Let’s Wait On McCarthy

[Steeldrama]

Steve Bono and Aaron Brooks had their best years under him. He got Alex Smith to a serviceable level. MM worked with Favre too. Rodgers and Dak as well.

MM was far from my favorite choice, but let's not pretend he knows nothing about offense or QBs.

FAVRE?!?!

Ohhh dude you didn’t

Well at least you didn’t mention Joe Montana like some other dolts out there

[langer]

Bil Cowher on Mike McCarthy hire:

"Well, I know that Art Rooney, Omar did that and also Dan Jr., sat there and they did a very diligent look at what was out there. They did a lot of interviews, sat back, but also looked at their football team.

And I really like this hire for this reason. Number one, he's an offensive minded guy in Mike McCarthy. Everywhere he has been. He grew up under Marty Schottenheimer, so he understands the value of running the football. He coached Joe Montana.

He coached Brett Favre. He coached Aaron Rodgers. He coached Dak Prescott. Everywhere he's been, he's uplifted the offense.

And if you look at the Pittsburgh Steelers right now, if there's been inconsistencies in the last recent years, it's been the instability of having a reliable offense. They've got defensive guys that can sack the quarterback. They can create turnovers.

So I like where they're at. He also walks into that room with credibility, so I like what they did. He'll put together a good staff right here. Oh yeah, he's from Pittsburgh too. That doesn't make it bad.

He knows the tradition. He knows what the expectation is. He knows what that fan base is all about. He's a Yinzer. I think it's a very good hire for the Pittsburgh Steelers."

I appreciate Bill throwing a huge bucket of shit on top of Coach T's head with this.

More of this please. Better late than never.

Tomlin wont be able to show his face. They're going to try to rehab his image, but this is a damning indictment.

Much like Tommy Maddoxc drove a stake into the heart of Kordellism, MM will drive a stake into CoachT's horrible brand of football. I am fairly confident in this.

Just imagine, an offense that scores points when needed.

Maybe Mike will get on the Ozempic train and lose a few pounds. Can be hard in the Burgh with all the good restaurants and breweries.

[6Trophies]

Madden Monday: Some quiet, underlying reasons why Mike McCarthy got hired

Mike McCarthy told Art Rooney II ‘what he wants to hear’ about how close the team is to contending
By Tim Benz

https://triblive.com/sports/madden-mond ... got-hired/

On the topic of the Pittsburgh Steelers hiring Mike McCarthy to be their new head coach, Mark Madden of TribLive and 105.9 The X shared an opinion similar to one that I advanced on Sunday.

The gripe is more about the process than the person.

“I don’t get why they didn’t bother to interview the two L.A. Rams guys (Chris Shula and Nathan Scheelhaase) in person,” Madden said during this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast. “I don’t get it if this is a way to keep Aaron Rodgers. If so, why would they want to do that? I don’t get who plays quarterback if they don’t bring Rodgers back, although it seems like Art (Rooney II) and McCarthy are high on Will Howard and giving him a shot. I just don’t get a lot of this.

“He’s a good offensive mind, which is a change from what they’ve hired for their last three head coaching choices. But I just don’t understand the brevity of the process, and I’m not sure I get the hire. I don’t think it’s a bad hire. It’s just not the hire I would have made.”

During the podcast, Madden and I stumbled onto two potential reasons why McCarthy impressed Rooney to the point that he didn’t even bother waiting until this week to interview any candidates from the Rams or the other coaches who participated during Sunday’s conference championship games.

The first is Madden’s theory that McCarthy may not have made any demands to expand the coaching staff much beyond the NFL-low numbers they operated with under Mike Tomlin.

“McCarthy’s a guy who won’t make them do that. I think Scheelhaase and guys like that — (Klay) Kubiak — would have asked for that anyway and gotten chapped when they didn’t (expand),” Madden said.

However, according to ESPN.com, McCarthy had a 24-person staff in Dallas. Tomlin only had 18 here. So we’ll see if McCarthy gets to add at least a few more bodies now that he is in charge.

