While Mike McCarthy didn’t leave the Dallas Cowboys on great terms, it was inevitable that he would resurface as a head coach. There were simply too many openings and not enough proven candidates during this cycle for a team not to take a chance on the former Cowboys coach.
Now, did anyone expect that team to come in the form of the Pittsburgh Steelers? Absolutely not. You could feel the ground shake when Mike Tomlin announced he was stepping down, for starters. And that paved the way for the Steelers to move in a younger, more exciting direction.
Instead, they deferred to a proven commodity in McCarthy, confirming their intention to compete in 2026 and beyond.
Ever comfortable behind the mic, McCarthy nailed his introductory press conference, as he made it clear the job means everything to him. Still, Steelers fans remain on edge after the hire, and McCarthy did little to calm those nerves when he revealed he’ll be calling plays.
Cowboys fans know of Mike McCarthy's limitations as a play-caller all too well
“I’m a believer in the tradition of the West Coast offense, and the first thing that always came to mind was the offense needs to be built to make the quarterback successful, for as simplistic as it is,” McCarthy said. “And that starts with running the football. … If you don’t run the football and you don’t tailor your protection schemes in the action pass game to the run game, obviously it’s not gonna affect the defense and have the benefits of what you’re looking for.”
Those comments sound ghoulishly familiar.
The irony of it all is that McCarthy is an upgrade over former Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, who took the same job with Ohio State. McCarthy won a Super Bowl as the Packers' play-caller, and the Cowboys ranked first in points and fifth in yards in his first year calling plays in 2023.
Stats can be misleading, however. The Cowboys finished fourth in points in 2022 and first in points in 2023 when then-offensive coordinator Kellen Moore had the keys to the ignition. The one common denominator is Dak Prescott. When Prescott is healthy, Dallas typically boasts a top-five offense.
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Those finishes don’t reflect how McCarthy’s play-calling actually held the offense back. Under McCarthy, the Cowboys ranked in the bottom half of the NFL in motion rate and pre-snap movement, two defining traits of modern, elite offenses.
McCarthy seldom gave Dallas a schematic advantage, which is why things unraveled in the playoffs, when teams game-plan to remove your strengths and force you to play uncomfortably.
Beyond revealing that he'll call plays, McCarthy struck another nerve with Steelers fans when he intimated that he wants Aaron Rodgers back. No team can field an explosive offense with Rodgers as its quarterback in 2026. He wants to get the ball out so quickly now that routes can't develop downfield, and he doesn't have the athleticism anymore to navigate pressure.
It’s painfully obvious that Pittsburgh needs to move on, but McCarthy appears open to running it back. The fact that McCarthy calling plays for Aaron Rodgers is even a possibility -- eight years after his final season with the Packers in 2018 -- is borderline hilarious.
Get ready for a lot of 2nd-and-10 run calls and a whole bunch of hitches and curl routes, Steelers fans.
And maybe, some tales of ayahuasca if Rodgers returns.