On the day he was introduced as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Mike McCarthy made one thing clear about the defensive side of the football moving forward in the Steel City.
The 3-4 defense was here to stay, and the history and tradition of that defense with the Steelers was important to him.
After the hiring Patrick Graham as the new defensive coordinator, the emphasis on the 3-4 defense remains, especially with the pieces already in place on that side of the football. The scheme led to some frustrations last season under former defensive coordinator Teryl Austin, but McCarthy, who spoke with reporters Tuesday at the NFL Owners meetings in Arizona, said the Steelers won’t be changing things up defensively.
Instead, they’ll be building off what is already in place.
“I’ve known Patrick [Graham] for quite some time. He knows how I feel about the history of this defense. This system’s been in place since Dom Capers and Bill Cowher in 1992, Mike Tomlin has done a great job carrying it forward. So if we’re looking to build off of what’s in place,” McCarthy said of the defense, according to video via Mark Kaboly on X. “We’re not throwing away everything and starting over.
“So when our players get there, they’ll see the variation that we’re teaching in what the beliefs are.”
Yes, the roster personnel is built for the 3-4 defense, but that 3-4 defense largely means something different in 2026 than it did back in the early 1990s when Bill Cowher implemented it. And it means something different from Mike Tomlin’s early days compared to what it does now.
Defenses have to adjust to the speed and spacing of today’s offenses, so multiple alignments and better athletes are required.
Still, the Steelers will stick with that 3-4 structure under McCarthy, allowing Graham to add some tweaks schematically and build off things the Steelers have done well in the past, while attempting to make improvements where they’re needed.
In fact, the success the Steelers had in the past with the 3-4 is a big reason why McCarthy implemented it in Green Bay, bringing in Dom Capers to set it up, too. Now, he’s hoping to keep things rolling on that side of the ball in his first year in Pittsburgh, especially with the amount of talent on the defense.
We’ll see if the terminology remains similar, much like the offense will as McCarthy stated Monday. But at least things won’t be drastically different for a lot of the veteran names on the defensive side of the football from a play-calling perspective, most likely.
Hopefully building off what’s in place allows the Steelers to hit the ground running defensively and get back to playing high-level football on defense, matching the production with the talent that’s in place.
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