The AFC North is going to look massively different next season. Three teams, including the Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns, and the Pittsburgh Steelers, all had to find new head coaches, while the Bengals were the only team to retain its own.
Each of those three hirings has gotten some strong reactions. Many feel confident in Jesse Minter and the Ravens, with the staff he’s putting together. Some are a bit more skeptical of Todd Monken’s fit in Cleveland. And with Mike McCarthy in Pittsburgh, reactions have been all over the place. To Yahoo Sports’ Charles McDonald, the latter isn’t much of a hire to be excited about.
“You just did Mike Tomlin, but worse. I’ve seen Mike Tomlin win, you know, 10, 12 games without good quarterback play. I’m not sure I’ve seen Mike McCarthy do that. He obviously had Aaron Rodgers and Dak Prescott as his quarterback; those guys are pretty good,” McDonald said Tuesday on his Football 301 podcast. “So there’s kind of an opportunity for, I think, for Pittsburgh to fall.”
Tomlin’s non-losing season streak started to wear on fans, especially towards the end of his tenure. And McDonald makes a point that many skeptics of McCarthy have raised. That Tomlin managed to get the most out of his teams, even with subpar quarterback play, while McCarthy, despite being a consistent winner as a head coach, has done so with immense quarterback talent. It doesn’t help that the two still have similar recent playoff failures.
However, it’s not like McCarthy was carried by Aaron Rodgers and Dak Prescott throughout his head coaching career. Talents like those certainly help, but McCarthy deserves credit for that level of play as well. And there is a history of him doing well with a lack of talent at quarterback. In 2024, Cooper Rush started eight games in Dallas, throwing for 1,844 yards, 12 touchdowns, and five interceptions, while winning four games. That same Cooper Rush looked terrible the next season in Baltimore.
In the division specifically, Robinson thinks the Steelers could lose some ground to the Bengals.
“The baseline talent is already there. We’ve seen this team play in the Super Bowl. Even what they have right now, as bad as the defense is, it’s probably good enough to get to the playoffs. I’d expect Pittsburgh to take a step back,” McDonald said.
On paper, it’s easy to believe in the Bengals’ talent. They have Joe Burrow at quarterback, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins out wide, and Chase Brown in the backfield. An easy group to get behind.
However, the Bengals have also disappointed in just about every season since their Super Bowl run. Last year, many predicted them to finish ahead of Pittsburgh, and they ended up four games worse than the Steelers. Of course, the Bengals were without Joe Burrow for a large period of time. But still, there are a ton of holes on that roster outside of the immense talent at skill positions.
That said, the Bengals are the only team in the division without an entirely new staff. And until the Steelers solve the quarterback problem, McCarthy may find it hard to win. There’s a lot of time, and acquisitions that will take place before the new season begins. As of now, McDonald thinks the Bengals might have a leg up on the Steelers.