On the topic of the Pittsburgh Steelers hiring Mike McCarthy to be their new head coach, Mark Madden of TribLive and 105.9 The X shared an opinion similar to one that I advanced on Sunday.

The gripe is more about the process than the person.

“I don’t get why they didn’t bother to interview the two L.A. Rams guys (Chris Shula and Nathan Scheelhaase) in person,” Madden said during this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast. “I don’t get it if this is a way to keep Aaron Rodgers. If so, why would they want to do that? I don’t get who plays quarterback if they don’t bring Rodgers back, although it seems like Art (Rooney II) and McCarthy are high on Will Howard and giving him a shot. I just don’t get a lot of this.

“He’s a good offensive mind, which is a change from what they’ve hired for their last three head coaching choices. But I just don’t understand the brevity of the process, and I’m not sure I get the hire. I don’t think it’s a bad hire. It’s just not the hire I would have made.”

During the podcast, Madden and I stumbled onto two potential reasons why McCarthy impressed Rooney to the point that he didn’t even bother waiting until this week to interview any candidates from the Rams or the other coaches who participated during Sunday’s conference championship games.

The first is Madden’s theory that McCarthy may not have made any demands to expand the coaching staff much beyond the NFL-low numbers they operated with under Mike Tomlin.

“McCarthy’s a guy who won’t make them do that. I think Scheelhaase and guys like that — (Klay) Kubiak — would have asked for that anyway and gotten chapped when they didn’t (expand),” Madden said.

However, according to ESPN.com, McCarthy had a 24-person staff in Dallas. Tomlin only had 18 here. So we’ll see if McCarthy gets to add at least a few more bodies now that he is in charge.

Another idea I floated is that McCarthy appealed to Rooney in the sense that, at 62 years old with a Super Bowl ring, this hire will keep veterans such as T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward content. Those guys may have grumbled at the notion of a rookie coach such as Scheelhaase, Shula or Kubiak taking over for Tomlin.

“That’s for sure, true,” Madden replied. “They’re trying to win for T.J. and for Cam, because they ‘deserve better.’ The people who say they ‘deserve better’ are just stupid. They’re ignoring that those two were at the scene of the crime every time they lost the playoff game. Those two don’t deserve better. They needed to do better in the crunch. They needed to help the team win those playoff games they lost.”

Madden also thinks that McCarthy’s apparent faith in quarterback Will Howard was attractive to Rooney II.

“It’s not a matter of saying what will work. It’s not a matter, in any job interview, of being honest,” Madden continued. “It’s a matter of telling the guy that’s interviewing you what he wants to hear so you get the job. And I’m thinking McCarthy told Art, ‘There’s nothing wrong with his team right now. You’re not that far off.’ And that was reflected with some of the things Art said.”

Also during the podcast, Madden and I discuss the Super Bowl matchup between Seattle and New England, the Penguins’ hot streak, and Andrew McCutchen’s social media complaints.