Another idea I floated is that McCarthy appealed to Rooney in the sense that, at 62 years old with a Super Bowl ring, this hire will keep veterans such as T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward content. Those guys may have grumbled at the notion of a rookie coach such as Scheelhaase, Shula or Kubiak taking over for Tomlin.

“That’s for sure, true,” Madden replied. “They’re trying to win for T.J. and for Cam, because they ‘deserve better.’ The people who say they ‘deserve better’ are just stupid. They’re ignoring that those two were at the scene of the crime every time they lost the playoff game. Those two don’t deserve better. They needed to do better in the crunch. They needed to help the team win those playoff games they lost.”

Madden also thinks that McCarthy’s apparent faith in quarterback Will Howard was attractive to Rooney II.

“It’s not a matter of saying what will work. It’s not a matter, in any job interview, of being honest,” Madden continued. “It’s a matter of telling the guy that’s interviewing you what he wants to hear so you get the job. And I’m thinking McCarthy told Art, ‘There’s nothing wrong with his team right now. You’re not that far off.’ And that was reflected with some of the things Art said.”

[.Kodiak]

People keep saying this might be an effort to keep Rodgers.

I'd be SHOCKED if Rodgers wanted to play for McCarthy again. These people clearly never paid attention to GB when those guys were there.

[Orangesteel]

Didn’t Rodgers have some not so nice things to say about MM and end there in GB?

I don’t want Aaron back. I’m happy he made them fun to watch on some occasions this season but he’s not the guy.

[Greeksteel]

Didn’t Rodgers have some not so nice things to say about MM and end there in GB?

I don’t want Aaron back. I’m happy he made them fun to watch on some occasions this season but he’s not the guy.

Same and i didnt even find him that fun to watch personally. If MM is such a QB whisperer, try to develop Howard, or Malik Willis or even Wil Levis. I might even throw a mid round dart at Allar, see if any of them can be the guy and if not, position yourself to grab a QB in a loaded 2027 class.

[Gonzo]

I definitely dont want rodgers back -- thats a dead end game

and really dont get this -- fun to watch stuff --what was fun ... watching him cower under pressure or blame everyone but himself with his shitty looks after plays ... or maybe telling us after games how much fun he is having.

if it has to be this way just give Howard a shot until he proves otherwise and then draft and develop

they bring rodgers back or cousins in or even WIllis ... well .... Rooney will have finally sucked the last of the zeal and money out of us

[Jobu]

Didn’t Rodgers have some not so nice things to say about MM and end there in GB?

I don’t want Aaron back. I’m happy he made them fun to watch on some occasions this season but he’s not the guy.

I’ve asked this before…wasn’t Rodgers in some way responsible for McCarthy getting fired in GB?
McCarthy wouldn’t have been my uneducated choice, but I’m not gonna lose my shit over it.
I want no part of another season of Aaron Rodgers.

[bradshaw2ben]

Steve Bono and Aaron Brooks had their best years under him. He got Alex Smith to a serviceable level. MM worked with Favre too. Rodgers and Dak as well.

MM was far from my favorite choice, but let's not pretend he knows nothing about offense or QBs.

Ingle Martin, Brian Brohm, Matt Flynn, BJ Coleman, Brett Hundley, Ben DiNucci. These are the QBs Mike McCarthy has drafted and developed. He's like a rich kid who inherited a fortune (Montana, Favre, Rodgers, Dak) and people act like he's a great businessman. *cough* AR2 *cough*.

[CKSteeler]

Steve Bono and Aaron Brooks had their best years under him. He got Alex Smith to a serviceable level. MM worked with Favre too. Rodgers and Dak as well.

MM was far from my favorite choice, but let's not pretend he knows nothing about offense or QBs.

Ingle Martin, Brian Brohm, Matt Flynn, BJ Coleman, Brett Hundley, Ben DiNucci. These are the QBs Mike McCarthy has drafted and developed. He's like a rich kid who inherited a fortune (Montana, Favre, Rodgers, Dak) and people act like he's a great businessman. *cough* AR2 *cough*.

