Steelers To Hire Mike McCarthy As HC

The Steelers have found their successor to longtime head coach Mike Tomlin. The team plans to hire Pittsburgh native Mike McCarthy, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reports. It’ll be McCarthy’s third head coaching opportunity in the NFL.

Known for remarkable organizational stability under the Rooney family, the Steelers have now hired just four head coaches since 1969. Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Tomlin combined for 57 years on the job. As an offensive-minded 62-year-old with significant HC experience, McCarthy brings a much different profile than the Noll-Cowher-Tomlin trio. The Steelers handed the keys to each of those coaches when they were in their 30s. They were all first-timers with defensive backgrounds.

Noll, Cowher and Tomlin each won at least one Super Bowl in Pittsburgh, while McCarthy hoisted the Lombardi Trophy at the Steelers’ expense 15 years ago. Then the Packers’ head coach, McCarthy guided the team to a 31-25 win over the Tomlin-led Steelers in Super Bowl XLV. That remains the high point of McCarthy’s career, but he has enjoyed plenty of success over 18 years as a head coach. At 174-112-2, McCarthy sits 15th on the all-time wins list. His .608 winning percentage ranks 39th.

As Green Bay’s sideline leader from 2006-18, McCarthy posted a 125-77-2 regular-season record with nine playoff berths. He followed that up with a 49-35 mark and three playoff appearances in a half-decade in Dallas, where he was at the helm from 2020-24. McCarthy’s Cowboys went just 1-3 in the postseason, however, and they stumbled to a 7-10 mark during an injury-limited campaign for quarterback Dak Prescott last year. Owner Jerry Jones then allowed McCarthy’s contract to expire. While the Bears and Saints showed interest in McCarthy last January, he didn’t coach anywhere in 2025.

McCarthy will now grab the reins of yet another iconic franchise in Pittsburgh, which didn’t record a single sub-.500 season during Tomlin’s 19-year reign. Although the 53-year-old Tomlin won his eighth AFC North title and went to the playoffs for the 13th time this season, he resigned after the Texans routed the Steelers in the wild-card round. It was the seventh straight postseason loss for Tomlin, who won just eight of 20 playoff games in Pittsburgh. McCarthy owns an 11-11 record in the playoffs.

Tomlin spent the majority of his tenure teaming with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, but the Steelers have lacked stability under center over the past few years. Since Roethlisberger retired after 2021, Kenny Pickett, Mitchell Trubisky, Justin Fields, Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers have each started at least five games in a season. The team still managed its third straight 10-win showing in 2025, which could go down as the 42-year-old Rodgers’ only season in Pittsburgh.

Between his age and his status as a soon-to-be free agent, it’s unclear whether Rodgers will continue his career next season. However, the obvious connection to McCarthy may make it more likely. Rodgers was McCarthy’s starter for almost all of the coach’s time in Green Bay. Along with winning the only Super Bowl of his career under McCarthy, Rodgers took home a pair of MVPs, among numerous other accomplishments.

Eight years after they last paired up, McCarthy and Rodgers could reunite in Pittsburgh. The Steelers didn’t hire McCarthy to keep Rodgers from retiring, but he may be the one coach the QB would consider playing for at this stage of his career, according to Pelissero.

Whether it’s Rodgers or someone else, finding an answer under center will be among the most important tasks of the offseason for McCarthy and general manager Omar Khan. There’s familiarity between McCarthy and Khan, who overlapped in New Orleans from 2000-01. McCarthy was the Saints’ offensive coordinator then, while Khan was in their football operations department.

As the Steelers’ GM since 2022, Khan has overseen four straight seasons of at least nine wins. The Steelers have made the postseason three years in a row, and replacing Tomlin with a coach who’s almost a decade older suggests they don’t intend to take a step back in 2026. That’s no surprise after owner Art Rooney II spoke out against a potential rebuild on the heels of Tomlin’s exit.

With the Steelers becoming the sixth team to hire a head coach this month, there are only four openings left. The Bills, Browns, Cardinals and Raiders are still in the market. McCarthy was not a candidate for any of those jobs, though he did interview with the Giants and Titans before they chose John Harbaugh and Robert Saleh, respectively.