The hire suggests the Steelers aren’t interested in installing a young coach with room for longevity in the league. Instead, Pittsburgh is looking for leadership, direction and, most importantly, an answer to its persistent quarterback conundrum.
Hiring a coach won’t solve the under-center conundrum, but it can increase the likelihood that the designated hitter will be their long-term solution. In order to achieve this goal, a team needs to find and acquire such a player, something the Steelers have yet to do.
There is another option, though: Convince Aaron Rodgers to postpone retirement for another season with the Steelers. It certainly seemed part of Pittsburgh’s game when the club hired McCarthy, Rodgers’ former coach in Green Bay.
Rooney fueled such sentiments, dismissing the Steelers’ hiring of McCarthy from Pittsburgh to trade the 42-year-old Rodgers for a second year in the Steel City. But it sounds like they wouldn’t mind another setting with the future palace.
“We decided to bring Mike on board because we believe he is the right coach for us at this point to help lead us to a championship,” Rooney said. “We don’t know what Aaron’s plans are right now and that didn’t factor into the decision. We’ll see where Aaron is and we’ve left the door open, but obviously we all have to sit down and see if it makes sense. So it will happen sometime in the next month or so.
“But the decision was made based on Mike being the coach we want, and it really had very little to do with whether Aaron was going back or not.”
McCarthy’s history as an offensive line coach has consistently produced high-quality performances on that side of the ball, and after struggling to find consistency while carrying the football over the past few seasons, hiring McCarthy was the logical solution.
Whether his initial response relates to Rodgers remains to be seen.