It's hard to say what role McCarthy played in developing Rodgers as we saw little of him in his first few seasons, but he did retool his throwing mechanics did he not? Came in and played at a pretty high level right away.

Favre was definitely in a career slump when McCarthy took over and revived things.

Dak was still young and learning when McCarthy came there and he had strong results regardless. We can definitely debate how much was him as the 'Cowboys had legit offensive talent.

Not saying I disagree completely with you. His sales pitch to me is at least part a bunch of bullshit. I'm sure as fuck not giving him credit for Joe fucking Montana's last two years in KC when he was some guy just getting his start and probably bringing Marty his coffee and cocktails in between him impregnating waitresses who worked within the general vicinity of Aarowhead.

But there's nuance to all this. I still remember scratching my head when the Packers even hired him back in the day but things worked out pretty ok for them. He certainly didn't seem to do much with Alex Smith in the year they worked together.

[Dan Smith--BYU]

Matt Flynn showed rapid improvement and got a huge contract with Seattle then did nothing after Carroll (wisely) went with Russ.

That indicates that MMac did a really good job with a mediocrity.

[Steel Ubaldo]

Didn’t Rodgers have some not so nice things to say about MM and end there in GB?

I don’t want Aaron back. I’m happy he made them fun to watch on some occasions this season but he’s not the guy.

Same and i didnt even find him that fun to watch personally. If MM is such a QB whisperer, try to develop Howard, or Malik Willis or even Wil Levis. I might even throw a mid round dart at Allar, see if any of them can be the guy and if not, position yourself to grab a QB in a loaded 2027 class.

Drew fucking Allar???? You better make that dart of the tranquilizer variety because that guy SUCKS.

[franco32]

Steve Bono and Aaron Brooks had their best years under him. He got Alex Smith to a serviceable level. MM worked with Favre too. Rodgers and Dak as well.

MM was far from my favorite choice, but let's not pretend he knows nothing about offense or QBs.

Ingle Martin, Brian Brohm, Matt Flynn, BJ Coleman, Brett Hundley, Ben DiNucci. These are the QBs Mike McCarthy has drafted and developed. He's like a rich kid who inherited a fortune (Montana, Favre, Rodgers, Dak) and people act like he's a great businessman. *cough* AR2 *cough*.

The truth is somewhere in the middle. Aaron Rodgers did improve a lot under MM. Was it all on his own raw talent or did MM contribute? He's the rich kid who inherited a fortune and did some things to retool the business in a way that it had some good years, and even one stellar one. He's not a total moron, but he's not the inspired hiring we all wanted. He sure as hell gives us a better chance to do something than Tomlin continuing in the role. I much preferred him to Toxic Flores or Mr. Violence and Physicality Weaver.

[lifelongsteel]

What's with all the 50/60/70 year olds on this site pining for a young gun? Whatever your profession, don't you think you are better at it today than you were when you were 35? Assuming you still want to do it of course.

McCarthy is certainly not exciting. But . . .
- he's a million times better than Flores or Weaver
- he's certainly more certain that Shula or Scheelhaase,the latter of whom has really done nothing, the former of whom would fit the exact hiring mold that we all hate
- Klint Kubiak . . . yeah that one would have gotten me excited, but who knows if he's really a head coach vs. just being a top OC

Re: rebuild vs. compete

I believe the Steelers would have been a legit super bowl contender if they had made these decisions that were all well within their grasp:
- Darnold instead of Rodgers
- Keep Pickens
- Keep Minkah

I know a lot of you will disagree, but you will also claim that Tomlin sucks. It's not possible to have a shitty coach and shitty players and go 10-7 consistently. Can't have it both ways.

Going forward obviously QB is the big question. Whatever you want to say about McCarthy, he at least knows what great QB play looks like. I trust him a lot more to make a good QB decision than the other candidates. And btw it was very clearly reported that Rodgers and McCarthy didn't get a long. But, after watching Rodgers up close for just one year, I am reasonably confident that any issue between him and someone else is likely Rodgers' fault.

So, I'm taking a cautiously optimistic approach. Still happy Tomlin's gone. Excited to see who the coordinators are and how they build the roster.

