At this point, Pittsburgh Steelers fans are just hoping that Art Rooney II and his team make the right decision in hiring their next head coach. There have been positive signs suggesting the Steelers will hire someone the fanbase is largely in support of.
However, there’s one path to potentially bringing Aaron Rodgers back to the team to play quarterback for another season. That path likely begins with hiring Pittsburgh-native Mike McCarthy.
While that duo beat the Steelers in the Super Bowl, that was 15 years ago, and neither player nor coach has returned to the game’s biggest stage since. There’s a lot not to like about the prospects of Pittsburgh making the move to bring in McCarthy and pairing him back up with Rodgers.
ESPN NFL Analyst Dan Orlovsky put it into words on Thursday morning in a way that many Steelers fans will agree with.
"Hiring Mike McCarthy and bringing Aaron back would be the worst decision Pittsburgh could make," Orlovsky said on Get Up.
“That’s not an indictment on each of them or either of them individually. Mike McCarthy’s a really good coach. Obviously, Aaron, one of the all-time greats,” he said. “What are we doing, Pittsburgh? To hire Mike McCarthy and bring Aaron back is going to place you, quite literally, in the same position you are in right now in January of 2027.”
The Pittsburgh Steelers should heed Dan Orlovsky's advice on Mike McCarthy
That’s the fear many in Pittsburgh have about entertaining such a move. The expectation for the franchise wouldn’t change. The Steelers would be capable of winning 9-10 games, fighting for a postseason spot with little hope they could deliver on a Super Bowl run. Then, they’d have to figure out the quarterback position, again.
“That would be a disasterous thing to do for your future.”
Of course, one way to circumnavigate the quarterback issue is by bringing in a quarterback who will be set to take over for Rodgers, or investing more in Will Howard. But that doesn’t detract from the fact that McCarthy is just under nine years older than Mike Tomlin.
Hiring McCarthy isn’t a long-term investment like the other candidates on the Steelers’ radar, nor like the three head coaches who have led Pittsburgh since 1969. And it’s not nearly a sure enough thing to invest in McCarthy for 5-10 years.
Hopefully, the signs that Pittsburgh is interested in younger, more promising options come to fruition, and the Steelers avoid the dreadful scenario Orlovsky mapped out Thursday morning.