Former Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy has reportedly landed his next gig.
The 62-year-old Pittsburgh native is heading home and is set to become the next head coach of the Steelers. McCarthy also interviewed for the Giants’ and Titans’ head coaching openings. He is 185–123–2 (playoffs included) across 18 seasons, 13 with Green Bay — which beat the Steelers in the Super Bowl following the 2010 season — and five with Dallas.
Pittsburgh was a late addition to the head coaching market after Mike Tomlin stepped down following the Steelers’ blowout loss to the Texans in the Wild Card round of the playoffs. McCarthy will have some big shoes to fill, as Tomlin won 193 regular-season games and a Super Bowl in 19 seasons as the Steelers’ head coach.
Cowboys
Related
McCarthy grew up in Greenfield, a neighborhood near downtown Pittsburgh. One of the more memorable games of McCarthy’s five-season tenure in Dallas was his homecoming in 2024 against the Steelers. Dak Prescott orchestrated a thrilling comeback for a 20-17 win. When the team was in Pittsburgh ahead of the game, Prescott and some Cowboys teammates checked out the bar McCarthy’s father used to run and visited with McCarthy’s family.
“You know how I feel about him,” Prescott told the media after the victory. “I love him. He’s a great head coach. He’s very, very proud to be from Pittsburgh. Greenfield at that.
“That’s why I had to go on a little tour, to see some of the stomping grounds he’s talked about to paint that picture in my head.”
During his five seasons leading the Cowboys, McCarthy compiled a 49-35 record, including three trips to the playoffs. Dallas moved on from him after the 2025 season.
“I don’t like to talk about myself in this manner, but I’m a winner,” McCarthy said after what ultimately was his final game as the Cowboys’ coach. “I know how to win. I’ve won a championship. I’ve won a championship in this stadium.
“That’s who I am, and we’ll see where it goes.”
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, 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 Aaron 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’s still the plan.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Dallas Cowboys begin interviews to fill out Christian Parker’s defensive staffChristian Parker’s to-do list: Three things Cowboys’ new DC must address in Dallas
Find more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.