[bradshaw2ben]

What's with all the 50/60/70 year olds on this site pining for a young gun? Whatever your profession, don't you think you are better at it today than you were when you were 35? Assuming you still want to do it of course.

McCarthy is certainly not exciting. But . . .
- he's a million times better than Flores or Weaver
- he's certainly more certain that Shula or Scheelhaase,the latter of whom has really done nothing, the former of whom would fit the exact hiring mold that we all hate
- Klint Kubiak . . . yeah that one would have gotten me excited, but who knows if he's really a head coach vs. just being a top OC

Re: rebuild vs. compete

I believe the Steelers would have been a legit super bowl contender if they had made these decisions that were all well within their grasp:
- Darnold instead of Rodgers
- Keep Pickens
- Keep Minkah

I know a lot of you will disagree, but you will also claim that Tomlin sucks. It's not possible to have a shitty coach and shitty players and go 10-7 consistently. Can't have it both ways.

Going forward obviously QB is the big question. Whatever you want to say about McCarthy, he at least knows what great QB play looks like. I trust him a lot more to make a good QB decision than the other candidates. And btw it was very clearly reported that Rodgers and McCarthy didn't get a long. But, after watching Rodgers up close for just one year, I am reasonably confident that any issue between him and someone else is likely Rodgers' fault.

So, I'm taking a cautiously optimistic approach. Still happy Tomlin's gone. Excited to see who the coordinators are and how they build the roster.

Becasue we're old enough to remember that it's a young man's game. Remember Joe Gibbs when he came back at age 63? How there was so much excitement about how great a HC he was? He went 30-34. The main takeaway was that he was still the same coach but the league never rests. It gets better and better every year. You have to be amazing at continuing to learn, improve, & innovate just to keep up.

Dick Vermeil at age 61 had one amazing year with team #2 and one pretty good year with his age 70 3rd team, but he was also way ahead of his time and a whole lot better than Couch Mike.

Sure, Mike McCarthy had a similar career early on to Mike Tomlin. But, just like Tomlin, chances are he's an outdated version of himself. He was already mediocre 51-64-1 without Favre/Rodgers/Dak. Now, he's 62, has no QB, has never drafted and developed one beyond career backup-level, and the league standards for offense are light years beyond what he's been running.

Yes, the young heads don't yet know what they don't know... but they're also brighter and have learned offense from people who are better in 2026 terms than Couch Mike or Art Smith or Matt Canada or Todd Haley et al.

[drmalba]

Having a few days to vent my sarcasm, digest the news and think about it, I'm not hating it as much as I did Monday, but I'm still hung up on a couple things:

- They hired him to win now. Id wager they are thinking he could juice this team up similar to when he took over for Jason Garrett back in the day. But we were already capable of winning regular season games (c.f., NHALS). We need playoff wins. With far more talented rosters, MCarthy hasn't had any significant runs since Tomlins last run. And no coach in league history has won it all with two different teams, much less three.

- We expected change would not just seek to remedy a culture of disappointment, but would be a harbringer of a better brand of football. Despite his offensive focus, criticism for playoff dementia, challenges with clock management, and lazy/conservative playcalling dogged him all though his Dallas tenure and later-stage Green Bay. That isn't inspiring confidence for him fixing what ails Steeler football in the last decade.

Now for the positives, he's worked with a lot of good QBs, and we have a young one that might have some upside and a young OL with a lot of upside. Hes likely going to build a much better staff than Tomlin has. If history is our guide, if he can find an effective passer, he's going to rack more yards and score more points than Tomlins offenses had since the bygone days of Todd Haley. Meaning we might win games the old fashioned way instead of magical horseshoe summoning. It may also mean a second chance/different vantage point on some of our recent doghouse draft picks like Johnson and Wilson. And it's a minor thing, though he's not nearly as quotable, this guy is full yinzer, and has way more of a lunch pail, down to earth personality than Tomlin did. So those of you who were well beyond tired of Coach T's antics are definitely in for some relief this year.

I totally feel and get the frustration of everyone here. It does feel like we missed a chance for a real sea change. But this is going to be a different brand of Steeler football for sure going forward, so let's see what kind of staff he builds, let's see what kind of draft he pulls together with Khan.

