When the Pittsburgh Steelers announced Mike McCarthy as their newest head coach last week, there was a lot of grumbling throughout the fanbase. Here’s another guy, just like Mike Tomlin, who brings a high floor but a low ceiling. However, they differ in one major way: while Tomlin is a defensive-minded coach, McCarthy is offensive-oriented. In fact, McCarthy may be the team’s first offensive head coach since at least 1968, and perhaps ever.
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And McCarthy, who is Pittsburgh-born and bred, also ingratiated himself with Yinzers during his introductory press conference when he got emotional while talking about his deep ties to the city and the franchise. The local sentiment around the new head honcho is already starting to turn.
So much so that franchise legends have begun to come out in his defense. One of them is longtime quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who lost a Super Bowl to McCarthy’s Green Bay Packers back in 2010.
Many point to McCarthy’s uneven tenure with the Dallas Cowboys from 2020 to 2024 as a reason for skepticism. But Big Ben believes there was another reason it didn’t work out in Big D: ownership.
“No disrespect to anybody, but when he was in Dallas, they did some good things on offense, I think they were hindered by their ownership,” Roethlisberger argued during an episode of Channel Seven. “No offense to Jerry Jones, but some of the stuff there, I think you’re hindered there. It’s not a lack of him.”
Roethlisberger makes a good point. While the Cowboys faltered at some point in each of McCarthy’s five seasons, it was certainly not because of the offense. From 2020-2024, the Cowboys scored 26.8 points per game, second only to the Buffalo Bills. Safe to say, McCarthy will bring a fresh, offensive approach to his HC role in Steel City.
Big Ben believes that McCarthy being a Pittsburgh native will also be a big help. He brings a new voice, but he will surely respect the traditional “Steeler Way.”
“You bring a new voice into the locker room, because sometimes the message can get repetitive,” Roethlisberger said. “I think you could bring a guy in like a Mike McCarthy, who is a Pittsburgh guy… You’re tellin’ me he doesn’t have Black & Gold in there, somewhere down there? He’s going to understand the Steeler way.”
Roethlisberger can be counted among the Steelers fans who are excited about finally having an offensive-minded coach. And Big Ben had ideas for how McCarthy could use that to his advantage. He suggested McCarthy find himself a veteran, proven, and reliable defensive coordinator to take over the secondary. McCarthy, meanwhile, can focus on turning that offensive machine around… along with a little help.
“I’m so excited for an offensive-minded coach,” Roethlisberger said. “Because I think we have to score more than 6 points in a playoff game… He should say, I’m the head coach and I’m offensive-minded so I’m gonna lean to the offensive side. I hope he hires a young gun offensive coordinator that can come in here and they can work together.”
Big Ben says that McCarthy is a good hire because he has a proven track record. While young gun coaches are all the rage in the NFL right now, Roethlisberger argues that more of them have failed than have become Sean McVay.
Roethlisberger’s logic is: if you have a choice between a proven and an unproven track record, why not go with the proven one?
