Steelers president Art Rooney II opens up about hiring Mike McCarthy as next head coach

The Pittsburgh Steelers have received criticism from pockets of fans and analysts for hiring Mike McCarthy as their next head coach shortly after Mike Tomlin stepped away from the club following 19 seasons in the role. 

Steelers team president Art Rooney II spoke with Bob Labriola of the team's website about choosing McCarthy as Tomlin's replacement. 

Steelers view Mike McCarthy as a coach who has "been a winner everywhere he's been" 

"He is someone who has a longer track record than many of the other candidates, a winning track record," Rooney said about McCarthy. "He's been a winner everywhere he's been. Probably just as important for our purposes, the quarterbacks that he's worked with have all been very successful. So he has a proven track record of developing top-flight quarterbacks. Those are the things that maybe stick out the most."

McCarthy guided the Green Bay Packers to a Super Bowl championship while serving as that franchise's head coach from 2006 through much of the 2018 season. He later took the Dallas Cowboys to the playoffs three times from 2020 through the 2024 campaign. However, he went 1-3 in postseason play with Dallas. That record understandably has some Pittsburgh fans fearing that the club will endure more of the same regarding postseason tournaments after the Steelers lost the final seven playoff games of Tomlin's tenure. 

Did Steelers hire Mike McCarthy with Aaron Rodgers in mind? 

On Monday, NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated said that McCarthy "deserves credit for maximizing the end of Brett Favre’s career" and for "rebuilding Aaron Rodgers' mechanics and helping to develop him into a four-time MVP" as Green Bay's head coach. Rodgers ended this season as Pittsburgh's starting quarterback, and many have assumed that one reason the Steelers hired McCarthy is that the coach may convince the 42-year-old signal-caller to run it back with the AFC North club for one more campaign. 

According to Rooney, Rodgers "was not a determining factor" in Pittsburgh's choosing of McCarthy.

"We decided to bring Mike on because we believe that he's the right coach for us at this point to help lead us to a championship," Rooney explained. "We don't know what Aaron's plans are right now, and that did not weigh heavily in the decision. We'll see where Aaron is, and we've left the door open, but obviously, we all have to sit down and see if that makes sense. So that'll happen sometime in the next month or so. But the decision was made based on Mike being the coach we want, and it really had very little to do with whether Aaron is going to be back or not."

Per at least one report, Rodgers suggested in December that he will retire this offseason. It remains to be seen if he has any desire to play under McCarthy once more. 

As for immediate reactions to the hiring of McCarthy, Rooney insisted he is "really not worried about winning the initial press conference." Pittsburgh fans likely will grow to love McCarthy if he helps end the club's playoff losing streak as soon as next January.