[StillerDownSouth]

What's with all the 50/60/70 year olds on this site pining for a young gun? Whatever your profession, don't you think you are better at it today than you were when you were 35? Assuming you still want to do it of course.

McCarthy is certainly not exciting. But . . .
- he's a million times better than Flores or Weaver
- he's certainly more certain that Shula or Scheelhaase,the latter of whom has really done nothing, the former of whom would fit the exact hiring mold that we all hate
- Klint Kubiak . . . yeah that one would have gotten me excited, but who knows if he's really a head coach vs. just being a top OC

Re: rebuild vs. compete

I believe the Steelers would have been a legit super bowl contender if they had made these decisions that were all well within their grasp:
- Darnold instead of Rodgers
- Keep Pickens
- Keep Minkah

I know a lot of you will disagree, but you will also claim that Tomlin sucks. It's not possible to have a shitty coach and shitty players and go 10-7 consistently. Can't have it both ways.

Going forward obviously QB is the big question. Whatever you want to say about McCarthy, he at least knows what great QB play looks like. I trust him a lot more to make a good QB decision than the other candidates. And btw it was very clearly reported that Rodgers and McCarthy didn't get a long. But, after watching Rodgers up close for just one year, I am reasonably confident that any issue between him and someone else is likely Rodgers' fault.

So, I'm taking a cautiously optimistic approach. Still happy Tomlin's gone. Excited to see who the coordinators are and how they build the roster.

Becasue we're old enough to remember that it's a young man's game. Remember Joe Gibbs when he came back at age 63? How there was so much excitement about how great a HC he was? He went 30-34. The main takeaway was that he was still the same coach but the league never rests. It gets better and better every year. You have to be amazing at continuing to learn, improve, & innovate just to keep up.

Dick Vermeil at age 61 had one amazing year with team #2 and one pretty good year with his age 70 3rd team, but he was also way ahead of his time and a whole lot better than Couch Mike.

Sure, Mike McCarthy had a similar career early on to Mike Tomlin. But, just like Tomlin, chances are he's an outdated version of himself. He was already mediocre 51-64-1 without Favre/Rodgers/Dak. Now, he's 62, has no QB, has never drafted and developed one beyond career backup-level, and the league standards for offense are light years beyond what he's been running.

Yes, the young heads don't yet know what they don't know... but they're also brighter and have learned offense from people who are better in 2026 terms than Couch Mike or Art Smith or Matt Canada or Todd Haley et al.

My biggest issue with McCarthy hire is it almost seemed pre-ordained in a sense, Steelers had 3 people in for in person interviews, two of which were very uninspiring to the fan base, they did not cast a wide net, I mean how the fuck do you interview Flores, Weaver and McCarthy and call it a day? They could have interviewed 3-4 other guys this week and still hired McCarthy had they felt he was the best candidate, hell they could have waited two months and still been able to hire McCarthy. The biggest issue with this organization is ArtII and his lackeys, I'm not sure Dan Jr will be any better, but I know for sure he can't be any worse.

[lifelongsteel]

Ages of the last 10 superbowl winning head coaches (when they won the title)

- 44
- 66
- 65
- 36
- 73
- 68
- 61
- 66
- 50
- 64
- 54
- 62

The coaches who won in their 60's were on at least their 2nd team as HC and had not won with their previous teams. And none of those were Pete Carroll.

Cignetti is 64 and just turned in maybe the best college coaching season in history.

Not a young man's game. Talented coaches are talented coaches. If they are willing to grind.

[bradshaw2ben]

Having a few days to vent my sarcasm, digest the news and think about it, I'm not hating it as much as I did Monday, but I'm still hung up on a couple things:

- They hired him to win now. Id wager they are thinking he could juice this team up similar to when he took over for Jason Garrett back in the day. But we were already capable of winning regular season games (c.f., NHALS). We need playoff wins. With far more talented rosters, MCarthy hasn't had any significant runs since Tomlins last run. And no coach in league history has won it all with two different teams, much less three.

