Pictured: Art Rooney II looking at all coaching candidates that have no Pittsburgh roots

I am not 100% sure what I was expecting for the Steelers’ head coaching search, given that I was in kindergarten the last time they found themselves in a scenario where they needed to hire a new guy. Since then, ownership of the team was passed down from Dan Rooney to his son, Art II, so this would be the first hire of his tenure. 

Of course, it was especially hard to predict the direction in which the organization would go, considering they have only had three different head coaches since 1969–Chuck Noll from 1969-1991, Bill Cowher from 1992-2006, and Mike Tomlin from 2007-2025. 

One common theme for those three hires was that, at the time of their appointment, they were first-time NFL head coaches. They were also all younger guys, with Noll taking the reins at 37, Cowher at 35, and Tomlin also at 35 years old. 

As such, it was not an unrealistic expectation for me to believe this next hire would be of a similar mold—a younger coordinator with no head coaching experience. 

Early in the process, it seemed as though the Steelers’ brass was trending in this direction, interviewing Rams’ defensive coordinator Chris Shula, as well as their passing game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase—two highly-regarded, 30-something assistants. 

Then, they turned around and hired 62 year-old Mike McCarthy on Saturday, who has already had two head-coaching stints. His first tenure lasted from 2006-2018 with the Green Bay Packers, where he had Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers as his quarterbacks and appeared in (and won) Super Bowl XLV. His second job was with the Dallas Cowboys, where his quarterback was Dak Prescott. He coached them from 2020-2024, going 49-35 in the regular season, but only 1-3 in the playoffs. 

I am not going to sit here and say that McCarthy is a bad coach. He is not. He has a .500 playoff record (11-11) and a .608 win percentage in the regular season. However, given the quarterback talent that he has had at his disposal, only having one Super Bowl appearance in his eighteen seasons at the helm of the Packers and Cowboys hardly makes him stand out. 

The McCarthy hire is one that screams that the Steelers are content with mediocrity. He has a very similar CV to Tomlin, but is nine years his senior. What is the point in hiring a 62 year-old coach in the modern NFL anyways? The game has changed so much since McCarthy’s first season as a head coach in 2006–why not take a chance on someone who understands the modern game better? At worst, your team sucks and you get better draft position. 

To say I am puzzled is an understatement. I am disappointed beyond measure at the risk-aversion from the Steelers’ front-office throughout this brief process, and you should be as well.