Mike Tomlin's nearly two-decade long run in Pittsburgh came to end earlier this month with the announcement of his resignation shortly after the Steelers' first-round playoff exit.
Tomlin, who famously never had a losing season in his 19 years as coach, had a 193-114-2 record in 309 games leading the Steelers. However, postseason success mostly eluded him over the better part of the last 10 seasons.
Now as Pittsburgh embarks on its first head coaching search since 2007, the Steelers have a handful of candidates in mind. But the potential hiring of ex-Packers/Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy has Colin Cowherd worried about what the Steelers have learned over the years.
© Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
Colin Cowherd warns Steelers about potential Mike McCarthy hire
Taking to his syndicated sports talk radio show, FOX Sports' Colin Cowherd reacted to how the Steelers are going about their coaching search and talked about the pitfalls of potentially hiring Mike McCarthy in 2026.
"OK, we get it Pittsburgh. You're blue-collar people, you like your own. You don't have to keep reminding us," Cowherd began. "Mike McCarthy isn't just older, he's old school. That was Mike Tomlin — tone deaf to one side of the ball, a lot of penalties... The four least-penalized teams, four young offensive coaches: [Sean] McVay, [Kyle] Shanahan, Zac Taylor, Dave Canales. That's the NFL."
"And just because you're older, doesn't mean you have to be old," the FS1 host clarified. "What works in the NFL today is young coaches. DeMeco Ryans, McVay... young coaches who think young. Pittsburgh doesn't do this hiring thing... They're like the guy who was married for 35 years and now gets divorced, and is single, and thinks app is short for appetizer at Chili's."
Ben Roethlisberger claims Steelers should wait 'a few years' to draft QB
Outside of head coach, Steelers legend Ben Roethlisberger talked about the team's quarterback situation on a recent episode of his "Footbahlin'" podcast where he said the organization should wait a little bit before attempting to land their franchise guy.
“I would not draft a quarterback for at least two to three years. That's just my opinion,” Big Ben said. “The issue that I see with a lot of teams is they get a quarterback and they try and build around that quarterback. I think it should be the other way around. I think you should build a team and put your quarterback in it."
“It happened to me. [The Steelers] had a great football team," Roethlisberger explained. "They plugged me in. We had a veteran group. It just works. It works better than trying to grab a quarterback and be, 'OK, we're gonna build around this quarterback,' because then it's gonna take you four or five years to build around that quarterback."
There's a lot that still needs to be sorted out in the Steel City before they can climb back into realistic contention. But it starts with getting the head coach and the quarterback right and installing a new culture.