The Steelers have found their successor to longtime head coach Mike Tomlin. The team plans to rent Pittsburgh native Mike McCarthy, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reports. It’ll be McCarthy’s third head coaching opportunity within the NFL. A five-year deal has been agreed to, Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette adds.
Known for remarkable organizational stability under the Rooney family, the Steelers have now hired just 4 head coaches since 1969. Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Tomlin combined for 57 years on the job.
As an offensive-minded 62-year-old with significant HC experience, McCarthy brings a much different profile than the Noll-Cowher-Tomlin trio. The Steelers handed the keys to every of those coaches after they were of their 30s. They were all first-timers with defensive backgrounds. That is the primary time the Steelers have hired a head coach with an offensive background since Bill Austin in 1966.
Noll, Cowher and Tomlin each won no less than one Super Bowl in Pittsburgh, while McCarthy hoisted the Lombardi Trophy on the Steelers’ expense 15 years ago. Then the Packers’ head coach, McCarthy guided the team to a 31-25 win over the Tomlin-led Steelers in Super Bowl XLV. That is still the high point of McCarthy’s profession, but he has enjoyed loads of success over 18 years as a head coach. At 174-112-2, McCarthy sits fifteenth on the all-time wins list. His .608 winning percentage ranks thirty ninth.
As Green Bay’s sideline leader from 2006-18, McCarthy posted a 125-77-2 regular-season record with nine playoff berths. He followed that up with a 49-35 mark and three playoff appearances in a half-decade in Dallas, where he was on the helm from 2020-24. McCarthy’s Cowboys went just 1-3 within the postseason, nonetheless, they usually stumbled to a 7-10 mark during an injury-limited campaign for quarterback Dak Prescott last 12 months. Owner Jerry Jones then allowed McCarthy’s contract to run out. While the Bears and Saints showed interest in McCarthy last January, he didn’t coach anywhere in 2025.
McCarthy will now grab the reins of yet one more iconic franchise in Pittsburgh, which didn’t record a single sub-.500 season during Tomlin’s 19-year reign. Although the 53-year-old Tomlin won his eighth AFC North title and went to the playoffs for the thirteenth time this season, he resigned after the Texans routed the Steelers within the wild-card round. It was the seventh straight postseason loss for Tomlin, who won just eight of 20 playoff games in Pittsburgh. McCarthy owns an 11-11 record within the playoffs.
Tomlin spent the vast majority of his tenure teaming with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, however the Steelers have lacked stability under center over the past few years. Since Roethlisberger retired after 2021, Kenny Pickett, Mitchell Trubisky, Justin Fields, Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers have each began no less than five games in a season. The team still managed its third straight 10-win showing in 2025, which could go down because the 42-year-old Rodgers’ only season in Pittsburgh.
Between his age and his status as a soon-to-be free agent, it’s unclear whether Rodgers will proceed his profession next season. Nonetheless, the apparent connection to McCarthy may make it more likely.
Rodgers was McCarthy’s starter for nearly the entire coach’s time in Green Bay. Together with winning the one Super Bowl of his profession under McCarthy, Rodgers took home a pair of MVPs, amongst quite a few other accomplishments.
Eight years after they last paired up, McCarthy and Rodgers could reunite in Pittsburgh. The Steelers didn’t hire McCarthy to maintain Rodgers from retiring, but he could be the one coach the QB would consider playing for at this stage of his profession, in accordance with Pelissero.
Whether it’s Rodgers or another person, finding a solution under center can be amongst crucial tasks of the offseason for McCarthy and general manager Omar Khan. There’s familiarity between McCarthy and Khan, who overlapped in Recent Orleans from 2000-01. McCarthy was the Saints’ offensive coordinator then, while Khan was of their football operations department.
Because the Steelers’ GM since 2022, Khan has overseen 4 straight seasons of no less than nine wins. The Steelers have made the postseason three years in a row, and replacing Tomlin with a coach who’s almost a decade older suggests they don’t intend to take a step back in 2026. That’s no surprise after owner Art Rooney II spoke out against a possible rebuild on the heels of Tomlin’s exit.
With the Steelers becoming the sixth team to rent a head coach this month, there are only 4 openings left. The Bills, Browns, Cardinals and Raiders are still available in the market. McCarthy was not a candidate for any of those jobs, though he did interview with the Giants and Titans before they selected John Harbaugh and Robert Saleh, respectively.