Steelers set to hire former Super Bowl champion as new head coach, per report
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
The Pittsburgh Steelers’ sideline will look strange in 2026 without Mike Tomlin. They now appear to have settled in on just the franchise’s third head coach in the last 35 years.
Mike McCarthy is nearing a deal that will make him the next head coach of the Steelers, according to NFL Media’s Tom Pelissero. McCarthy didn’t coach in 2025, a season after his firing by the Dallas Cowboys.
McCarthy’s record is 174-112 in 18 seasons. That includes a 10-6 mark in 2010 with the Green Bay Packers, which he led to a win in Super Bowl XLV against, ironically, the Steelers. The quarterback for the Packers, of course, was Aaron Rodgers.
McCarthy’s possible hiring in Pittsburgh raises obvious speculation about the status of Rodgers for 2026. Rodgers and McCarthy have remained close since McCarthy was fired from the Packers in 2018. With the Steelers reportedly nearing a deal to hire McCarthy, that could mean the future Hall of Fame QB, who turned 42 in December, runs it back in the Steel City for at least one more season.
Meanwhile, McCarthy — a Pittsburgh native — will look to bring the Lombardi Trophy to his hometown for the first time in nearly two decades. But he’ll need to shake off what’s been a hugely disappointing run in the playoffs since he and Rodgers won the Super Bowl with Green Bay.
From 2011 onwards, McCarthy-coached teams have gone to the postseason nine times. They’ve only made it past the divisional round once.
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
