This is all about the QB

I was really disappointed about the McCarthy hire at first but after listening to the pundits and understanding McCarthys strengths it makes sense now. He is the polar opposite of what Tomlin was in many ways.

‘Tomlin was defensive guy (who I think was overrated in that area) and failed at developing or hiring a good coaching staff and his biggest weakness was his lack of ability to develop the most important position on the team which is the QB position.

McCarthy is the opposite. Proven track record of coordinators progressing up the nfl ranks. Certainly not like McVay but better than Tomlin. Proven track record of developing QB’sand he is offensive minded.

I think this hire is about developing Howard and finding our next franchise QB and developing him over the next few drafts. I am hopeful he can hire young innovative coaches on offense and defense that he can develop to take over in the future.

the risk we had in bringing in a young no name guy with no HC experience is that we don’t really have a lot foundationallyforone of those guys to succeed. It could very well have been a waste of talent. I also am not so sure one of those guys would have been able to find young promising offensive coaches wanting to come hear without a QB. McCarthy could have literally been our best option offensively.

The thing I do find interesting in all of this is the contrast between Dan Rooney hiring Tomlin and Art Rooney II with this hire.

Dan literally took a huge risk hiring an unknown without HC experience having a veteran team a year removed from winning the SB and loaded with talent and a young franchise QB still not fully developed and a tenured coaching staff verse this recent Steelers team with no franchise QB, the whole coaching staff essentially gone, years of mediocrity and a roster with a lot of holes. In a lot of ways Art had nothing to lose by swinging for the fences and going with a Shula or Scheelhaase. Instead he went with the safest pick he could.

it’s kind 0f been how the decisions around this team have been made the last ten years I feel like. If we ring Rodgers and hire a bunch of old assistant coaches then this McCarthy hire will really be a huge mistake. If we go young with the assistants and develop Howard I at least have some hope for this Rooney.

 

This McCarthy hire can go two ways. Either McCarthy will not only aid Howard but the entire Offense into something a lot more or this move will set the Franchise back years and years. Only one way to find out.


If there is something that is paramount though?! This Offense is in dire need of a weapons upgrade. Thankfully, the 2026 NFL Draft will have a good amount of talent at the WR Position. That said and, more than likely, the Steelers may need to draft one in Round One as the "Elite Four" in the likes of Carnell Tate, Makai Lemon, Jordyn Tyson and Denzel Boston are all NFL Ready.


After that?! Scheme specific to role player based.

 

I agree with the first 7 paragraphs

I’m not sure your thoughts in the last paragraph are correct in the short term but definitely not the long term answer

Just my thought

 

Fair enough. I just really hope we get a young up and comer at DC and someone at OC that McCarthy can develop.At the end of the day it’s about Howard or a qb we draft this year or next year. The biggest mistake in my mind would be bringing Rodgers back.

 

People hoping on Will Howard are sorely going to be disappointed. He’s a Tim Tebow. He is just not accurate enough. In order to be accurate qb or pocket passer, you have to have superior visual spatializing ability. Part of this is inborn. My opinion is that future franchise guy is still in college. Until then, the best bet to take you to playoffs is Rudolph. He had a pretty good half against Cincinnati and scored 28 points against Bears at Soldier Field which is always a tough place to play. He is just as good as any free agent available and a lot cheaper. Spend the money on a legit receiver.

 

OT. Drake Moye and Mason Rudolph dad are best friends as both were college football teammates. Drake Moye learned his first football playing catch with ‘big bro’ Mason.

 

But Mike told Fredo that he was excited to work with Will.

 

Mike will say anything to get the job.

 

He is opposite than Tomlin in some ways, but similar in a lot of others. He's been a bit better (not awesome still) at having coordinators find other jobs, he's an offensive guy, and he has at least an argument that could say that he's developed young QB's (though Rodgers is really the only valid argument IMO), though he's also different in that he doesn't have the consistency that Tomlin did... He can turn in a 5 or 6 win season when things go south. However, he's similar in that he's not going to be on the cutting edge schematically, he's won before but a long time ago, and his main reason for being let go (from both GB and DAL) was postseason disappointment.

