Your grade for McCarthy's hiring

He better have been if he was trying to get back in coaching lol the league is constantly evolving. Can't stay in the same place forever (we saw that first hand).

 

At least when Cowgirls sucked he could check out those hot cheerleaders. Steelers suck he's got nothing to look at.

 

Get the QB situation figured out and add a few pieces in the draft, and I don’t see a ceiling on this season. McCarthy’s an offensive guy on his last real run, and now he’s coaching the team he grew up rooting for. He knows time’s short. To say he’ll be motivated is an understatement. This isn't a 35 year old thinking “I’ve got 20 years and job security." I think he’s going to empty the tank trying to win, and that’s exactly what this team needs.

I’m honestly excited for this season, and they really need to draft Denzel Boston.

 

He needs to hire a solid DC and let that guy do his thing while Mike works on this so called QB whispering and offensive playcalling.

 

The packers defense were so bad in the playoffs,it was a comical tradition in january for the packers when they had Dom Capers as DC(with 2010 as exception of course)

 

This is hard to judge with the raiders since the raiders were so bad on offense

 

A. he got tomlins stale azz out of here. that's a win to me.

 

Not remotely inspired, but the fan in me wants to hold out hope to see what kind of staff he puts in

 

I'm not a fan of the hire, but realistically you can't give it an F. He is well respected around the league, which counts for something. A lot of very smart football people think he's a good coach, although sometimes I think they're too close to see things for how they really are, and they can get tunnel vision. Still, his longevity and record counts for at least something. He's had very good QB's over the years. How much of that has been him vs the natural talent of the QB's is always hard to say. Did he help them or would they have been better without him? Who knows.

But you can't give it an A either. He's had very little playoff success with 2 HOF'ers and a strong offensive team in Dallas. With 2 of the best QB's in league history, you have to do better than he's done. GB fans are biased of course, but a lot of times it's the teams fans that see and pay attention to every little detail, so they're the ones that really know what happened. It's too hard for non-Packer fans to pay close enough attention to really understand what went on.

I'll give it a C. I'm somewhat optimistic he'll get us a good QB. I'm not optimistic he'll lead us to playoff success, whether we have a QB or not.

 

MM standing alone is a B for me. But as many others here, overall it's incomplete because his first big decisions on his staff are still coming. DC and o-line are the 2 most important to me. Younger, aggressive DC who can get the most out of our young talent(Black, Harmon etc) and I think our o-line is close. If he makes poor choices and/or Rooney stays cheap, they'll both get and deserve a very big "F".

 

Solid D. Steelers should have waited until after the Super Bowl to make the hire. Bring in some of these coordinators from Seahawks and Rams for interviews. Steelers just got more of the same with McCarthy. 9-8 seasons either missing the playoffs or 7th seed and quick exit.

 

If we move the assumption about "competing" every year off of Mike Tomlin's plate and put it squarely on Rooney's plate....then McCarthy was the glaringly obvious choice.

Put it this way....what if Tomlin walked away because he saw 2025 as the last and best chance for the "pay a bunch of veterans to join our veteran core and grind our way to a playoff run" mode of roster building? What if he knew or suspected that ownership would not want to alter that approach regardless of outcome? What if Tomlin was just tired of grinding out ugly rock fights for 18 weeks a season?

If that is the case...then Rooney is shooting for keeping the same floor (this HC will keep my team from ever playing meaningless games in December) and HOPING that McCarthy can raise the ceiling....

....or that is all nonsense (most likely) and everything Rooney says is a carefully calculated PR exercise and we will never know what most of the major players actually think.

 

We're doomed

 

This is where I’m at. I was a little shell shocked at first, but I’m coming to terms with it and feeling some optimism.

 

Where did you get this from

Link

Proof

 

You will probably come to grips with it right up until the draft…

…when they draft a punter

Thank goodness it’s winter so you can enjoy that

 

Exactly when did he say this

 

The voting pretty well is spread from A to F and MM’s success will be somewhere from A to F

What this proves is that on average 4 out of 5 posters here do not have a clue

But that is old news I suppose

 

No rebuild, ready to win, it's obvious. MM must be the missing piece then....

I'm hyped, 12-5 and deep playoff run, we don't need no rebuild according to Art...

 

B

I feel like age and possible lack of highest upside is a con

He will bring known qualities with him that a never-been HC might not possess. With those first-timers, it can work out great, or it can be an absolute flop. Doubtful McCarthy flops or comes close to it. Risk was minimized with McCarthy.

His OC/DC will make or break this hire. If either of them are a flop, we'll be about the same mediocre team we've been, Tomlin 2.0.

I am fine with the hire. Not terribly excited, but also breathing a sigh of relief as the OC/DC and non coordinators being interviewed, most of them weren't terribly exciting. There weren't many proven coordinators like last years Liam Cohen or Ben Johnson. Either of those would have been preferred, but Rooney failed to act when the time was right (repeatedly over the past 5 years I might add).

I am at least excited about 2026 season now. Without a truly top 10 QB (for now) the ceiling may still be limited, but it's not limited by a cheerleader pretending to be a coach in Tomlin. That stink is gone...thank the heavens.

 

I just wasn't enamored with Shula or really any of the coordinators being gushed over...their results, all of them, haven't been overly impressive. Again, nothing like Liam Cohen or Ben Johnson of last year sadly. When the poll came out and I looked at those names, I was thinking, I'd probably vote for Klint Kubiak, but wasn't even being considered. Shula? Other than name, wasn't sure where all the love was coming from.

I would have liked a home run hire of an energetic young coordinator, but I don't think any were available this off-season. My first reaction of McCarthy was that of...blah, but thinking again how bad the field was in reality, this may have been the safest hire. Again, of the retread coaches, Stefanski made the most sense, but who knows what negative role he played in Browns still being more bad than good.

Excited for Steelers football for the first time in years. I knew going in the the last 5+ seasons, that a Super Bowl was a non-starter. Nothing had changed, bad coaching still existed, Tomlin awful at lots of little things and the biggest things...hiring coordinators. Tomlin horrible with time outs, challenges, 4th down decisions (always seem to be conservative when it called for aggression, and aggressive when it called for conservative), and handling of prima-donnas (he abled them more than neutralized them).

Now I am turning towards the draft and all those picks. Hoping they figure out how to improve the QB and WR pool so that by the end of 2026 season we have our future QB and a solid 1-2 punch at WR.