After years of struggling to do much more than make the playoffs and have a winning record, longtime Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin stepped down. The job instantly became one of the most coveted and the organization wasted no time moving for their head coach. On Saturday, Adam Schefter reported that Mike McCarthy would be named the new Steelers head coaching, bringing the yinzer home.
Mike McCarthy New Steelers Head Coach
Although some fans like to poke fun at Mike McCarthy for how his tenure with the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys ended, he is still a heck of a coach and has seen success at every stop. At Green Bay, McCarthy was head coach during a time that saw his teams win the NFC North in five of six years from 2011-16. While some may point at his inability to get it done in the playoffs after their magical Super Bowl run in 2010, it’s important to remember how the Packers’ front office operates.
The Green Bay Packers have struggled to win much silverware since the days of Vince Lombardi because of how they do things. For decades, the Packers have believed they can simply draft a Super Bowl team and don’t need to do much in free agency to win it all. That practice happened while McCarthy was in town which was why their defenses always let down their high-powered offenses. The inability of the team to make it back to the Super Bowl isn’t so much on McCarthy as it was on the Packers organization for refusing to shore up clear issues year after year. Although much can be made of the teams’ collapse in the 2014 NFC Championship game to the Seattle Seahawks, this is an organization that thought a secondary of players like LaDarius Gunter and Quinten Rollins would be enough to get to the Super Bowl. Even for as bad as his time in Green Bay looked at times, he still left Titletown with a 125-77-2 regular season record and a 10-8 record in the postseason.
Better in Dallas Than Remembered
Much like his time with the Green Bay Packers, McCarthy’s time in Dallas is remembered a lot differently than it went. He took over a Dallas Cowboys team in 2020 that finished 8-8 in 2019. After a 6-10 record in his first season, Big Mike led the Cowboys to three straight 12-5 seasons. Not only were those the first 12 win seasons in Dallas since 2016, but he brought as many 12 win seasons as Dallas had accomplished in total since 2007.
During those three years, his teams also dominated their competition. Over those three years, his teams had a point differential of +172, +125 and +194. The +172 and +194 point differentials were the highest the Cowboys had seen since the legendary Tom Landry was roaming the sidelines in 1978. Even the legendary teams of the Jimmy Johnson led dynasty from 1992-1995 didn’t beat their opponents by such a margin.
Mike McCarthy Can Handle the Pittsburgh Pressure
Few would argue that the Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers are three of the biggest franchises in the NFL. Everyone involved in such storied franchises from the front office, to players to coaches are under a microscope and intense pressure no other franchises put on them. When replacing such a storied coach as Mike Tomlin, it was imperative the Steelers hired a proven manager that could handle all that comes with the position. As a coach in Green Bay and Dallas, there is little doubt that Mike McCarthy can do just that.
The biggest upside of McCarthy is his ability to bring teams together, command a room, and squeeze all the talent and success he can out of a team. In Green Bay, he inherited a 4-12 team and was one fatal Brett Favre interception away from a Super Bowl appearance just two years later. In Dallas, he took a 8-8 team and brought them to a level of regular season dominance not seen since Tom Landry. In Pittsburgh, he’s getting a solid team that just needs a little extra to get over the hump. If his past is any indication, he should be able to do that and get the Steelers back to where their storied franchise belongs.
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