The hire is about two things. Rooney doesn't want lose. He essentially hates losing more than he enjoys winnig... He won't run the risk of having a 6 win season or less. He really wants that 8,9,10 games and thinks McCarthy is the safest option to win football games now. The second thing is that they bought into his pitch as the QB developer. He is going to be tasked to turn Howard (or whoever else we draft instead) into a quality NFL starter. That's it.

I don't buy into this. Good coaches figure it out. If they have the talent to succeed they would have found a way to succeed in Pittsburgh... It wouldn't have been a waste. I also disagree with the talented coordinator thing. Young up and comer's want to spend time on staffs like McVey or Shanahan (or guys that come from that tree). They don't want to get tied to HC's like McCarthy. That is my biggest gripe with all of it. I just can't see a young and talented coordinator wanting to come to play for a 62 year old coach with a more dated offensive scheme. Defensively, he's utilized older and failed HC's as his normal hires here. I think we can have a decent staff of coordinators... but I would find it to be a big stretch that anyone under the age of 45 is going to have any interest in coaching for McCarthy.

I think McCarthy is as big of a risk as a new HC would have been. They went for a guy that they were pretty certain that the fanbase was going to dislike, and a guy that only one other team even thought of enough to bring in for an interview. The league really doesn't view him as a viable head coach any more... but we do. McCarthy either develops a young QB here, or this hire will set us back 5-7 years (or more). There's little upside in his hiring outside of that. He wont be a long term option, and he won't be a guy that brings cutting edge schemes to the organization. If we hire a new guy, it could backfire of course, but we'd at least be modernizing our organization schematically and hopefully attracting the new wave of talent that has hit the league's coaching pool. We risk giving future talent the perception that we are stuck in the stone age and making our organization a less than desirable destination for talent. Our job is peak desirable now... follow a 19 year tenure HC with a long history of winning. If McCarthy fails, the next coach will inherit a bad roster and an organization that hasn't seen offensive success in more than a decade... It's a huge risk. The organization thinks he's Andy Reid or Sean Payton... I don't think he's nearly as talented as either of those guys.

While I agree with your sentiment about young talented coordinators... I just don't think its going to happen. Young talent is going to run far away from McCarthy. At least the new age Payton/McVey/Shanahan tree types will. He's always hired failed HC's as DC so unless he bucks that trend, I would expect to see someone like Raheem Morris or Matt Patricia be the highlights of our DC search. Offensively would be anyone's guess, but I would expect the young names to look like Scott Tolzein, Josh Grizzard, and Thomas Brown. Otherwise, we will hire a vet and maybe we end up with Kellen Moore or Brian Schottenheimer if/when they get fired as HC.

 

This
He has shown in the past to develop qbs

 

Is that Frodos brother?

 

Look at the numbers below and tell me what you see?

G cmp att comp% yds TD TD% INT INT% Y/A Y/G RTG
16 309 423 73.0 4010 35 8.3 10 2.4 9.5 250.6 175.3

16 273 379 72.0 3535 41 10.8 6 1.6 9.3 220.9 182.9

One of these guys is Howard and the other is the Heisman winner and concensus #1 pick in the draft.... They aren't far off

I'm not saying that Howard is going to be an elite QB or anything, but he showed he can be accurate. He showed that he could play against the best competition and win. We have to see what we have in him if we don't draft a QB (which we still might do). Rudolph isn't a better option than anyone to make the playoffs. He sucks. A middling back up that will be a good soldier for us for cheap. There's value in that, but we're better off with him holding a clipboard... unless the plan is to win 4 games, I do think he's quite capable of that.

We either roll with Howard or draft. That's the options. We shouldn't spend money on QB in FA (unless McCarthy loves Willis for whatever reason, but I'm betting he doesn't), and I agree that if we are looking to better the offense in FA, a viable WR would go a long way.

 

I for one don't believe for a second that they believe Howard is the answer. If they can't get ARod to sign for another year, they'll sign someone like Zach Wilson or Marcus Marriotta. Zach Wilson seems like a cheap reclamation project that's worthwhile. If he works out, then so be it, if he doesn't we'll grab one in 27 draft.

