A new chapter for the Pittsburgh Steelers is here, including head coach Mike McCarthy among many changes. Today, I wanted to continue to learn more about his stats resume. Following a Passing Game Track Record Study, rush types and success rates were my next goal.
Rush types will include the frequency of each scheme along with some baseline stats to see tendencies. Success rates are defined as 40 percent of the needed yardage on first down, 50 percent on second down, and picking up the first down on third/fourth downs. I will also compare to Pittsburgh’s results.
Let’s get into a couple of charts of the rush types data, which is sorted by most attempts from McCarthy coached teams. Since the data from Sports Info Solutions (SIS) began their charting in 2015, the first chart will be McCarthy’s last four seasons in Green Bay (2015-18) along with Pittsburgh in that span:
The main thing that jumps out right away is the clear difference between inside/outside zone. From 2015-18, McCarthy and the Packers had a nice balance of both, leaning slightly in favor of outside zone, and bested Pittsburgh in yards per attempt in each. On the flipside, the 2015-18 Steelers run game was dominated by inside zone runs, with 19 TDs (most on the chart). This was McCarthy’s highest TD total too (12) on 157 less attempts.
Here’s a breakdown of who ran each scheme more from 2015-2018:
McCarthy: Outside zone, pitch, stretch, backward pass, jet sweep.
Pittsburgh: Inside zone, draw, power, lead, trap, counter, sweep, end around, reverse, zone-counter, direct snap, FB dive.
Clearly, Pittsburgh had the more varied running game in the span. Largely, the schemes McCarthy ran focused more on getting to the outside. It’s very important to consider only three schemes eclipsed 100 attempts in the four-year span (outside zone, inside zone, pitch) under McCarthy, for 22 TDs. Pittsburgh had 26 TDs on those schemes alone. In total, McCarthy teams had 37 total TDs to Pittsburgh’s 53.
There’s definitely more interesting information on the chart to check out, but I’ll go ahead and move on so I don’t get into TLDR territory.
Now for a similar breakdown McCarthy’s five seasons with Dallas (2020-24), Pittsburgh’s results, and the Steelers in 2025 (when McCarthy wasn’t coaching) for a more recent comparison:
For starters, outside zone remained McCarthy’s most common run scheme. Inside zone was second once again, but he leaned on outside zone much more in Dallas. Interestingly, Pittsburgh shifted to more equal attempts in outside (471 attempts) and inside zone (489 attempts), compared to primarily inside zone in the earlier view.
As expected, there were several differences in frequency from McCarthy’s time in Green Bay and Dallas. Most notable was duo. It was McCarthy’s third highest attempt total (180) in Dallas, compared to none in Green Bay per SIS’s charting.
Here are run type rankings from each coaching spot (GB rank/DAL rank): Outside zone – (1/1). Inside zone – (2/2). Pitch – (3/4). Draw – (4/9). Power – (5/5). Lead – (6/10). Stretch – (7/6). Trap – (8/14). Counter – (9/7). Sweep – (10/8). End around – (11/13). Backward pass – (12/15). Reverse – (13/17). Zone-counter – (14/12). Jet sweep – (15/11). Direct snap – (none/none). FB dive – (none/16). Duo – (none/3). Wham – (none/18).
Long story short, much more variety in Dallas.
Now, who ran each scheme more between McCarthy (in Dallas) and Pittsburgh from 2020-24?
McCarthy: Outside zone, duo, stretch, counter, sweep, lead, zone-counter, backward pass, FB dive.
Pittsburgh: Inside zone, pitch, power, draw, jet sweep, end around, trap, reverse, wham, direct snap.
McCarthy had only five schemes in Green Bay that were ran more than Pittsburgh, compared to nine in this view with Dallas, which is a more even split. So there has been a willingness to be more varied in the run game as his last decade of coaching wore on. Yes, situations and personnel can dictate some of this. But what has occurred, and the success is an important part of his resume.
The 2025 Steelers running game also saw a vast change, with pitch being the scheme ran most (102 attempts). It seemed to be a favorite run check for QB Aaron Rodgers, who was trusted to do so often, potentially boosting those numbers. Pitch was a top-four scheme for McCarthy at both coaching spots, so it will be interesting to watch moving forward.
Former OC Arthur Smith had the reputation of being an outside zone run guy, but we see that was down the list for the 2025 Steelers (32 attempts), compared to 81 inside zone attempts. With a much larger resume of 18 years, McCarthy’s outside zone resume is clearly the most frequent, a much safer sample size to expect it to continue in Pittsburgh.
While it’s great to know what a coach has done, we’ll have to wait and see how it unfolds. I’m cautiously optimistic considering he’s ran virtually every scheme, particularly in Dallas, hopefully leading to flexibility and success in Pittsburgh.
Now, I wanted to examine success rates by season across McCarthy’s entire coaching career, along with Pittsburgh for comparison:
McCarthy’s days with the Packers were largely below the red line (NFL average, 2006-2025). In fact, this occurred in 8 of 13 seasons as Green Bay’s head coach. The 2015 season was barely above the line, while 2013 tied with league average over the span (49.3 percent). This leaves 2008 (51.52 percent), 2017 (52.7 percent), and 2018 (55.1 percent) as his best rush success rates with the Packers (by far).
In fact, his last season in Green Bay was the best mark on the visual, edging out the 2025 Steelers by a tenth of a percentage point. Seeing McCarthy’s run success finish strong in Green Bay and continue in the entirety of his time in Dallas is quite encouraging. In all five of those seasons, the Cowboys had success rates that eclipsed 51.5 percent. So they were consistently above the line under McCarthy.
Similarly, Pittsburgh was above the line four of the last five seasons, with 2024 being the exception (48.81 percent), capped off with their strongest mark of the span last year. This reiterates the progress that was felt watching Pittsburgh compared to 2024. Paired with McCarthy’s vast improvements in his last seven years, it has me quite optimistic for what the running game could look like.
Jalen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell (free agent) are coming off nice seasons. Here’s hoping the latter gets re-signed, the offensive line continues to trend positively, and the running game can build on that in 2026 under McCarthy. What say you?