McCarthy Is a White Mike Tomlin fallacy. Yeah, McCarthy won a Super Bowl in Green Bay, things got stale, and they fired him in mid-2018 after he went 4-7-1. Fine. The Packers went 2-2 the rest of that year, and have gone 3-6 in the playoffs since. He spends 5 years in Dallas, goes 12-5 in seasons when Dak is healthy, goes 1-3 in the playoffs, then gets fired. Fine. The Cowboys go 7-9-1 in 2025, with Dak. He's put together a long, solid career with an 11-11 record in the playoffs, and at least he's won a postseason game in this decade. Tomlin is 8-12 in the playoffs and hasn't smelled a win since 2016. Unlike MT, McCarthy didn't inherit a stacked team, either. The Packers went 4-12 under Mike Sherman in 2005.

4) Pittsburgh roots. Totally surprising that most of you yinzers are holding the fact that McCarthy is from Pittsburgh against him for some reason. I would have thought that you'd want to welcome back a native son and root for the guy. How is his familiarity with the area a bad thing?

5) No distinctly better options. @tapeANaspirin2it did a pretty nice job of summing it up on page 16 -- which other coaches in this cycle are parade-worthy? The Steelers gave Anthony Weaver a second interview...thank God they didn't hire that guy -- you'd all really have something to bltch about. And for all the guys who were creaming themselves over Chris Shula, you do know that the Rams finished in the bottom half of the league defensively (26th and 17th) during his two years as their DC...right?

Take a deep breath, stop clutching your pearls for a minute, and let's see what kind of staff McCarthy brings in. The defensive coordinator will be key. The biggest thing that does concern me about this hire is whether or not Rodgers returns. Another season with him at QB would be a step backward, in my opinion, and would signal that they hired McCarthy for the wrong reasons.

 

[SteelerFan448]

4) Pittsburgh roots. Totally surprising that most of you yinzers are holding the fact that McCarthy is from Pittsburgh against him for some reason. I would have thought that you'd want to welcome back a native son and root for the guy. How is his familiarity with the area a bad thing?

McCarthy was my #4. I'm okay with the hire given the overall candidate this, however, the process was underwhelming. He's a stopgap coach who will hopefully acquire and develop a QB. I compared the (hopeful) vision in another thread to Sean Payton in Denver. If that's the planned process, cool. I also find it funny how Harbaugh was a slam dunk hire and McCarthy is laughed at, though I have seen some saying this was a good move.

I specifically wanted to reply to this one. The Steelers love nepotism and it seems like the Steelers will pass over better coaches/players for the opportunity to hire somebody with local ties. That shouldn't matter unless you're hiring for the community relations department.

 

[Drink IRON City]

100% agree.
I will also say there isn't a coach out there or Qb that immediately fixes this mess. Its taken nearly a decade to get us here no overniight fixes no matter who the coaches are. We have personnel problems all over the field.

ADD in the “know how to win”, that hasn’t been here for near a decade. You can’t just turn that on or off.

A winning culture is developed, Bill cowher had a winning culture.

This new coach is left with something far less than a winning culture.

My hopes is while he puts a better team together, that culture deve3lopes more and more.

MM will run things differently than what the last 10 years have been.




Salute the nation

 

[Drink IRON City]

Wow. I really did not expect this amount of vitriol for the McCarthy hire. 18 pages and counting. Clearly, I am in the vast minority here, but I'll try to explain why I like this decision, and walk some of you fruitie pies back off the ledge:

1) Offensive success. McCarthy has been an NFL head coach for 18 seasons. He's had a top ten scoring offense on 12 occasions, a full two-thirds of the time. All but 2 of those 12 were top five, so he's had a top five scoring offense more than half of the time. FOUR of those were THE NUMBER ONE TOTAL OFFENSE in the entire league. Those are just ridiculous ratios of success -- weren't most of you crying about the Steelers needing to improve offensively?

2) Experience. McCarthy paid his dues as he rose through the coaching ranks. He was an offensive quality control guy for 2 seasons when he broke into the NFL at age 30. He spent the next 5 years as a QB coach. He spent another 6 as an offensive coordinator before getting a head coaching job at age 43. He understands the quarterback position. Yeah, the guy is 62 years old. So what? Dick Vermeil was 61 in his first season with the Rams, and went 5-11 and 4-12 before winning the Super Bowl at the age of 63.

