{"id":707866,"date":"2026-01-27T02:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T02:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/707866\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T02:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T02:38:13","slug":"gonna-be-there-for-a-long-time-former-nfl-dl-gives-steelers-a-grade-for-hiring-mike-mccarthy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/707866\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Gonna Be There For A Long Time’: Former NFL DL Gives Steelers ‘A’ Grade For Hiring Mike McCarthy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike McCarthy is the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 new head coach. It was a surprising decision, as McCarthy did not fit the same mold as the Steelers\u2019 previous head coaches. There\u2019s been a lot of negative reaction to that move, too. Many fans are upset, and several analysts have criticized the<\/a> Steelers\u2019 choice. However, former NFL defensive lineman Gerald McCoy gave the Steelers a great grade for hiring McCarthy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith what Mike McCarthy has been and how Pittsburgh hires, I like it,\u201d McCoy said Monday on The Arena podcast.<\/a> \u201cI gave it an A. Mike McCarthy has coached on four of the big five franchises in history. He\u2019s now [been] head coach of three of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cCowboys, Green Bay, and now Pittsburgh, and he was the OC for the 49ers. He don\u2019t just go for these BS jobs. He\u2019s not just going to coach anybody\u2026 He\u2019s gonna be there for a long time. They\u2019re gonna give him time, allow him to build up.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear what McCoy means by \u201ca long time.\u201d The Steelers\u2019 last three head coaches each stuck around in Pittsburgh for at least 15 seasons. Will McCarthy make it that long? That seems unlikely. He\u2019s currently 62 years old. Is he going to be the Steelers\u2019 coach when he\u2019s almost 80?<\/p>\n

McCarthy might not even be with the<\/a> Steelers for 10 years. They didn\u2019t bring him in to rebuild the team. Art Rooney II wants the Steelers to compete for the Super Bowl. Mike Tomlin often got credit for overachieving with the rosters he had. If the Steelers continue to fail in the playoffs, will McCarthy stick with the Steelers?<\/p>\n

The Steelers didn\u2019t hire someone with a stellar postseason track record, either. McCarthy has an 11-11 record in the playoffs, and he\u2019s only won one playoff game since 2017.<\/p>\n

That lack of success has come with several quality rosters, too.<\/a> That included taking the Dallas Cowboys to the playoffs for three straight seasons but only winning one playoff game. The Cowboys had homefield advantage both years that they went one-and-done in the playoffs, too.<\/p>\n

However, McCoy blamed those struggles on Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, not McCarthy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a Dak [Prescott] problem. Do you know Dak\u2019s second and third highest statistical seasons, who they was under? Mike McCarthy. Before we just blame everything that happened with the Cowboys on Mike McCarthy, we\u2019ve gotta look at what he was able to do with Dak, who everybody was writing off.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Prescott wasn\u2019t perfect in the playoffs during McCarthy\u2019s tenure in Dallas, he wasn\u2019t their sole issue. The Cowboys\u2019 run game was non-existent in their 2021 playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers. That was much the same story when the Cowboys lost to the 49ers in the 2022 playoffs, too. Then, in the 2023 playoffs, McCarthy\u2019s Cowboys allowed the Green Bay Packers to score 48 points.<\/p>\n

Is Aaron Rodgers to blame for McCarthy\u2019s playoff issues with the Packers? They had many of the same issues as McCarthy\u2019s Cowboys. McCarthy isn\u2019t a bad coach, but he doesn\u2019t fit the current iteration of the Steelers. They\u2019re trying to cling to the idea<\/a> that they\u2019re Super Bowl contenders, but that just isn\u2019t the case.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike McCarthy is the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 new head coach. It was a surprising decision, as McCarthy did not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[257,7,34683,7866,57,82234],"class_list":{"0":"post-707866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-dallas-cowboys","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-gerald-mccoy","11":"tag-mike-mccarthy","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-the-arena"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115964746486623697","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}