A new era might well be underway in Pittsburgh, but the Steelers seem to very much be turning back the clock.
The 62-year-old Mike McCarthy has taken the reins let go by Mike Tomlin, who stepped down following his 19th season as the franchise’s head coach.
Returning to his hometown to helm the Steelers, McCarthy is set for his 19th season as a head coach after runs with the Green Bay Packers (13 years) and Dallas Cowboys (five years). In those 18 seasons, McCarthy’s offenses finished top 10 in yards on 11 occasions and top 10 in points 12 times.
So, while he’s looking to rescue the Steelers from their longstanding offensive doldrums, he’s not looking to alter what’s worked for him over the autumns.
“You have core beliefs, which established during those early years, and then off of those come variations,” McCarthy said recently, via Triblive’s Chris Adamski. “You look at pro football, (there are) a lot of similar plays, a lot of similar schemes — but everybody runs them a little differently.”
When McCarthy last ran an offense, it was led by quarterback Dak Prescott and Dallas was 21st in scoring back in 2024. McCarthy’s taking over a Pittsburgh offense that wasn’t much better in 2025, ranking 16th in scoring – its sixth consecutive season outside the top 10 in scoring.
In so many ways, McCarthy’s approach is very much the theme for the 2026 Steelers.
Even though Tomlin has moved on, Pittsburgh, it could be argued, has no issue turning back the clock.
McCarthy is reuniting with quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who’s back for his second year with Pittsburgh and his 22nd – and apparently final – NFL campaign. Rodgers had three head coaches over his time with the Packers, but the majority of his time was spent with McCarthy as his head coach, and Rodgers is enjoying the familiarity of the offense so far.
“I spent 13 years in (McCarthy’s offense),” Rodgers said. “He’s changed some stuff when he was in Dallas. … It’s stuff that we used to run, but he’s just called it something different now.”
Rodgers will have another option out wide this time around with the Steelers having acquired Michael Pittman in a trade with the Indianapolis Colts. Pittman bolsters a WR corps led by DK Metcalf and infused with some youthful energy from second-round rookie Germie Bernard.
“It’s just the next generations of the West Coast offense,” Rodgers said of McCarthy’s offense. “It went kind of Bill Walsh to kind of what Mike was doing with Paul Hackett, and then it’s kind of grown from there.
“From a real fundamental level, it’s all about the quarterback’s timing.”
Having begun his NFL coaching days in 1993 as an offensive quality coach and then a quarterbacks coach with the Kansas City Chiefs under head coach Marty Schottenheimer and offensive coordinator Hackett, McCarthy has a resume filled with offensive success to accompany a 174-112-2 career record with 12 playoff appearances and a Super Bowl XLV win with Rodgers over the Steelers.
The crowning achievement for McCarthy and Rodgers came on Feb. 6, 2011.
All these years later, Rodgers and McCarthy are looking to see what they’ve still got – and if it’s enough to lead Pittsburgh back to playoff prominence. McCarthy booked eight postseason appearances with Rodgers as his starting quarterback in Green Bay, advancing to the NFC Championship Game during their last playoff run together in the 2016 season.
The Steelers haven’t experienced a playoff victory since that same 2016 campaign. Perhaps Rodgers and McCarthy can turn back the clock to a more prosperous time for Pittsburgh and themselves.
“I can definitely tell you we’re getting back to the origin,” running backs coach Ramon Chinyoung Jr., who was an assistant with McCarthy in Dallas, said of the offensive identity. “We’re getting back to the root of coach McCarthy.”
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