3) The Mike McCarthy Is a White Mike Tomlin fallacy. Yeah, McCarthy won a Super Bowl in Green Bay, things got stale, and they fired him in mid-2018 after he went 4-7-1. Fine. The Packers went 2-2 the rest of that year, and have gone 3-6 in the playoffs since. He spends 5 years in Dallas, goes 12-5 in seasons when Dak is healthy, goes 1-3 in the playoffs, then gets fired. Fine. The Cowboys go 7-9-1 in 2025, with Dak. He's put together a long, solid career with an 11-11 record in the playoffs, and at least he's won a postseason game in this decade. Tomlin is 8-12 in the playoffs and hasn't smelled a win since 2016. Unlike MT, McCarthy didn't inherit a stacked team, either. The Packers went 4-12 under Mike Sherman in 2005.

4) Pittsburgh roots. Totally surprising that most of you yinzers are holding the fact that McCarthy is from Pittsburgh against him for some reason. I would have thought that you'd want to welcome back a native son and root for the guy. How is his familiarity with the area a bad thing?

5) No distinctly better options. @tapeANaspirin2it did a pretty nice job of summing it up on page 16 -- which other coaches in this cycle are parade-worthy? The Steelers gave Anthony Weaver a second interview...thank God they didn't hire that guy -- you'd all really have something to bltch about. And for all the guys who were creaming themselves over Chris Shula, you do know that the Rams finished in the bottom half of the league defensively (26th and 17th) during his two years as their DC...right?

Take a deep breath, stop clutching your pearls for a minute, and let's see what kind of staff McCarthy brings in. The defensive coordinator will be key. The biggest thing that does concern me about this hire is whether or not Rodgers returns. Another season with him at QB would be a step backward, in my opinion, and would signal that they hired McCarthy for the wrong reasons.

Just for the record, I’m a CROW eater, BBQ’d and extra hot sauce.

This hiring took me by surprise and my concern was short lived, off my sleeve response.

I’m starting to warm up to the hire, may take a day or two more, but thanks to post(s) such as your’s……. I’m coming around.

The hiring of the DC is going to be critical as the outcome of this hire will be judged on the defensive prowess of said hire as well.

Working with his sub-coaching is going to be critical of his success. I hope Rooney mentioned that to him.

Good luck to our new coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.




Salute the nation

 

[topseed]

McCarthy was my #4. I'm okay with the hire given the overall candidate this, however, the process was underwhelming. He's a stopgap coach who will hopefully acquire and develop a QB. I compared the (hopeful) vision in another thread to Sean Payton in Denver. If that's the planned process, cool. I also find it funny how Harbaugh was a slam dunk hire and McCarthy is laughed at, though I have seen some saying this was a good move.

I specifically wanted to reply to this one. The Steelers love nepotism and it seems like the Steelers will pass over better coaches/players for the opportunity to hire somebody with local ties. That shouldn't matter unless you're hiring for the community relations department.

McCarthy could reasonably coach for 10 years. That's not a "stopgap" in my opinion. He's 62, not 72. I think too many people were hung up on this "3 coaches since 1969" bullshit and wanted to hire another guy in his 30s to follow the mold. Maybe that person is still out there, but nobody jumps off the page for me. Scheelhaase has only been in the NFL for two years with no coordinating experience...that's not adequate in my book.

So who did the locally biased Steelers pass over that's a clearly better option? What was nepotistic about the Mike Tomlin hire?

 

[Coryea]

Don't get it, there's several young up and coming guys available.

 

[SteelerFan448]

McCarthy could reasonably coach for 10 years. That's not a "stopgap" in my opinion. He's 62, not 72. I think too many people were hung up on this "3 coaches since 1969" bullshit and wanted to hire another guy in his 30s to follow the mold. Maybe that person is still out there, but nobody jumps off the page for me. Scheelhaase has only been in the NFL for two years with no coordinating experience...that's not adequate in my book.

So who did the locally biased Steelers pass over that's a clearly better option? What was nepotistic about the Mike Tomlin hire?

