The Pittsburgh Steelers are hiring Mike McCarthy to be the franchise’s 17th head coach and successor to Mike Tomlin. A deeply experienced head coach, this will be McCarthy’s third stint in the position after more than a decade with the Green Bay Packers and five seasons with the Dallas Cowboys.

NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported the Steelers are working to finalize a deal. Update (3:02 PM): The Steelers have announced they have “verbally agreed” to hire Mike McCarthy.

At 62, McCarthy is one of the league’s oldest head coaches and departs from Pittsburgh’s past history of hiring young, defensive-minded names. He becomes the oldest head coach the franchise has ever hired. His background working with offenses and quarterbacks likely played a key role in the decision.

He held an in-person interview with the team on Wednesday, with Bill Cowher remarking how “surreal” McCarthy felt the experience was. The Steelers opted against waiting for either of the Los Angeles Rams’ assistants, Chris Shula or Nate Scheelhaase, to become available for an interview beginning Monday. Pittsburgh ultimately only had face-to-face meetings with three men: Brian Flores, Anthony Weaver, and McCarthy.

McCarthy’s hire is a homecoming. Growing up in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Greenfield, he attended Bishop Boyle High School in nearby Homestead. After playing tight end at tiny Baker University in Kansas, he broke into coaching. After spending two years at Fort Hays State, McCarthy returned home in 1989 to become the graduate assistant at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1992, he was elevated to wide receivers coach.

That led to his first NFL job in 1993, hired as an offensive quality control coach for the Kansas City Chiefs under Marty Schottenheimer. In 1995, he was named quarterbacks coach and helped revive Steve Bono’s career. In his age-33 season in 1995, Bono threw for more than 3,100 yards and 21 touchdowns, making his first and only Pro Bowl. The Chiefs finished 13-3 and won the AFC West.

McCarthy briefly served as the Green Bay Packers’ quarterbacks coach in 1999, working with Brett Favre. His first coordinator job came in 2000 with the New Orleans Saints, where he briefly overlapped with current Steelers GM Omar Khan and Assistant GM Andy Weidl. There, Khan served as a coaching assistant and Weidl as a scout. McCarthy’s best mark there came in 2002, leading the No. 3 scoring offense as QB Aaron Brooks threw for 27 touchdowns and RB Deuce McAllister rushed for nearly 1,400 yards and 16 total scores.

He spent 2005 as the San Francisco 49ers’ offensive coordinator. Working with and reportedly preferring Utah’s Alex Smith over California’s Aaron Rodgers, Smith struggled mightily in his rookie year, and the 49ers won only four games. Still, that didn’t deter the Packers from hiring McCarthy as the team’s head coach in 2006 to replace Mike Sherman.

Green Bay’s turnaround was swift. In 2005, the Packers went 4-12. In McCarthy’s first year on the job, they improved to 8-8. By 2007, the Packers finished 13-3 and won the NFC North before narrowly losing the championship game in overtime to the New York Giants.

McCarthy coached the final years of Favre’s tenure in Green Bay and developed Rodgers into an eventual Hall of Famer. In 2010, the Packers defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV, 31-25. But only once would McCarthy even make it back to the NFC title game, coming up short in 2016 against the Atlanta Falcons.

In 2018, McCarthy was fired after a Week 13 home loss to the then 2-9 Arizona Cardinals, dropping the Packers to 4-7-1 on the season. He spent the 2019 season out of coaching but diligently prepared on his own, holding weekly meetings with fellow coaches to study the rest of the NFL. They dubbed themselves “The McCarthy Project” and “33rd Team.” That group included current Steelers inside linebackers coach Scott McCurley, whom McCarthy hired in Green Bay in 2006 to his first NFL job.

“Every week, he and his coaching buddies put together a ‘trends tape’ to study the latest schemes around the league being implemented, and that is just one of their many objectives when they get together,” the website Football Scoop once noted.

Across 13 seasons with Green Bay, he compiled a 125-77-2 regular season record and a 10-8 postseason mark.

In 2020, the Dallas Cowboys offered McCarthy a second chance. Hired to replace Jason Garrett, McCarthy got the head coaching job, though he admitted in his introductory presser that he lied to owner Jerry Jones about how much Dallas tape he watched ahead of the interview.

“Well, I need to confess, I told Jerry I watched every play of the 2019 season, but I wanted the job,” McCarthy said via the New York Post. “I haven’t watched every play of the season. You do what you gotta do, right?”

After a difficult 6-10 inaugural season, one in which QB Dak Prescott missed most of, McCarthy strung together three-straight strong regular seasons with identical 12-5 records. Few offenses reached the consistent heights Dallas did. In 2021, the Cowboys sported the NFL’s No. 1 offense. In 2023, it ranked No. 5. Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb flourished, making the Pro Bowl in four of McCarthy’s five seasons there. Prescott posted career numbers. Under defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, Dallas repeatedly achieved top-ten units.

Much like Pittsburgh, Dallas struggled to get over the hump. In 2021 and 2023, the Cowboys were bounced in the Wild Card round. The latter was a blowout home loss to heavy underdogs, and McCarthy’s former team, the Packers.

In 2022, Dallas beat Tampa Bay in the Wild Card game, which became Tom Brady’s final NFL contest, but fell to the San Francisco 49ers 19-12 the following week. The game ended on a bizarre note in which RB Zeke Elliott snapped the ball, was promptly run over by a 49ers’ defender, and WR Kavonte Turpin was hit immediately after catching an 8-yard pass.

In 2024, McCarthy entered a rare “lame duck” status in the final year of his contract. Considered a make-or-break season, Dallas finished a disappointing 7-10. Prescott played in only eight games, and the offense finished 21st in scoring. The defense was even worse, 31st in the NFL, and allowed 30 or more points in six contests.

Reportedly, the Cowboys and McCarthy attempted to reach a contract agreement but could not agree on terms. Dallas moved on and promoted Brian Schottenheimer to head coach while McCarthy was left out of a job for the 2025 cycle. This offseason, he interviewed for the Tennessee Titans job but was most focused on the opportunity in Pittsburgh.

For his head coaching career, McCarthy has compiled a regular-season record of 174-112-2. His wins rank 15th all-time. He is 11-11 in the playoffs.

McCarthy’s task will be to push a Pittsburgh franchise that hasn’t won a playoff game in the last 9 years forward. McCarthy himself, however, has just one postseason win over the same span. The Steelers are banking on his quarterback background and offensive mind proving capable of identifying and developing the future of the franchise, even if Aaron Rodgers is enticed to return for 2026. On the other side of the ball, McCarthy’s defensive coordinator hire will be critical.

A press conference is likely to occur within the next week.