Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy calls out to his team during training camp at Saint Vincent College, Wednesday, July 29, 2026, in Latrobe.
Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy calls out to his team during training camp at Saint Vincent College, Wednesday, July 29, 2026, in Latrobe.
For years, the Steelers have felt like the same story, an annual six-month saga mostly played out with the same faces, almost always ending the same way.
We were told over and over — trigger warning — “the standard is the standard.”
For years, a sign displaying Mike Tomlin’s most famous quote hung outside the home team’s tunnel at Acrisure Stadium, one final reminder before taking the field of battle.
For a long time, that standard wasn’t being met.
[Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers talks with teammates during training camp at Saint Vincent College, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, in Latrobe.
Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers talks with teammates during training camp at Saint Vincent College, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, in Latrobe.](https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/steelers/2026/09/10/aaron-rodgers-final-season-nfl-preview/stories/202609070026)
Those words have since been replaced by a massive Steelers logo, perhaps the strongest symbolism of change this fanbase could ever comprehend.
Change is in the air.
A new era will begin Sunday afternoon, when Mike McCarthy exits that tunnel next to players wearing black and gold. The Greenfield native is accompanied by a new staff, a new draft class and a handful of newcomers added through free agency.
Yet, despite the turnover, this Steelers team doesn’t look much different from the ones of years past.
Last year’s stars are expected to once again lead the charge this fall and winter. Aaron Rodgers, the league’s oldest player, will run the offense. T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward will continue to anchor the defense.
There’s enough talent on the roster to compete but not enough to realistically expect anything more than a division title and perhaps one playoff win.
It seems more likely that we’re in for another year of slightly-above-.500 football, a journey filled with a few thrilling wins, a few frustrating losses and an ultimately underwhelming — albeit expected — conclusion.
[Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers throws before an NFL football game against the Jets at Acrisure Stadium, Friday, Aug. 21, 2026, in Pittsburgh.
Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers throws before an NFL football game against the Jets at Acrisure Stadium, Friday, Aug. 21, 2026, in Pittsburgh.](https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/steelers/2026/09/10/offense-aaron-rodgers-michael-pittman/stories/202609090037)
But while the short-term outlook might not be much different than the end of the Tomlin era, that doesn’t mean the standard can’t change. That, more than anything else, should be the goal for McCarthy in Year 1.
This year might not look different on paper. It likely will end similarly to recent seasons. But when it does, things need to feel different. It needs to feel like a new standard has been set in Pittsburgh.
So how exactly does that happen?
It starts with culture, the thing Tomlin was best known for. Most of his players loved him, perhaps almost to a fault. Things became stale, both inside and outside the building. Everything had become too routine, which led to similar results year after year.
McCarthy wasted no time making changes around the South Side, from how the team practices to how they operate on a week-to-week basis in all other aspects. If those changes keep things fresh and even-keeled and ultimately produce a product that looks better prepared on Sundays, that’s a win.
That is especially true on McCarthy’s side of the football.
The Steelers offense has struggled for far too long. McCarthy was brought in to fix it, to not only better utilize the talent others failed to maximize but complement it with a crop of newcomers who can provide an additional spark.
The Steelers don’t need to lead the NFL in scoring, but they need to look competent. There have been too many games when they looked overmatched from the start and proved incapable of making impactful adjustments. There were too many years when they simply couldn’t get the ball to their playmakers.
A better scheme should help prevent similar nightmares this season. More importantly, a better scheme should make fans believe next year’s quarterback will have a legitimate chance of developing into a franchise pillar — something that was never going to happen under the coaching of Arthur Smith, Matt Canada or Randy Fichtner.
Development, as a whole, should perhaps be the way to symbolize a win for the Steelers in 2026.
McCarthy’s staff must help younger players on the roster take their games to the next level. It’s time for the players drafted in the Omar Khan era to take the next step, to take over. And it’s time for one of them to separate himself from the pack.
Similar to Rodgers, Watt and Heyward aren’t getting any younger. The torch needs to be passed.
The Steelers have to find their next elite talent to build around, their next face of the franchise. It won’t likely be a QB this year, which is fine. Any player on either side of the ball would work as long as they’re playing at an All-Pro level.
If that can occur in Year 1 of the McCarthy era, the rest of the season is house money.
This winter can end in another first-round playoff exit because, well, that’s about as far as this team should be expected to go. But that exit can’t come with the same feelings of emptiness and hopelessness from the final stretch of Tomlin’s tenure.
There has to be a reason to hope, a reason other than the obligatory Steelers pride so many fans have leaned on throughout this frustrating decade of postseason failure.
We won’t likely know if the McCarthy hire was the right call come January. He deserves time to build his own thing in Pittsburgh — just as Tomlin, Bill Cowher and Chuck Noll were given before him. But it’s on him to convince us this season that what he’s building will create a better tomorrow.
It’s on McCarthy to raise the bar and convince fans the franchise has a vision, that while better days haven’t arrived just yet, the next few seasons will be something to be truly excited about — rather than more of the same.
This year’s Steelers team needs to show the fans that things are moving forward, that the franchise is inching closer to its seventh Lombardi Trophy.
This needs to be the year when McCarthy proves the old standard — the one we had heard about time and time again from his predecessor — is no longer the standard.
First Published: September 11, 2026, 8:00 a.m.