A lot has already been made about the different ways Mike McCarthy conducts offseason practices for the Pittsburgh Steelers compared to the way Mike Tomlin did for years. The big question is how might those changes carry over and reflect on game day.
“I think the biggest thing we’re going to find out is how the offense is going to run,” the P-G’s Gerry Dulac said via 102.5 WDVE’s Morning Show with Randy Baumann. “I don’t care who the coordinator was before, at least since Bruce Arians, and that is that offense ran the way Mike Tomlin wanted that offense to run. And it was a very conservative attack for the most part.”
Tomlin often talked about the way he wanted to “engineer victory.” What that looked like in practice was a bend-but-don’t-break defense that tried to limit explosive plays, and a conservative offense that focused on controlling the clock and not turning the ball over.
Offensively, it was hard to watch. Pittsburgh avoided the middle of the field like the plague, and always reverted to the same run or screen-pass plays that everybody could see coming from a mile away.
It’s one of the reasons why Pittsburgh had three different offensive coordinators—Randy Fichtner, Matt Canada, and Arthur Smith—but roughly the same offensive identity for most of the last decade. Tomlin was the common denominator as he desperately tried to limit the negative impact of an offense that lagged significantly behind in talent.
The talent is in a much better spot now. But more importantly, the Steelers have a head coach who sees things differently. In 18 years of being a head coach, McCarthy has fielded 12 top-10 scoring offenses and 11 in the overall yards category. Tomlin had just six top-10 finishes in each over his 19 years with the team.
That contrast gets ever uglier if you look at top-5 finishes.
Some of it obviously depends on Aaron Rodgers and how much he’s willing to hang onto the ball. Last year, the Steelers worked to protect him, which translated to the quickest time to throw and the shortest average air yards per attempt in the league. It won’t be back to Aaron Rodgers of old, but I think we can reasonably expect an entirely different texture to the offense under McCarthy.
“Most of the time, Mike Tomlin’s philosophy usually was rooted in don’t try to go win the game, just try not to lose it,” Dulac said. “I don’t think Mike McCarthy, as an offensive-minded coach, has that same mentality. He runs the offense the way he sees fit. He calls the plays. And that’s gonna be the biggest difference between Mike Tomlin and the coordinators he had and the way Mike McCarthy is gonna run the offense and call the game.”
Between the growth of the offensive line, the continuity of having Aaron Rodgers for another year, and the additions of Michael Pittman Jr., Rico Dowdle, and Germie Bernard, it’s okay to have high expectations for the Steelers’ 2026 offense under McCarthy.
For the first time in a long time, the Steelers appear positioned to pair offensive talent with a head coach whose instincts lean toward attacking rather than merely managing the game.