Mike McCarthy
Mike McCarthy
Will Mike McCarthy begin his Steelers coaching career as a winner?
For the first time since 2006, under Mike McCarthy, the Pittsburgh Steelers have a head coach other than Mike Tomlin. Following his resignation after 19 seasons, the team pivoted and hired a very familiar face. A Pittsburgh native, McCarthy always brought his upbringing with him at every stop in his life.
Now he gets to return home and lead his hometown team, but will the experiment work? McCarthy is a decorated head coach and even won a Super Bowl over his beloved Steelers. But it’s been a long time since then. And while he had Aaron Rodgers then as he does now, both of them—and the team—are in very different places.
While the Steelers haven’t had a losing season in decades, they also haven’t had much success in recent years. In fact, they haven’t won a playoff game since 2016, which is one of the major reasons Tomlin claimed that he resigned. He believes McCarthy can help give the Steelers new life, but he still has much to prove.
After all, while he has made many changes over the past several months, the roster is still largely the same. Mike McCarthy will still rely largely on the core that played under Tomlin. That includes Rodgers at quarterback, and even with his long history with the future Hall of Famer, nobody will mistake him for being in the prime of his career.
All the speculation ends today, however, as the Steelers make their debut under McCarthy. They host the Atlanta Falcons, who will be starting Cooper Rush at quarterback due to injuries to Tua Tagovailoa and Michael Penix Jr. On paper, this looks like a very winnable game. But we still don’t know enough about this team to take anything for granted.
Largely by McCarthy’s choice, we didn’t see many of the Steelers’ starters throughout the preseason. Outside of the offensive line, it’s hard to get a sense of what his offense in Pittsburgh will look like. Aaron Rodgers never played, nor did DK Metcalf or Michael Pittman Jr. While Pat Freiermuth, Darnell Washington, Jaylen Warren, and Rico Dowdle played some, they did so on a limited basis. And with a whole new defense coming in, we still don’t know what Patrick Graham has in store for the unit.
The Steelers have a long road ahead of them under Mike McCarthy, along with his cadre of quarterbacks.With seven consecutive postseason losses and no wins in nearly a decade, they are under fire for their repeated playoff failures. While we have seen many changes, none could dream of topping Mike Tomlin resigning.
We’re already into the regular season. The Steelers, of course, are used to early offseason mode as a team thatloses by the middle of January all the time. Enjoy the ride, even the turbulence, because it’s the only way we know how to travel anymore.