The Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback quandary is now a problem for new coach Mike McCarthy to solve.
The Steelers announced Saturday that they’d verbally agreed to hire McCarthy as head coach, choosing a one-time Super Bowl champion with a reputation for developing young quarterbacks. The 62-year-old Greenfield native was the most experienced candidate to interview with the Steelers, having coached 18 NFL seasons with the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys.
His resume differs from past Steelers hires.
In McCarthy, the Steelers embraced an older, offensive-minded coach whose Cowboys teams led the league in scoring in 2021 and ’23. In various roles over his career, McCarthy worked with Pro Bowl quarterbacks Dak Prescott, Aaron Rodgers, Brett Favre and Joe Montana.
He helped develop Rodgers and Prescott.
But to hire McCarthy, the Steelers broke with tradition. Their past three head coaches were all former defensive coordinators in their 30s (starting with Chuck Noll in 1969), and none had previous head coaching experience.
Meanwhile, McCarthy already ranks 15th on the NFL’s all-time wins list with a 174-112-2 career record and won a Super Bowl with the Packers to cap the 2010 season. He replaces Mike Tomlin, who resigned with a 193-114-2 record in 19 years.
“This is a bit shocking for me because they’re traveling a different road than what they’ve traveled in the previous three hires,” former Steelers defensive back and current analyst Bryant McFadden said on CBS Sports HQ.
McCarthy was one of three candidates the Steelers interviewed in-person, joining Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores and former Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver.
“I think the Steelers looked at this and said, ‘When you look at all of the available head coaching candidates, he’s the cream of the crop,’” former NFL defensive end and current analyst Leger Douzable said on CBS Sports HQ. “This is a guy that’s won a Super Bowl. If you go back to his tenure in Dallas, from ’21 to ’23, he had 36 wins. Only Andy Reid had more in that span.”
McCarthy went 49-35 in five seasons with the Cowboys. He posted three consecutive 12-5 seasons but couldn’t turn those regular-season wins into postseason success. The Cowboys went 1-3 in the playoffs.
Still, his offenses often ranked among the NFL’s best.
In 2021, the Cowboys led the league in points scored and yards gained as Prescott passed for a career-high 37 touchdowns. They were again the highest-scoring team in 2023, earning Prescott a Pro Bowl nod. But a year later, in McCarthy’s final season in Dallas, the team went 7-10 and missed the postseason as injury limited Prescott to eight games.
With McCarthy’s contract expiring, he and the team parted ways. His overall playoff record is 11-11.
Once an assistant coach at Pitt, McCarthy rose through the NFL ranks, first as a quarterbacks coach for Marty Schottenheimer in Kansas City and later as offensive coordinator for New Orleans and San Francisco. Steelers general manager Omar Khan and assistant GM Andy Weidl worked in the Saints front office when McCarthy was there.
As Green Bay’s coach from 2006-18, McCarthy’s teams won 125 games and qualified for the playoffs nine times in 13 seasons.
His greatest achievement as an NFL head coach came at the expense of his hometown Steelers, when the Packers won Super Bowl XLV in February 2011. But he was fired in 2018 when the Packers fell to 4-7-1 after Week 13 and ultimately missed the playoffs for the second year in a row.
McCarthy coached two of Rodgers’ four MVP seasons and could reunite with the quarterback in Pittsburgh. But even if the 42-year-old quarterback does return, the Steelers and McCarthy must find a long-term solution at the position.
“He’s someone that can get your offense on the right track and can also help your quarterback settle in, whoever that quarterback may be for Pittsburgh,” analyst Emory Hunt said on CBS Sports HQ. “Mike McCarthy is the right guy to develop that guy.”
We have verbally agreed for Mike McCarthy to become our next head coach. pic.twitter.com/oOqZPRm7aX
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) January 24, 2026
