One more NFL head coaching vacancy is off the board, with the Pittsburgh Steelers reaching a verbal agreement to hire Mike McCarthy, the team announced Saturday. McCarthy, 62, worked as the longtime head coach of the Green Bay Packers (achieving a 125-77-2 record and beating the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV) and more recently the Dallas Cowboys (going 49-35, with three consecutive 12-win seasons) before taking a year off from coaching in 2025. McCarthy was a popular choice for the New Orleans Saints‘ head coach job last year but the team passed on him to hire his former assistant Kellen Moore instead.
That’s because McCarthy has deep New Orleans connections — and an old coworker in Pittsburgh’s front office. He worked as the Saints’ offensive coordinator from 2000 to 2004, around the same time when Omar Khan was coming up in their front office (1997 to 2001), working in football operations. Khan left for a promotion with the Steelers in 2001 and has been entrenched in their front office ever since, taking over as general manager in 2022.
Advertisement
Did the Steelers hire McCarthy because he and Khan were in the same building for a few years more than two decades ago? Probably not, but that shared experience has to have helped. And the Saints will host McCarthy and the Steelers in New Orleans in 2026. We’ll see if his former quarterback Aaron Rodgers joins him.
This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: NFL Rumors: Steelers pick former Packers, Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy