PITTSBURGH — Steelers owner and team president Art Rooney II cited Mike McCarthy’s previous accomplishments as an NFL head coach and his ability to develop quarterbacks as the difference-making traits that led the organization to tab the 62-year-old Pittsburgh native as the franchise’s next head coach.
“He is someone who has a longer track record than many of the other candidates, a winning track record,” Rooney told the team website in his first public comments since the Steelers and McCarthy reached a verbal agreement Saturday. “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.”
News of the Steelers’ intent to hire McCarthy was met with an overwhelmingly negative response from fans on social media. Rooney, though, rebuffed the discourse.
“We’re really not worried about winning the initial press conference,” Rooney said. “It’s about picking the coach we believe will help us win games, 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.”
The Steelers held three in-person interviews from an initial pool of nine candidates after Mike Tomlin announced his resignation Jan. 13. With a total of 310 games coached between tenures with the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers, McCarthy had the most NFL head coach experience of the group. Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores, who also had an in-person interview, was the only other candidate with NFL head coach experience. The Steelers also held an in-person interview with former Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver.
“We decided that Mike was the man for the job,” Rooney said, “and so we went ahead and offered him the job on Saturday.”
McCarthy breaks the mold of the Steelers’ past three head coach hires. All from defensive backgrounds, Tomlin, Bill Cowher and Chuck Noll assumed the role without any previous NFL head coach experience, and they were all younger than 38 when hired. Not only is McCarthy the NFL’s third-oldest active head coach, he’s also the oldest in franchise history.
With that experience, McCarthy brings a .605 regular-season winning percentage and 185 total wins, including a title in Super Bowl XLV against a Tomlin-coached Steelers team.
Though McCarthy has a relationship with Aaron Rodgers from their 13-season partnership in Green Bay, Rooney said the hiring had nothing to do with trying to woo the quarterback to return for another year.
“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,” Rooney said. “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.”
Rodgers initially signed a one-year deal with the Steelers in June 2025, and while he hasn’t publicly shared his plans for the future, he left the door open to continue his playing career before the Week 18 win against the Baltimore Ravens.
“Whenever the season ends, I’ll be a free agent, so that will give me a lot of options if I still want to play,” he said. “I mean, not a lot of options, but there’ll be options, I would think maybe one or two if I decide I still want to play.”
With Rodgers’ plans up in the air, the Steelers have just two quarterbacks under contract for the 2026 season in veteran backup Mason Rudolph and 2025 sixth-round pick Will Howard. Rooney said McCarthy’s ability to develop quarterbacks was another trait that led to his hiring.
“I think No. 1 is we want a coach who’s going to lead the team to win a championship,” Rooney said. “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.”
Rooney added that McCarthy said in his interview that he believes Howard, who helped Ohio State win a national championship, has “tremendous upside” and that the new coach is “very comfortable” with the quarterback room.
