{"id":96166,"date":"2026-01-25T08:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T08:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/96166\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T08:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T08:40:13","slug":"this-isnt-an-inspired-hire-nfl-reacts-to-pittsburgh-tabbing-mike-mccarthy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/96166\/","title":{"rendered":"‘This Isn’t An Inspired Hire:’ NFL Reacts To Pittsburgh Tabbing Mike McCarthy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Those who work in the NFL feel the same way Pittsburgh Steelers fans do about the Mike McCarthy hire. He\u2019s not the guy who is going to provide much excitement to a franchise that could use some. ESPN\u2019s Jeremy Fowler got quick reaction around the league reacting to the news that Pittsburgh is signing McCarthy to a five-year contrac<\/a>t to be the Steelers\u2019 next head coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought the team would chart a new course with an assertive young coach they could build something with,\u201d an industry source told Fowler in an\u00a0ESPN article published hours after news broke.<\/a> \u201cMcCarthy\u2019s a good coach but this isn\u2019t an inspired hire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh\u2019s candidate list largely included would-be first-time head coaches. Los Angeles Rams assistants Chris Shula and Nate Scheelhaase offered plenty of excitement as up and comers. Neither even got an in-person interview. Anthony Weaver may not have initially won fans over but his strong presence with the media likely would\u2019ve had fans feeling differently on the other side of his initial presser.<\/p>\n

McCarthy isn\u2019t going to change hearts and minds without results. In fairness, that\u2019s the litmus test for any coach. Many a hire have been greeted with initial warmth only to go belly up. In 2021, Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi opined<\/a> that the Jacksonville Jaguars hit a \u201ctowering grand slam home run\u201d by picking Urban Meyer. There isn\u2019t a baseball analogy bad enough to describe his actual tenure.<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia Eagles hiring Nick Sirianni in 2021 was initially questioned<\/a>, especially after an objectively bad first presser. Eagles fans may remain mixed on Sirianni, but if McCarthy wins Pittsburgh a Super Bowl as Sirianni did last season in Philadelphia, it will be a clear win.<\/p>\n

Even for a Pittsburgh kid, McCarthy faces an uphill battle. But if he can identify a quarterback, assemble a strong coaching staff, and win, the initial reaction will be forgotten. Of course, if he and the Steelers struggle, the decision will be panned even more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Those who work in the NFL feel the same way Pittsburgh Steelers fans do about the Mike McCarthy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[33904,8203,73,75,74,1833],"class_list":["post-96166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-jeremy-fowler","tag-mike-mccarthy","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-steelers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}