Pittsburgh Steelers fans are more than likely feeling underwhelmed with the hire of Mike McCarthy as the team's first new head coach since 2007. Feeling that way is justified considering McCarthy wasn't one of the sexier names floated around as a potential option for Pittsburgh's next head coach.
Like it or not, McCarthy is the next head coach of the Steelers. It's easy to be frustrated by the hire, but Dan Patrick provided a reason why fans need to give the former Packers and Cowboys head coach a chance in Pittsburgh.
"The Mike McCarthy hire... I'm okay with it. I know we're looking for a 35-year-old defensive coordinator and you're gonna plug him in for the next 20 years. I get that," Patrick said on his show on Monday morning. "Mike McCarthy is great at developing quarterbacks... You have to get a quarterback at some point who's under the age of 40... But Mike McCarthy has done a great job with quarterbacks. He had Alex Smith in San Francisco he developed. Aaron Rodgers, he developed. Dak Prescott had three of the best years of his career in Dallas.... I'm okay with Mike McCarthy... If I have McCarthy in there, I feel better about him developing somebody but I don't know if it's gonna happen anytime soon."
Pittsburgh Steelers fans may feel better after Dan Patrick’s Mike McCarthy take
Patrick has a point here. Sure, the McCarthy hire isn't an exciting one by any means, but he has done a nice job with the quarterbacks he's had at his disposal. The big names that he had success with are the ones Patrick mentioned, and clearly, he knows what he's doing once he has his quarterback.
The problem for the Steelers is that they don't have a quarterback worth developing right now, and finding one this offseason could be tricky. There aren't many starting-caliber quarterbacks in this year's draft, and the trade market doesn't look much better as far as available signal-callers are concerned.
If McCarthy can get a decent-enough quarterback, however, we've seen the sample size there. He knows what he's doing in that department. A team's success isn't exclusively tied to the quarterback, though, and that's where McCarthy's teams have fallen short in the past.
Hopefully, this is another hire that brings a Super Bowl trophy to Pittsburgh, but right now, it makes sense why fans aren't psyched. Dan Patrick's point is one worth keeping in mind, though, even if McCarthy doesn't stay with the team as long as past Steelers head coaches have, if he can get the right quarterback and develop him, that could help this team thrive for the long haul.