I don't think they want another 15+ year coach, rather an unknown coach who has upside. McVay, Shanahan, Macdonald, Coen, Johnson, etc. weren't retreads. I had the younger coaches ahead of McCarthy because the odds of a HC making the Super Bowl on their third job isn't very high. I did have a substantial gap between him and Flores, who I had 5th. Anyway, I'm fine with the hire, just not my first choice.

The idea of McCarthy being local isn't isolated to this hiring cycle, it's something that's constant with the Steelers. They either were born here or coached here or at Pitt, etc. Nepotism has nothing to do with coaching hires, but player acquisition. There is absolutely no denying that and there really isn't anything to explain.

 

[slashsteel]

Wow. I really did not expect this amount of vitriol for the McCarthy hire. 18 pages and counting. Clearly, I am in the vast minority here, but I'll try to explain why I like this decision, and walk some of you fruitie pies back off the ledge:

1) Offensive success. McCarthy has been an NFL head coach for 18 seasons. He's had a top ten scoring offense on 12 occasions, a full two-thirds of the time. All but 2 of those 12 were top five, so he's had a top five scoring offense more than half of the time. FOUR of those were THE NUMBER ONE TOTAL OFFENSE in the entire league. Those are just ridiculous ratios of success -- weren't most of you crying about the Steelers needing to improve offensively?

2) Experience. McCarthy paid his dues as he rose through the coaching ranks. He was an offensive quality control guy for 2 seasons when he broke into the NFL at age 30. He spent the next 5 years as a QB coach. He spent another 6 as an offensive coordinator before getting a head coaching job at age 43. He understands the quarterback position. Yeah, the guy is 62 years old. So what? Dick Vermeil was 61 in his first season with the Rams, and went 5-11 and 4-12 before winning the Super Bowl at the age of 63.

3) The Mike McCarthy Is a White Mike Tomlin fallacy. Yeah, McCarthy won a Super Bowl in Green Bay, things got stale, and they fired him in mid-2018 after he went 4-7-1. Fine. The Packers went 2-2 the rest of that year, and have gone 3-6 in the playoffs since. He spends 5 years in Dallas, goes 12-5 in seasons when Dak is healthy, goes 1-3 in the playoffs, then gets fired. Fine. The Cowboys go 7-9-1 in 2025, with Dak. He's put together a long, solid career with an 11-11 record in the playoffs, and at least he's won a postseason game in this decade. Tomlin is 8-12 in the playoffs and hasn't smelled a win since 2016. Unlike MT, McCarthy didn't inherit a stacked team, either. The Packers went 4-12 under Mike Sherman in 2005.

4) Pittsburgh roots. Totally surprising that most of you yinzers are holding the fact that McCarthy is from Pittsburgh against him for some reason. I would have thought that you'd want to welcome back a native son and root for the guy. How is his familiarity with the area a bad thing?

5) No distinctly better options. @tapeANaspirin2it did a pretty nice job of summing it up on page 16 -- which other coaches in this cycle are parade-worthy? The Steelers gave Anthony Weaver a second interview...thank God they didn't hire that guy -- you'd all really have something to bltch about. And for all the guys who were creaming themselves over Chris Shula, you do know that the Rams finished in the bottom half of the league defensively (26th and 17th) during his two years as their DC...right?

Take a deep breath, stop clutching your pearls for a minute, and let's see what kind of staff McCarthy brings in. The defensive coordinator will be key. The biggest thing that does concern me about this hire is whether or not Rodgers returns. Another season with him at QB would be a step backward, in my opinion, and would signal that they hired McCarthy for the wrong reasons.

I see you took a few digs at fans. If your opinion is solid you shouldn’t need to do that right?

Let’s not pretend his one playoff win is impressive with the Cowboys. Most fans want something more than this. It’s why fans had enough of Tomlin the lack there of. The hire seems more like a probability of that than your suggestions.

Then there is a matter that the whole interview process stunk. If he was such an impressive candidate over Klint and Shula then you should have no problem with good candidates being interviewed right?

Instead of bringing in two Rooney rule coaches and calling it a day..they should have done an extensive search. That is how you find the best candidate for the job . Instead Andy and Omar’s buddy got hired.

So when the Steelers watch these great young minds go on to be more successful than a retread I have a feeling the opinions will change.

Sure there is outcry from the fans because simply the interview process or the lack there of blew chunks.