- We expected change would not just seek to remedy a culture of disappointment, but would be a harbringer of a better brand of football. Despite his offensive focus, criticism for playoff dementia, challenges with clock management, and lazy/conservative playcalling dogged him all though his Dallas tenure and later-stage Green Bay. That isn't inspiring confidence for him fixing what ails Steeler football in the last decade.

Now for the positives, he's worked with a lot of good QBs, and we have a young one that might have some upside and a young OL with a lot of upside. Hes likely going to build a much better staff than Tomlin has. If history is our guide, if he can find an effective passer, he's going to rack more yards and score more points than Tomlins offenses had since the bygone days of Todd Haley. Meaning we might win games the old fashioned way instead of magical horseshoe summoning. It may also mean a second chance/different vantage point on some of our recent doghouse draft picks like Johnson and Wilson. And it's a minor thing, though he's not nearly as quotable, this guy is full yinzer, and has way more of a lunch pail, down to earth personality than Tomlin did. So those of you who were well beyond tired of Coach T's antics are definitely in for some relief this year.

I totally feel and get the frustration of everyone here. It does feel like we missed a chance for a real sea change. But this is going to be a different brand of Steeler football for sure going forward, so let's see what kind of staff he builds, let's see what kind of draft he pulls together with Khan.

The staff he might hire would seem to be one of the bigger plusses... but the brand of football isn't all that different unless he has a high-flying QB. He's had criticism for being too conservative and mismanaging games/timeouts, etc.

@lifelongsteel how many of those were Belichick wth the GOAT QB? Comparing midcareer Belichick with Mike McCarthy is laughable. Heck compared to Andy Reid, McCarthy is a schlub.

We can reserve judgement for now, but you wait and see how the offseason plays out, if they panic reach for a QB, overpay a vet QB, hire jabroni yinzer coaching staff, etc. The naysayers will either be proven wrong before they even kick off the season or it will be obvious to everyone that the emperor has no clothes.

You know what might have been cool? Hiring Undinski or Schellhasse and bringing back Bruce Arians as his version of Leslie Frazier for the Seahawks. I'd trust BA to draft and develop WRs/QBs more than anyone in the Steelers yinzer universe. That guy was the key to the string of amazing WR draft picks and he led great teams with Peyton, Ben, Andrew Luck, and Tom Brady, & Carson Palmer as well as with Kelly Holcomb, Drew Stanton, & Jameis Winston. You get the same benefits as far as having someone who's worked with the greats, but with so much more. And maybe all you had to do was apologize.

[CKSteeler]

Art II spewing more of his bullshit - the Steelers had a veteran roster so they needed a veteran coach ready to win now.

Tomlin was hired with a far more cohesive roster set up for long term success than anything resembling what they have now. You have two truly veteran guys on defense in Watt and Heyward. Despite the contract they just gave Watt, neither is likely going to be here for more then 2-3 seasons (generous there for Heyward I'd say).

Guy truly is delusional.

And I guarantee that McCarthy got this job because he was the guy who went into that interview and said exactly what Art II wanted to hear about the state of his franchise. Change? Why change? NHALS, bro! We're right there!

[6Trophies]

Mike McCarthy stars in...

https://x.com/sasquatchvlogtv/status/20 ... 88142?s=20

[DumlinBumlinStumlin]

Madden Monday: Some quiet, underlying reasons why Mike McCarthy got hired

Mike McCarthy told Art Rooney II ‘what he wants to hear’ about how close the team is to contending
By Tim Benz

https://triblive.com/sports/madden-mond ... got-hired/

On the topic of the Pittsburgh Steelers hiring Mike McCarthy to be their new head coach, Mark Madden of TribLive and 105.9 The X shared an opinion similar to one that I advanced on Sunday.

The gripe is more about the process than the person.

“I don’t get why they didn’t bother to interview the two L.A. Rams guys (Chris Shula and Nathan Scheelhaase) in person,” Madden said during this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast. “I don’t get it if this is a way to keep Aaron Rodgers. If so, why would they want to do that? I don’t get who plays quarterback if they don’t bring Rodgers back, although it seems like Art (Rooney II) and McCarthy are high on Will Howard and giving him a shot. I just don’t get a lot of this.

