{"id":743294,"date":"2026-02-10T21:17:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T21:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/743294\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T21:17:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T21:17:16","slug":"former-packers-ol-says-mike-mccarthy-was-still-locked-in-on-nfl-in-2025-despite-not-coaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/743294\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Packers OL Says Mike McCarthy ‘Was Still Locked In’ On NFL In 2025 Despite Not Coaching"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike McCarthy wasn\u2019t everyone\u2019s first choice to become<\/a> the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 next head coach. He isn\u2019t a young up-and-coming name, and he\u2019s only won one playoff game since 2017. However, he\u2019s had success as an NFL head coach, including winning a Super Bowl with the Green Bay Packers. Former NFL offensive lineman Marshall Newhouse, who played for McCarthy from 2010-2013, thinks that the Steelers made a good decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the hire a lot,\u201d Newhouse said recently on the Wisco Sports Show with Grant Bilse.<\/a> \u201cI understand that the Steelers are a different kind of organization and Mike has a lot of ties there, but it just feels right.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt comes down to how much has he progressed as a coach and a leader of an organization. A lot of us had a mini reunion for the Super Bowl team in Green Bay in Week 1 against Detroit. I got to talk to Mike and he still had the itch, you could tell. He was still locked in, was still evaluating.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCarthy was out of the NFL last year, and he said that he spent much of that time with his family. However, as Newhouse explains, he still had an eye on the league.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time McCarthy has returned to coaching after taking a year off. He did the same thing in 2019, right after the Green Bay Packers fired him. Then, the Dallas Cowboys hired McCarthy as their head coach in 2020. While he went 6-10 in his first year there, that was mostly due to injuries. Once the Cowboys were healthy, McCarthy led them to three straight 12-5 seasons.<\/p>\n

Perhaps he\u2019ll have similar success with the Steelers. However, ownership is hoping that McCarthy can help the Steelers win playoff games. That\u2019s been their biggest problem over the last decade.<\/p>\n

Newhouse explained why the Steelers were right to hire McCarthy.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s authentic. I think players respond to that. He respects your agency as a grown man. Obviously, rookies are rookies, and if you\u2019re young, you\u2019ve got to earn your place,\u201d Newhouse said. \u201cBut when you become a veteran, a guy who he can trust, there\u2019s a lot of mutual respect there.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sounds like Mike Tomlin. One of the things his players praised him most for was his authenticity.<\/a> He didn\u2019t beat around the bush. That should help the team transition from Tomlin to McCarthy. Players had a lot of respect for Tomlin, and if McCarthy treats them similarly that should help the two sides connect.<\/p>\n

Still, players liking Tomlin wasn\u2019t enough for the Steelers to win in the postseason. McCarthy has other qualities that should separate him from the Steelers\u2019 former head coach, though. The most notable one is his background. McCarthy\u2019s expertise is on the offensive side of the ball, while Tomlin was a defensive coach.<\/p>\n

Therefore, McCarthy might be able to improve the Steelers\u2019 offense. That unit hasn\u2019t been good enough for years, and it\u2019s been one of the team\u2019s biggest issues. McCarthy wasn\u2019t the most exciting coach on the market, but he also wasn\u2019t the worst option for<\/a> the Steelers, especially considering the direction they want to go.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike McCarthy wasn\u2019t everyone\u2019s first choice to become the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 next head coach. He isn\u2019t a young…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":743295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2072],"tags":[7,41,345,2514,2513,22474,7866,6,428,57],"class_list":{"0":"post-743294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-green-bay-packers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-green-bay","10":"tag-green-bay-packers","11":"tag-greenbay","12":"tag-greenbaypackers","13":"tag-marshall-newhouse","14":"tag-mike-mccarthy","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-packers","17":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116048418956226848","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743294","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=743294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/743295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}