The Steelers didn\u2019t hire Mike McCarthy just for the feel-good story. They also consider him an offensive guru who specializes in developing quarterbacks. Although Tomlin\u2019s resignation thrust change at the coaching level upon them, they saw this as an opportunity to address that weak link. At least some reporters observing practice see that it is already becoming a strength.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could tell the difference offensively just through OTAs and just some of the scheme that they\u2019re installing right now, and they\u2019re still early in the process\u201d, Mark Kaboly said on 93.7 The Fan<\/a>, comparing how Mike McCarthy has run his offense to years past, most recently under Arthur Smith as offensive coordinator. \u201cHe pretty much knows what he\u2019s doing, offensively\u201d.<\/p>\n As Mike DeFabo echoed, Kaboly observed that McCarthy has shied away from the defense. More a matter of delegation and expertise rather than incompetence, he is entrusting those he hired to do his job. But offense is his bread and butter, and he understands his job depends on thriving there.<\/p>\n Mike McCarthy earned his reputation by rising through the ranks on the offensive side of the ball. Before landing the Green Bay Packers\u2019 head coaching job, he spent six seasons as an offensive coordinator. For five years before that, he was a quarterbacks coach, and early on even worked with Joe Montana<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now in Pittsburgh, of course, he has the quarterback with whom he\u2019s most associated. McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers had a very fruitful relationship, winning a Super Bowl title. He also had success later with the Cowboys and QB Dak Prescott. But exactly what will his Steelers offense look like?<\/p>\n \u201cEverything that the coaching staff says, it looks like it\u2019s going to be ground and pound, let\u2019s be physical, let\u2019s play AFC North football, play defense, punting\u2019s not a bad thing\u201d, Kaboly said, noting that it differs from what the players are saying. \u201cThe personnel they got tells me that they\u2019re gonna be, maybe not a run-heavy team, but they\u2019re gonna run the ball more than they have the past couple of seasons\u201d.<\/p>\n Mike McCarthy signed one of his former Cowboys running backs, Rico Dowdle. They also have Jaylen Warren returning, as well as Kaleb Johnson. And they drafted Eli Heidenreich, who could potentially be an interesting gadget or change-of-pace ball carrier in some capacity.<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean they don\u2019t have pass catchers, though. To give DK Metcalf a complementary receiver, McCarthy\u2019s Steelers traded for Michael Pittman Jr. After missing out on Makai Lemon in the first round of the draft, they traded up for Germie Bernard in the second. They also have Pat Freiermuth as a pass-catching tight end, and their backs can also contribute. For what it\u2019s worth, the players don\u2019t seem to mind having an offensive-minded head coach<\/a>.<\/p>\n Perhaps it\u2019s too early to really say what the Steelers\u2019 offense will look like under Mike McCarthy. After all, they\u2019ve only had a few practices with the recently signed Aaron Rodgers. Even last season under Arthur Smith, Rodgers still averaged over 31 attempts per game. That\u2019s far from an unreasonable target for this season, I would think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Steelers didn\u2019t hire Mike McCarthy just for the feel-good story. They also consider him an offensive guru…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":821140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[39],"tags":[21210,21908,139638,1232,1545,62,939,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-821139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-93-7-the-fan","tag-mark-kaboly","tag-mike-mccarthy","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-sports","tag-trending","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116635514250096651","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}