{"id":716120,"date":"2026-01-30T08:56:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T08:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/716120\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T08:56:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T08:56:20","slug":"scott-tolzien-lucky-to-interview-with-steelers-mike-mccarthy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/716120\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Tolzien ‘Lucky’ to Interview with Steelers, Mike McCarthy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senior Bowl<\/a>\u2022Steelers News<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"PittsburghNew Orleans Saints quarterbacks coach Scott Tolzien at practice for the 2026 Senior Bowl on Jan. 29, 2026. — Alan Saunders \/ Steelers Now\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

MOBILE, Ala. \u2014 Scott Tolzien came to the 2026 Senior Bowl<\/a> to be an offensive coordinator for the first time in his coaching career. He\u2019s leaving it as candidate to be one at the NFL leave.<\/p>\n

Tolzien, who had a nine-year career as an NFL backup quarterback, just finished his first season as the quarterbacks coach of the New Orleans Saints. His work with young quarterbacks Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shough drew rave reviews from around the NFL, and he was chosen to be the offensive coordinator of the American Team at the Senior Bowl this week \u2014 an honor usually reserved for one of the fastest-rising offensive position coaches in the NFL.<\/p>\n

Then earlier this week, his old boss came calling, as new Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy<\/a> requested to interview Tolzien for the Steelers\u2019 offensive coordinator vacancy.<\/p>\n

Tolzien is one of three confirmed candidates so far, along with Dallas Cowboys tight ends coach Lunda Wells<\/a> and Minnesota Vikings passing game coordinator Brian Angelichio<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the first time that he\u2019s been requested to interview for an NFL offensive coordinator position.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you get an opportunity to go interview for one of these that\u2019s a really great growth opportunity,\u201d Tolzien said after the American Team practice on Thursday. \u201cSo I\u2019m lucky that I\u2019m in the position that I enjoy where I\u2019m at. Things are going really good, and yet, you always see what\u2019s out there. But my focus right now is on this game. Like it\u2019s awesome being here with all these players and coaches, so you want to put your best foot forward with them and give it your best shot.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

If hired in Pittsburgh, Tolzien would be reunited with McCarthy, who coached him as a player before giving him his big break as a coach. Tolzien spent three seasons with the Packers from 2013-15. In 2020, McCarthy gave him his first full-time job as a coach. Tolzien worked his way up from coaching assistant to quarterbacks coach with the Cowboys.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been incredible for my career, both as a player and a coach,\u201d Tolzien said. \u201cSo, I\u2019ve learned a ton about how to approach a game plan, how to manage a team and everything in between. He\u2019s gotten these jobs for a reason, and I\u2019m super appreciative to have crossed paths with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Pittsburgh, Tolzien could also get back together with his former teammate, Aaron Rodgers<\/a>. Rodgers was the starter the three seasons Tolzien spent in Green Bay as his backup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really haven\u2019t put a whole lot of thought into that, but it\u2019s super cool,\u201d Tolzien said. \u201cI mean, I have a ton of respect for, in my opinion, one of the greatest passers that\u2019s played this game\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PittsburghLSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier at practice for the 2026 Senior Bowl on Jan. 29, 2026. \u2014 Alan Saunders \/ Steelers Now<\/p>\n

Should the Steelers hire Tolzien, they\u2019d also be getting an up-close and personal experience with three 2026 NFL Draft<\/a> quarterback prospects, as well. Tolzien has been coaching Arkansas\u2019 Taylen Green, Illinois\u2019 Luke Altmeyer and LSU\u2019s Garrett Nussmeier<\/a>. Tolzien\u2019s involvement with Nussmeier goes way beyond his three practices this week.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been serving under Doug Nussmeier, Garrett\u2019s father, who is the offensive coordinator with the Saints and was previously the quarterbacks coach in Dallas under McCarthy, when Tolzien was his assistant.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been awesome, just to get to spend more time with him and actually do football with him,\u201d Garrett Nussmeier said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of fun. I\u2019ve really enjoyed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tolzien will call the plays in Saturday\u2019s Senior Bowl, which kicks off at 2:30 p.m. on NFL Network<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article: Mike McCarthy<\/a> Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> Scott Tolzien<\/a> Senior Bowl<\/a> Steelers<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senior Bowl\u2022Steelers News New Orleans Saints quarterbacks coach Scott Tolzien at practice for the 2026 Senior Bowl on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,7866,6,520,57,2360,5897,3654,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-716120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-mike-mccarthy","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","14":"tag-scott-tolzien","15":"tag-senior-bowl","16":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115983220464335786","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716120","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=716120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}