Former Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy will reportedly become the next head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The news, first reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter, means the 62-year-old would become the successor to Mike Tomlin and the franchise’s fourth head coach since 1969.
Terms of the agreement between McCarthy and the Steelers were not immediately released.
McCarthy led the Packers to a Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl XLV, which came after the 2010 season, with Aaron Rodgers — who played the 2025 season with the Steelers — as his starting quarterback.
After his 13-year stint in Green Bay ended when he was fired during the 2018 season, McCarthy took the 2019 season off and then resurfaced as the Cowboys skipper in 2020.
His tenure in Dallas came to a close after the 2024-25 season, punctuated with a 7-10 record.
McCarthy’s all-time win-loss record during regular seasons is 174-112-2. His .608 winning percentage ranks 15th in NFL history among head coaches: five spots below Tomlin, 10 places above Tomlin’s predecessor Bill Cowher, and six below former Steelers coach Chuck Noll.
His playoff record is an even 11-11.
Prior to the start of McCarthy’s reign in Green Bay in 2006, he served as offensive coordinator of the New Orleans Saints from 2000-04 — during which time former Steelers defensive coordinator Jim Haslett was head coach — and one year in the same post with the San Francisco 49ers.
The Bishop Boyle High School alumnus is a 1987 graduate of Baker University in Baldwin City, Kan.
He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Fort Hays State University, serving there for two years before moving to the University of Pittsburgh. He spent three years as a graduate assistant at Pitt before becoming wide receivers coach for a year.
McCarthy made the leap to the NFL in 1993 with the Kansas City Chiefs, where he was offensive quality control coach for two years and quarterbacks coach for four years under Canonsburg native Marty Schottenheimer.
When Schottenheimer resigned after the 1998 season, McCarthy took the quarterbacks coach job in Green Bay for a season.
His potential hire is just the fourth by the Steelers since 1969 and a marked departure from his predecessors, Tomlin and Hall of Famers Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher.
All three were largely unknown assistants/coordinators. McCarthy is hardly that.
McCarthy would replace Tomlin, who stepped down earlier this month after his 19th season ended with a seventh straight playoff loss, this one at home to the Houston Texans. Tomlin’s surprise departure came as he was under contract for 2026 with a club option for 2027.
The Steelers took a methodical approach, interviewing nearly a dozen candidates that spanned a wide spectrum of experience, from Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores (who spent 2022 as a defensive assistant on Tomlin’s staff) to Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, who was hired by the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday to replace John Harbaugh.
They ultimately landed on McCarthy, who takes over a team that has been stuck in a purgatory of sorts for going on a decade.
Of all the numbers around Tomlin’s nearly two-decade tenure, one that included 193 regular-season victories — tied with Noll for the most in franchise history — and the team’s sixth Super Bowl, perhaps the most remarkable is zero: the number of losing seasons the Steelers had with Tomlin on the sideline.
That startling consistency, however, did not always translate to postseason success. Pittsburgh has been one-and-done in each of its last six playoff appearances, all of them double-digit losses.
In some ways, the Steelers have been victims of their own success. They have frequently been drafting in the high teens and low-20s, not exactly a prime position to find a franchise quarterback. It didn’t help that they chose not to draft Ben Roethlisberger’s replacement in his final seasons, then whiffed badly on Kenny Pickett, who flamed out in less than two years after being taken in the first round of the 2022 draft.
It’s led to a revolving door at the most important position on the field. If Rodgers, who will be a free agent in March, doesn’t return for a 22nd season, the Steelers will have their sixth different Week 1 quarterback in six years. McCarthy’s arrival, however, would seemingly open the door for the 42-year-old Rodgers to come back.
Rodgers said earlier this month he believes he would have at least a couple of options if he chose to run it back one more time, and his long partnership with McCarthy in Green Bay included a Super Bowl victory over Tomlin and the Steelers. Pittsburgh will have the 21st pick when a draft that appears to be thin in quality options at quarterback descends on the Steel City in late April.
There’s a very real chance the Steelers, who currently only have veteran backup Mason Rudolph and 2025 sixth-round pick Will Howard under contract for next season, will kick the can down the road again and address a handful of other positions of need in the draft, namely wide receiver and cornerback. Regardless, president Art Rooney II brushed off the idea of the Steelers rebuilding.
“I don’t like that word that much,” Rooney said. “We’ll try to compete day one if we can.”
McCarthy’s potential arrival would indicate that is still the plan.