 

If they don't think Howard is the answer, then we're drafting one. The whole spiel that we bought to hire the guy was development of young QB's. I wouldn't call Wilson or Mariota a "young developmental prospect" anymore, though Willis potentially could be that (though Idk if he wants a running QB. He did help Aaron Brooks look somewhat competent back in the day...).

If we don't think Howard is the answer, we better be prepared for Ty Simpson in the first or someone like Chambliss or Nussmeier in the second.

 

There's nothing to draft besides Ty Simpson and he's probably gone before we pick. The 3rd/4th Rd candidates aren't better than Mason Rudolph. Malik Willis and Zach Wilson are the same age. And as Sam Darnold has proven, reclamation projects can work

 

Maybe. If we don't think Howard is the guy, then Simpson might be our option. Going out for a reclamation project would basically make Rooney a liar. "Oh we hired this guy to develop young QB's, lets go sign a reclamation project". It just doesn't fit with the supposed vision of what is behind the McCarthy hire.

I know Wilson and Willis are close in age, but we've seen a LOT more of Wilson and Willis has gotten better each year as a massive project guy. It feels like there's a shot that there's more in the tank for Willis and not so much for Wilson... but that's just me.

To me, our likely week 1 starters are Howard, Ty Simpson, or Rodgers. If its Rodgers, then we are likely looking at a QB in 27. The other options in this class that have a shot at being taken in round 2 or 3 are Chambliss, Beck, Nussmeier, and Allar (at varying levels of disgust lol). If they go one of those guys, we will take a re-tread for a year (or Rodgers) and then try to play that draft pick in year 2.

 

And Ty Simpson is not good.

 

I disagree with this. He's a good prospect. There's a lot to like, even if he struggled the last couple games. I don't want to overreact to a couple crappy games where the OL got dominated and they couldn't run the ball at all.

 

I just don’t know how and when we get our franchise QB without a down year and a good draft position, unless someone really good miraculously falls to us?

That’s why I’m hoping Will Howard pulls a Tom Brady, and is actually really good.

A free agent QB that can take us to a Superbowl is unlikely.

 

Steelers are gonna have to get Brock Purdy lucky. Issue with that is Kyle Shanahan is the best QB coach I've ever seen. I don't know if McCarthy is KS talented in developing QBs. Aaron Rodgers would have been great no matter what and Dak Prescott is a very good not great QB either way too.

 

Due to the importance of the QB, having a first round pick on a QB ( Simpson ) and a 2025 national college champion winner at QB ( Howard ) is sound thinking.

The odds of hitting one one of them being a good to very good NFL QB is about 1 in 4. The odds of one of the two being a good to very good NFL QB is about 50-50.

I say let the two compete for the#1 job. We will have a lot of open cap space to build upon since both will be on their 1st contact. IE, cheap players.


On Simpson he really has a good arm and velocity on his passes. He is not afraid to go over the middle and can execute the 5,6,7,8, and 9 routes with timing and speed on the football. His accuracy is just good on film, not very good or great.

He can throw on the run too. He moves well, and runs about a 4.7 by my eye.

Now he has but one season of QB work, so he is far from a finished college QB, however the work he did is impressive. If he went back to school he would be out of our range in round one.

I will be doing a full mock draft 2.0 after the senior bowl.

 

I think McCarthy is a high floor hire and less risky than hiring a young OC.

You could say he was great for a few years of coaching. Maybe he's not Andy Ried or Sean Payton, but who is?

I would have gone with Seattle's OC Klint Kubiak. Now he is a high ceiling coach!

But as a Head Coach, McCarrthy brings many things to Pittsburgh namely a good coaching record. He knows offense in the modern NFL. I don't fault him as he had a boat anchor around his neck with the GM / Owner of the Cowboys in Jerry Jones. The man runs the franchise like a youtube soap opera. McCarthy's side of the ball was not the problem in Dallas. In fact it was very good!

McCarthy is from Pittsburgh and understands our tradition to a high degree. Pair him with the right DC and I think we have a winner.


- JB

 

My only concern is that they spend too much time "developing Howard". Rooney saying he's 'very excited' about this is a little over the top for a 6th rd QB draft pick. Howard needs to show evidence of something fairly quickly or they need to move on quickly, ala Pickett.

 

Rather get Tom Brady lucky 6th rounder like Howard.