Pittsburgh Steelers' Hire Mike McCarthy
The Pittsburgh Steelers are hiring a new coach for just the fourth time since the merger in 1970, and they might've whiffed for the first time. After Mike Tomlin stepped down following another first-round playoff exit, the Steelers found themselves in unfamiliar territory.
It's similar to if the Green Bay Packers suddenly needed a QB after perfectly moving from Brett Favre (1992) to Aaron Rodgers (2005) and Jordan Love (2023). Ironically, Pittsburgh is bringing in the coach who used to coach for those Packers: Mike McCarthy.
McCarthy spent the last year away from football after being fired by the Dallas Cowboys. The Steelers needed to make a smart hire after the end of Tomlin's historic, lengthy tenure. As of now, it sure doesn't look like they did.
Pittsburgh Steelers risk huge mistake with Mike McCarthy hire
Mike McCarthy was a good regular season coach who couldn't get it done in the postseason with the Dallas Cowboys. If that sounds an awful lot like Mike Tomlin, that's because it is. The difference is that McCarthy was working with premium rosters in Dallas.
During his tenure, McCarthy had Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and Micah Parsons as his cornerstones. The Steelers, lately, have had T.J. Watt, and that's largely it. No one's fooling the 2020s Steelers for a Super Bowl roster. They only made the playoffs because of Tomlin.
The Cowboys, during McCarthy's tenure, were a contending roster, and McCarthy couldn't get it done. So why on earth would the Steelers make this move? It feels like a backtrack, but in the best possible case, it could be a lateral move.
Plus, every time McCarthy leaves, the offense he coached gets better. The Packers jumped in EPA after McCarthy left and was replaced by Matt LaFleur. The Cowboys got so much better in the analytics as well after moving on from McCarthy and bringing in Brian Schottenheimer.
So why?
With all that in mind, why would the Steelers do this? It seems as if ownership thinks this team can still contend, seemingly not realizing that Tomlin helped raise this team's floor much higher than it should be. They have very few good pieces on offense or defense, so McCarthy isn't going to be able to do much.
It also speaks to a lack of foresight. McCarthy, whether appropriately or not, is seen as a win-now coach. The Steelers went for a proven, veteran coach with a title under his belt. That's something teams that believe they can win sooner rather than later do, and the Steelers should know better.
What they should have done is hire a young, exciting coach that the team probably knows isn't ready to win just yet. A Klint Kubiak, Anthony Campanile, or Joe Brady would've made all the sense in the world. This roster needs an overhaul, and bringing in a young coach that new, young players can grow with would've been smart.
That would've required an admission that the team isn't very good, and it would probably require a couple of losing seasons and high draft picks. The Steelers haven't had a losing season since before Tomlin arrived, so they're a bit unfamiliar with it.
However, to get young, cost-effective talent, two things need to happen. First, you generally need to draft high. It's hard to find a quarterback, as the Pittsburgh Steelers well know, drafting in the 20s every year.
Second, they need to draft well, which has been a challenge for the Steelers lately. If you're hitting on the draft picks, it's easier to stay good with later picks. If you're not hitting, then it's easier to find talent earlier in the draft, regardless.
The Steelers opted to stay in mediocrity with perhaps the worst coaching hire this cycle, and while the options weren't great, they still badly needed to take a swing and do something to break the monotony that has consumed them.
