PITTSBURGH — Mike McCarthy is coming home.
The Steelers have verbally agreed with the 62-year-old Pittsburgh native to become just their fourth head coach since 1969, the team announced Saturday afternoon.
The news of McCarthy’s hire comes just 11 days after Mike Tomlin told the team he was walking away from the role after 19 seasons.
The Steelers selected McCarthy after interviewing seven candidates virtually and three, including McCarthy, in person.
They also held in-person interviews with Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores and Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver. McCarthy had his in-person interview Wednesday, while Weaver was in the building Saturday. Flores interviewed first on Tuesday.
McCarthy, who didn’t coach a team in 2025, spent five seasons with the Cowboys before he and the organization failed to reach a contract extension after the 2024 season, leading to Dallas’ hiring of Brian Schottenheimer.
McCarthy, who won a Super Bowl title with the Green Bay Packers in the 2010 season, brings that title experience to the Steelers, who last won a Lombardi Trophy to cap off the 2008 season.
There’s some belief in the building, sources told ESPN, that bringing McCarthy in the fold could lure 42-year-old quarterback Aaron Rodgers to return to Pittsburgh after a one-season stint with the Steelers. McCarthy coached Rodgers for 13 seasons in Green Bay, and the pair won their lone Super Bowl title together.
Steelers owner and team president Art Rooney II said Jan. 14 that he believed Rodgers’ decision about his future would be affected by Tomlin’s departure.
In hiring McCarthy, the Steelers made a departure from their previous hiring practices. Their three most recent head coach hires — Tomlin, Bill Cowher and Chuck Noll — were 38 or younger and had never been NFL head coaches.
In his news conference following Tomlin’s resignation, Rooney expressed a desire to contend immediately. By landing on McCarthy rather than a first-time head coach, the Steelers signaled a belief that the veteran coach can immediately help them break a frustrating drought of postseason wins that dates back to 2017.
“I’m not sure why you waste a year of your life not trying to contend,” Rooney said in that news conference. “Obviously your roster is what it is, changes every year. And so you deal with what you have every year, try to put yourself in a position to compete. Sometimes you have the horses, sometimes you don’t, but I think you try every year.
“… We’ll try to compete day one if we can.”