“He’s a good offensive mind, which is a change from what they’ve hired for their last three head coaching choices. But I just don’t understand the brevity of the process, and I’m not sure I get the hire. I don’t think it’s a bad hire. It’s just not the hire I would have made.”

During the podcast, Madden and I stumbled onto two potential reasons why McCarthy impressed Rooney to the point that he didn’t even bother waiting until this week to interview any candidates from the Rams or the other coaches who participated during Sunday’s conference championship games.

The first is Madden’s theory that McCarthy may not have made any demands to expand the coaching staff much beyond the NFL-low numbers they operated with under Mike Tomlin.

“McCarthy’s a guy who won’t make them do that. I think Scheelhaase and guys like that — (Klay) Kubiak — would have asked for that anyway and gotten chapped when they didn’t (expand),” Madden said.

However, according to ESPN.com, McCarthy had a 24-person staff in Dallas. Tomlin only had 18 here. So we’ll see if McCarthy gets to add at least a few more bodies now that he is in charge.

Another idea I floated is that McCarthy appealed to Rooney in the sense that, at 62 years old with a Super Bowl ring, this hire will keep veterans such as T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward content. Those guys may have grumbled at the notion of a rookie coach such as Scheelhaase, Shula or Kubiak taking over for Tomlin.

“That’s for sure, true,” Madden replied. “They’re trying to win for T.J. and for Cam, because they ‘deserve better.’ The people who say they ‘deserve better’ are just stupid. They’re ignoring that those two were at the scene of the crime every time they lost the playoff game. Those two don’t deserve better. They needed to do better in the crunch. They needed to help the team win those playoff games they lost.”

Madden also thinks that McCarthy’s apparent faith in quarterback Will Howard was attractive to Rooney II.

“It’s not a matter of saying what will work. It’s not a matter, in any job interview, of being honest,” Madden continued. “It’s a matter of telling the guy that’s interviewing you what he wants to hear so you get the job. And I’m thinking McCarthy told Art, ‘There’s nothing wrong with his team right now. You’re not that far off.’ And that was reflected with some of the things Art said.”

this is what i inferred from some of the other media drops on this sad hiring. Florio dropped it last week about how we have another fraud named Mike who is lazy and doesn't pay attention to detail lately (past 6-7 years)

[drmalba]

.
You know what might have been cool? Hiring Undinski or Schellhasse and bringing back Bruce Arians as his version of Leslie Frazier for the Seahawks. I'd trust BA to draft and develop WRs/QBs more than anyone in the Steelers yinzer universe. That guy was the key to the string of amazing WR draft picks and he led great teams with Peyton, Ben, Andrew Luck, and Tom Brady, & Carson Palmer as well as with Kelly Holcomb, Drew Stanton, & Jameis Winston. You get the same benefits as far as having someone who's worked with the greats, but with so much more. And maybe all you had to do was apologize.

I would love for that to happen. He is no doubt one of the best QB whisperers of our generation. Unfortunately this franchise yeeted him so far out of the Burgh he wouldn't dream of coming back to work here without the promise of a pair of Rooney testicles hanging off his tailpipe.

[Who Dee Knee]

People keep saying this might be an effort to keep Rodgers.

I'd be SHOCKED if Rodgers wanted to play for McCarthy again. These people clearly never paid attention to GB when those guys were there.

We can’t bring back Rodgers. We need a QB who can run for a first down.

[langer]

There is no way that old fuck Art would commit to an unknown.

He's probably golfed with Mike. He knows who he is and what he's getting.

This franchise is more mired in the past than almost any other.

There is no John Lynch coming to shake things up.

I do think the team will be better with McCarthy. Maybe the Jogger will get his shit together and make an effort.

[6Trophies]

Cowboys' Lunda Wells, Tight Ends coach, to interview with Mike McCarthy for OC role

https://steelersdepot.com/2026/01/schef ... ator-role/

[langer]

Here come his drinkin buddies.