With steam picking up regarding Mike McCarthy being the Pittsburgh Steelers' new head coach after Mike Tomlin, it looks like that will become a reality for the franchise. As McCarthy interviewed for the Steelers job, NFL insider Adam Schefter reports that the “plan” is to hire the former Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers head coach to succeed Tomlin.
This is a homecoming for McCarthy, who is from the city of Pittsburgh, looking to hopefully bring the same amount of success as Tomlin did.
“Sources: Steelers plan to hire former Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy as their head coach,” Schefter wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Under two hours later, it would be officially announced by the team that McCarthy and the Steelers have “verbally agreed” to be the next head coach.
We have verbally agreed for Mike McCarthy to become our next head coach. pic.twitter.com/oOqZPRm7aX
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) January 24, 2026
Another link between McCarthy and the Steelers organization is that the coach had worked with Pittsburgh's current general manager Omar Khan when the two were together with the New Orleans Saints in 2000. There's no doubt that the connection runs deep with the city, as Schefter pointed out, McCarthy being a graduate assistant for the University of Pittsburgh.
Mike McCarthy is likely returning home to coach the Steelers
With the rumors around the Steelers and quarterback Aaron Rodgers regarding his future, one has to wonder if McCarthy's eventual hiring will be a huge factor, since the two won a Super Bowl in 2010 with the Packers. Either way, McCarthy being Pittsburgh's new head coach is likely to be “surreal,” which is how former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher described the interview.
“I talked to Mike yesterday,” Cowher said on The Pat McAfee Showon Friday. “He got done, and he just talked about how surreal it was for him. He grew up in Greenfield, and he went into the facility for the first time, which they share with Pitt. And just being in that building in itself. Again, you know, I remember when I went in there for the first time. There was a mystique about that building, and you get inside there, and you operate underneath that whole scenario you operate under.”
At any rate, McCarthy looks to fill in the shoes of Tomlin, who has been with the franchise since 2007.
