Pittsburgh Steelers set to hire Mike McCarthy as new head coach after reaching verbal agreement
Super Bowl winner Mike McCarthy is set to join the Pittsburgh Steelers as their new head coach; watch every minute of the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl LX at Levi's Stadium live on Sky Sports NFL
Saturday 24 January 2026 20:36, UK
The Pittsburgh Steelers are set to hire Mike McCarthy as their new head coach after reaching a verbal agreement.
McCarthy will replace Mike Tomlin, who stepped down after 19 seasons with the Steelers following yet another quick playoff exit.
Pittsburgh-native McCarthy, 62, has spent 18 seasons as an NFL head coach, 13 with the Green Bay Packers from 2006 to 2018 and five with the Dallas Cowboys from 2020 to 2024.
McCarthy has 12 playoff seasons in his career, an 11-11 postseason record and eight division titles.
During his time with the Dallas Cowboys, he had three 12-win seasons and led them to the playoffs three times in five seasons.
McCarthy has the second-most wins in Packers' history and led them to a Super Bowl championship in 2010, where he and Aaron Rodgers defeated the Steelers.
Rodgers, 42, spent last season with the Steelers, but it is unclear whether he will return or retire. The hiring of McCarthy will lead to speculation that Rodgers will return for another season.
His hiring will be just the fourth by the Steelers since 1969 and a marked departure from his predecessors, Tomlin and Hall of Famers Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher.
All three were largely unknown assistants/coordinators. McCarthy is hardly that.
The Steelers took a methodical approach to finding their new head coach, interviewing nearly a dozen candidates that spanned a wide spectrum of experience, from Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores (who spent 2022 as a defensive assistant on Tomlin's staff) to Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, who was hired by the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday to replace John Harbaugh.
They ultimately landed on McCarthy, who takes over a team that has been stuck in a purgatory of sorts for going on a decade.
Of all the numbers around Tomlin's nearly two-decade tenure, one that included 193 regular-season victories - tied with Noll for the most in franchise history - and the team's sixth Super Bowl, perhaps the most remarkable is zero: the number of losing seasons the Steelers had with Tomlin on the sideline.
That startling consistency, however, did not always translate to postseason success. Pittsburgh has been one-and-done in each of its last six playoff appearances, all of them double-digit losses.
In some ways, the Steelers have been victims of their own success. They have frequently been drafting in the high teens and low-20s, not exactly a prime position to find a franchise quarterback. It didn't help that they chose not to draft Ben Roethlisberger's replacement in his final seasons, then whiffed badly on Kenny Pickett, who flamed out in less than two years after being taken in the first round of the 2022 draft.
It's led to a revolving door at the most important position on the field. If Aaron Rodgers, who will be a free agent in March, doesn't return for a 22nd season, the Steelers will have their sixth different Week One quarterback in six years.
McCarthy's arrival, however, would seemingly open the door for the 42-year-old Rodgers to come back.
Rodgers said earlier this month he believes he would have at least a couple of options if he chose to run it back one more time.
Pittsburgh will have the 21st pick when a draft that appears to be thin in quality options at quarterback descends on the Steel City in late April.
Watch the Denver Broncos face the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game and the Los Angeles Rams against the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship Game, live on Sky Sports NFL from 7.30pm on Sunday January 25.
