Mike McCarthy and the Steelers are QB-hungry, but want to win now. How can they thread the needle?
Mike McCarthy, center, poses for a photo, after being introduced as the new head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers by team owner Art Rooney II, left, and general manager Omar Khan, right, in Pittsburgh Tuesday, Jan.
27, 2026. McCarthy gave some legitimately insightful answers during his first press conference about his philosophy and how it will translate to the Steelers’ roster.and general manager Omar Khan made it rather clear that hiring McCarthy was not only about his resume of winning, but about his resume of developing quarterbacks. that is something that has stuck with McCarthy for his career, with revivals like Rich Gannon and Brett Favre on his resume and the development of Aaron Rodgers. “I mean, the quarterback opportunity, I think it’s important. When you become a head coach, big part of why you got that first opportunity was the position you coached through your background and so forth. I’ve been super blessed to work with an unbelievable group of quarterbacks, the Hall of Famers. Paul Hackett was my mentor. Paul taught me the quarterback position. It started at University of Pittsburgh over there in 1989. So just had great mentorship through my younger years. That follows through, and a little harder to coach the quarterback today than it was in pre-2011. That position is no different than any other position,” McCarthy said. His reputation as a quarterback whisperer is unique among many of the candidates the Steelers interviewed this year, so it is not much of a surprise the Steelers decided they would go this route if they had to dive into the quarterback realm. Rooney, in a statement made earlier this week, empathized that quarterback development part of McCarthy’s background. “Probably just as important for our purposes, the quarterbacks that he’s worked with have all been very successful. So, he has a proven track record of developing top-flight quarterbacks. Those are the things that maybe stick out the most,” Rooney said. The game has evolved since McCarthy was a first-time offensive coordinator in 2000 with the New Orleans Saints. Over that time, mobility and elusiveness out of the pocket have become paramount to winning at the position. Even still, the best quarterbacks still win from the pocket and can lace it around the yard. That is what McCarthy is looking for in his quarterback. “I think that is the biggest evolution that is obvious to all of us. At the end of the day, to win these big games that are being played in January, they still got to make throws from the pocket. That’s why the belief and the footwork and the training and all those things that go into it. But the running quarterback is the biggest change that I’ve seen,” McCarthy said.Speaking of quarterbacks, the Steelers only have two under contract for next year. Certainly, Aaron Rodgers looms, but Mason Rudolph and Will Howard are the two guys that stand in that room for now. Howard will head into his second season, and McCarthy notably gave a glowing report of the Steelers’ promising young quarterback. “I’m real excited about Will Howard. I think he’s someone that I thought really came on there at Ohio State. I’m anxious to work with him,” McCarthy said. That is the first time on the record that someone in the organization has acknowledged just how much they like Howard. The Steelers drafted him in the sixth round, which was a surprising fall for Howard. It seems likely that McCarthy will try to add a veteran somewhere along the way, whether it is Rodgers or somewhere else, but the development of Howard remains on their mind.It is one thing to harp on the quarterback position, but that young quarterback, if they are to develop, needs help from the rest of the offense. The success stories from recent seasons have great play callers, a strong running game, and receivers they can trust. To some degree, the Steelers have a semblance of some of those qualities, but they sorely lack the wide receivers needed to give a young quarterback a viable environment. McCarthy’s offense has worked best with stars like Jordy Nelson, CeeDee Lamb, and Davante Adams. The Steelers have DK Metcalf on the roster, but aside from him, they not only have poor option, but a homogenous group of skillsets. McCarthy says that his West Coast offensive philosophy relies all on timing and details with the quarterback, making wide receiver a paramount need. “As far as the receiver position as a whole, we were at our best in Green Bay, the Jordy Nelson era, because all those guys worked so well together. This game’s about match-ups. Your ability to put your third receiver on the third corner or the third, hopefully that’s a favorable match-up, or move those guys around. You want your receivers to be able to play all three positions. When you can have the flexibility of that, that goes back to the first statement about making a quarterback successful, because the quarterbacks are trained in conceptual development of how you throw the football. So that helps you with your footwork training, but if you have 900 plays just to beat every defense, that’s very difficult on a quarterback. So, if you truly want to play to the rhythm and the time of a quarterback, your perimeter guys being able to play multiple positions is very important,” McCarthy said. The Steelers have enough cap space and 12 draft picks to make a dent in the receiver position and accentuate what Metcalf does well this offseason by adding solid, complementary players around him. For the McCarthy offense to work, the Steelers will have to do just that, and finally fix the wide receiver room once and for all.Mike McCarthy gives clear answer on who will call Steelers offensive playsNick Farabaugh is the Pittsburgh Steelers beat writer for PennLive.com, based in Pittsburgh. He is entering his fourth season on the Steelers beat. Before joining PennLive, he was the Steelers beat writer for...
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