Mike McCarthy Won’t Save a Steelers Team Stuck in Neutral

When it comes to hiring head coaches, the Pittsburgh Steelers do not make many mistakes.

This is an organization that has only had to employ four full-time head coaches since 1969 — Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher, Mike Tomlin and now Mike McCarthy, who the Steelers hired on Saturday.

But at 62 years old, McCarthy will likely not be employed as long as his predecessors in Pittsburgh. It’ll also be an uphill battle to bring another Super Bowl title to Yinzerland, as no Super Bowl-winning head coach has ever won another title with a different organization.

After Tomlin decided to step away from the Steelers after leading the organization for 19 seasons, it felt like the Steelers were going to cast a wide net. They set meetings with bright young coordinators including Los Angeles Rams passing game coordinator Nathan Scheelhaase and defensive coordinator Chris Shula.

They also met with other in-demand candidates including Jesse Minter, who was hired by the Baltimore Ravens, and Jeff Hafley, who was hired by the Miami Dolphins.

But they landed on McCarthy, the Pennsylvania native, to lead his hometown team.

It feels like in the NFL, unless you have a loaded roster, you’re wasting your time unless you hire one of the game’s bright, young minds — someone from the Shanahan or McVay coaching trees, under 50 years old.

But the Steelers decided to go the conservative route. It’s a move that is reflective of what the organization has been since Ben Roethlisberger walked away in 2022. They are too prideful to rebuild entirely — but their half-baked reloading attempts continue to fail.

When Roethlisberger retired, the Steelers had Kenny Pickett fall into their laps with the No. 20 overall selection. Unfortunately, the Pitt quarterback never developed how they had hoped, causing the Steelers to bail on him. They replaced him with a combination of Mason Rudolph, Justin Fields, Russell Wilson and most recently Aaron Rodgers.

The Steelers always have a good enough defense, but never an elite one. Their offensive lines are always passable. Developing pass catchers has been another issue, as perhaps they used all of their magic in the prime years of Antonio Brown (before he lost his mind).

So, what are we left to do here?

McCarthy sounds open to Rodgers returning at quarterback. At 42, Rodgers was far from the problem for the Steelers in 2025. But combine McCarthy and Rodgers’ ages together — 105 years old — by far the oldest coach-and-quarterback combination in football.

What are they accomplishing? Well, probably not much more than the 2025 Steelers accomplished.

It feels like the Steelers are an organization stuck in neutral, spinning their tires through the late January snow.