The Pittsburgh Steelers’ brief search for a new head coach has come to an end, and it concluded with the most Steelers status-quo hire imaginable.
Rather than wait to bring in Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula or pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase for respective second interviews and potentially hire one of the young up-and-comers, or give the keys to the likes of Brian Flores or Anthony Weaver, the Steelers did the most stuck in the past, scared of change thing they could do and hired former Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy.
For what it’s worth, you can absolutely make the argument that McCarthy is an upgrade over Tomlin. He has 11 10-win seasons in 18 years as a head coach (Tomlin had 12 in 19 seasons). Additionally, he has 11 playoff wins to Tomlin’s eight, including a win over Tomlin in Super Bowl XLV.
The problem isn’t that McCarthy is a bad head coach – he’s not. However, he’s 62 years old and not what the Steelers needed. They needed a reset with a young mind leading them into a new era, which is exactly what they needed when they hired 34-year-old Bill Cowher in 1992 and 24-year-old Mike Tomlin in 2007. They’ve done this before, but for whatever reason, they seemingly forgot.
Could this hire be a net positive? Sure. McCarthy is an offensive-minded coach, which fans have been wanting for quite some time. From 2021-23, the Cowboys’ offense ranked first, 11th, and fifth in total offense. Again, he isn’t a bad coach, but this just feels like going from an Altima to an Accord. And they can push that this has nothing to do with Aaron Rodgers, but it hardly feels like a coincidence that Pittsburgh has made it known they want Rodgers back, and then hire his former head coach shortly after the fact. In a nutshell, this is a short-sighted hire used to bring back a 42-year-old quarterback to play the hits together like it’s 2012. The best version of the McCarthy-Rodgers duo won a single NFC Championship – what do the Steelers think the Paramount Plus reboot version will do?
Pittsburgh had a chance to completely change who they are and get with the times of the modern NFL. That’s what the Baltimore Ravens did. They fired John Harbaugh and hired 42-year-old Jesse Minter, who is one of the game’s brightest defensive minds. With the likes of Shula (39), Scheelhaase (35), Flores (44), and Weaver (45) all younger, fresh faces of whom Pittsburgh could have built their new identity around, they instead have decided to continue riding on horseback when there are cars on the road.
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