It wasn't strictly because he's a Pittsburgh guy, nor was it simply a matter of his reputation for developing young quarterbacks into NFL winners. He wasn't excluded because he's 62, because Andy Reid is 5 years older, and Sean Payton is only 49 days younger and his team played a home game for the 2025 AFC Championship.
On Saturday, Jan. 24, Mike McCarthy was hired to be the Steelers head coach, to be the fourth man to hold the job since 1969. And while President Art Rooney II acknowledged McCarthy's roots and resume were contributing factors in the decision, and that age was not a deal-breaker, it came down to the belief that he was the right man for this job in today's NFL.
The process began with Zoom calls and progressed to in-person interviews, all of which had to be conducted in accordance with the league's rules for candidates whose current teams were involved in the playoffs. Then there came a natural break – did they want to continue/expand the search, or did they believe they found the man for the job?
McCarthy was offered, and he accepted.
"He is someone who has a longer track record than many of the other candidates, a winning track record," said Rooney. "He's been a winner everywhere he's been. Probably just as important for our purposes, the quarterbacks that he's worked with have all been very successful. So he has a proven track record of developing top flight quarterbacks. Those are the things that maybe stick out the most."
Since Ben Roethlisberger retired at the end of the 2021 NFL season, the Steelers have been unable to find a successor at the position. They drafted Kenny Pickett in the first round, they traded for former first-round pick Justin Fields, they re-signed their former No. 3 pick Mason Rudolph, and they briefly did business with veteran free agents Mitchell Trubisky, Russell Wilson, and Aaron Rodgers.
Since none of those options resulted in the team winning in the playoffs, the Steelers still are looking for the answer. Because McCarthy worked with Rodgers in Green Bay and Dak Prescott in Dallas, has 174 regular season wins, and owns a Super Bowl ring, his resume suggests he has what these Steelers need.
"We wound up bringing in three guys for in-person interviews – Brian Flores, Mike McCarthy, and Anthony Weaver – and then we sat down and talked about whether we had our man, or if we wanted to bring in more people for in-person interviews," said Rooney. "We decided that Mike was the man for the job, and so we went ahead and offered him the job on Saturday."
An immediate assumption regarding McCarthy's candidacy was that his connection/rapport with unrestricted-free-agent-to-be Rodgers would facilitate a reunion in Pittsburgh. That was not a determining factor.
"We decided to bring Mike on because we believe that he's the right coach for us at this point to help lead us to a championship," said Rooney. "We don't know what Aaron's plans are right now, and that did not weigh heavily in the decision. We'll see where Aaron is, and we've left the door open, but obviously we all have to sit down and see if that makes sense. So that'll happen sometime in the next month or so. But the decision was made based on Mike being the coach we want, and it really had very little to do with whether Aaron is going to be back or not."
Regardless of whether Rodgers and the Steelers do business again in 2026, their reality is they still need to identify/develop a young quarterback.
"I hesitate to say that's No. 1. I think No. 1 is we want a coach who's going to lead the team to win a championship," said Rooney. "But maybe high on the list after that is someone who can develop a quarterback. And since sooner or later we're going to be working with a young quarterback here, I think Mike's ability to develop the next quarterback is something that certainly is important to us."
As a part of the interview process, each candidate was expected to have thoughts on the Steelers roster and plans to strengthen it, and this was McCarthy's take on the existing names on the depth chart.
"He likes Will Howard, thinks Will has tremendous upside and is looking forward to working with him," said Rooney. "Obviously feels like Mason can be a contributor. We'll have to sit down and discuss where Aaron is, if he decides to come back, and whether that all makes sense. I think Mike was very comfortable with the quarterback room and the possibilities with the quarterback room. In particular, the fact we have a young quarterback on the roster in whom he sees some upside."
But what about what McCarthy is not, which is a thirtysomething former NFL assistant with experience as a defensive coordinator, which describes Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher, and Mike Tomlin? Well, that template might not even exist if Joe Paterno – then a 43-year-old, lifetime college coach whose defenses were constructed by assistants – had accepted Dan Rooney's offer before the Steelers turned to Noll.
Now, all of that is moot. McCarthy was the pick, and it's time to get to work. The most pressing item on the agenda would be assembling a staff, and as a Pittsburgh guy he understands the culture, the importance of football, and the expectation attached to the Steelers.
"He's in the process right now of trying to hire a staff," said Rooney. "It's not an easy task, because some of the people he'd like to hire are under contract to other teams, and so we've got to get permission to talk to them. But just in general, the people he had targeted for key positions – offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, offensive line coach, and those kinds of things – we were very comfortable with the discussion around that."
The chatter throughout Steelers Nation in the immediate aftermath of this hire has been largely negative. But it wasn't as though there were any ticker-tape parades when Noll, Cowher, and Tomlin were hired either.
"We're really not worried about winning the initial press conference. It's about picking the coach we believe will help us win games," said Rooney, "and social media really doesn't enter into it. And none of that will matter once we're starting to play games.
"The message for our fans is we're very excited. We think we have a coach who is well-equipped to lead us into the next winning phase of Steelers football, and that's what it's all about. I think they're going to love Coach Mike."
