Mike McCarthy will be the new head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. With this decision, owner Art Rooney II has upset the fans. That’s because McCarthy recently embodied exactly what his predecessor Mike Tomlin was criticized for. A commentary.

Mike McCarthy and the Pittsburgh Steelers. At first glance, this combination has a certain charm.

The coach was born in Pittsburgh and grew up as a Steelers fan. What’s more, he enjoyed his most successful spell as an NFL coach with the Green Bay Packers alongside his then star quarterback Aaron Rodgers – who could now extend his contract in Pittsburgh for another year for the sake of his old teammate.

Sounds like a feel-good story, the kind the NFL loves, right?

Not really. Most of the Steelers fans’ reactions to the McCarthy deal on Saturday ranged from bewilderment to disappointment. A spirit of optimism? Gone in an instant!

NFL: McCarthy also plagued by playoff blues

The problem: McCarthy recently had exactly the same problem as Mike Tomlin in the past decade with the Steelers. Good to very good regular seasons were followed by sobering playoff defeats.

During McCarthy’s last stint with the Dallas Cowboys from 2020 to 2024, his team made the playoffs three times with a strong 12-5 record, only to be eliminated in the divisional round at the latest with an outdated and predictable offense.

It was precisely this phenomenon that caused discontent with Tomlin to grow in Pittsburgh for years. Unlike Tomlin, however, McCarthy also had two completely botched regular seasons.

Yes, McCarthy won a Super Bowl in the distant past with Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers. Or to put it another way, he managed to win only one Super Bowl with perhaps the best NFL quarterback in history in his prime.

Steelers deviate from their own path to success

A warning sign for the Steelers should have been that since his departure from the Cowboys, McCarthy had never again been seriously considered as head coach for an NFL franchise, with a string of up-and-coming young coaches being hired instead. His time in the league seemed to be over. But then came the Steelers.

And by signing McCarthy, they are breaking with their own very special franchise tradition: the 62-year-old is only the fourth head coach of the organization since 1969.

But unlike his three predecessors, he is the first to come in at an advanced coaching age and with head coaching experience. The courage that the Steelers had shown in their previous decisions now seems to have left owner Art Rooney II. Instead of a much-needed fresh start, we now have a sluggish “business as usual” approach in supposed win-now mode. Yet that was precisely what was no longer good enough for the Steelers under Mike Tomlin. So the decision is a missed opportunity.