You can cross one potential Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator candidate off the list, as Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy will remain Dallas’ head coach for the 2024 season, according to a report by ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Schefter added in a follow-up tweet that McCarthy is now heading into the final year of his contract, and after failing to reach the NFC Championship during three straight 12-5 seasons, it’s not a surprise that McCarthy likely won’t receive an extension.
Former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger talked about McCarthy, who grew up in Pittsburgh, as a potential offensive coordinator for the Steelers during a live stream of his Footbahlin’ podcast on Monday.
“He is a Pittsburgh guy, and someone talked about maybe him being the OC,” Roethlisberger said Monday. “I think he’s a brilliant mind. He’d be awesome, but I don’t know. As a head coach guy, like Tomlin’s a head coach, sometimes having two head-coach personalities, some guys it just doesn’t work. Just think that’s an interesting one.”
McCarthy beat Pittsburgh as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XLV, and he certainly would make for an intriguing candidate for Pittsburgh’s offensive coordinator job had he been on the market. He has a wealth of head coach experience, leading Dallas for the last four seasons and spending 2006-2018 as the head coach of the Packers. He’s an innovative offensive coach who brought out some of Aaron Rodgers’ best seasons in Green Bay, and the hope would’ve been that he could turn around Pittsburgh’s moribund offense.
But now McCarthy will get another shot at it in Dallas, presumably with Dak Prescott still as his quarterback. The Cowboys, much like the Steelers, are a historic franchise that has struggled to find postseason success in recent years, and that led to heavy speculation that owner Jerry Jones would move on from McCarthy. Dallas became the first No. 2 seed to lose in the Wild Card round under the modern playoff format in a 48-32 blowout loss at the hands of McCarthy’s former team, the Packers. A game where Prescott threw two interceptions, and Dallas struggled to stop Green Bay’s Jordan Love.
Given that it’s the last year of his contract, 2024 is McCarthy’s final chance to find some postseason success in Dallas. If not, he’ll be out of a job.
