For the better part of a quarter century, Mike McCarthy fostered a reputation as one of the NFL’s foremost offensive minds.
The production speaks for itself. Over McCarthy’s 18 seasons as a head coach, his offenses have ranked among the top five in the NFL in points scored 10 times, dwarfing the mere three occasions he stewarded even so much as a below-average ranked (17th or lower) scoring offense.
Pittsburgh Steelers president Art Rooney II lauded McCarthy’s chops on offense as a primary reason why he hired him as his team’s new coach.
McCarthy will call the plays and, as he put it, “run the offense.” But he also recognizes that alone won’t be what gets the Steelers back into Super Bowl contention.
McCarthy took note that outside linebacker Alex Highsmith was in attendance at his introductory news conference at Acrisure Stadium on Tuesday.
“Great seeing Alex here,” McCarthy said, motioning toward Highsmith, “because defense wins championships.”
Moments later, McCarthy made reference to a phenomenon reflected in that he had a top-eight scoring offense in more than half of his 13 seasons spent as Green Bay Packers coach (eight times).
“I’ve had one top-five defense (with the Packers),” McCarthy said, “and we won the Super Bowl that year.”
Ironically, that season (2010) was one of the only five occasions over his tenure in Green Bay that the offense was not in the NFL’s upper quartile.
“The importance of defense,” McCarthy said, “is critical.”
To that end, McCarthy takes over a team that ranked 26th in the NFL in total defense last season. Its scoring defense was slightly better (17th among the 32 teams), buoyed by 27 takeaways that were the fourth-most in the league.
The 2025 Steelers were 9-1 when allowing 24 or fewer points. They were 1-6 when allowing 25 or more.
McCarthy has yet to hire a coordinator. Being that he has said he will call the plays on offense, figure that whoever he chooses as his defensive coordinator will have a degree of latitude in running that unit. And judging by what McCarthy said Tuesday, expect him to choose an individual who runs a scheme familiar to those who follow the organization.
“The history of the Steelers defense and staying with the 3-4 is important, as far as the origin of it,” McCarthy said. “That’s something we have to build off of.”
McCarthy was an assistant at Pitt when Bill Cowher took over the Steelers in 1992 and hired Dom Capers to run the defense. The Steelers zigged when most of the rest of the NFL zagged, installing a 3-4 defensive front that fostered an era of dominant Steelers defenses.
Three years into his head coaching career, McCarthy in 2009 hired Capers — a head coach of two franchises in the interim — to run his defense. McCarthy on Tuesday made reference to that hire of Capers and how watching how Capers worked with Cowher influenced that decision.
Capers spent nine seasons working under McCarthy, a veritable eternity in the NFL. Capers is still working in the NFL for the Carolina Panthers, albeit at age 75 likely is no longer interested in being a coordinator. But expect McCarthy to explore a like-minded defensive curator.
“We’re putting the (defensive) staff together. Ideally, we want to keep the language the same,” McCarthy said. “So, I think those are big decisions when you come in here, because when you’ve got something that works the way it’s worked here for so long, I think you should try to do everything you can to build off of that, if possible.”
The Steelers have had only five defensive coordinators since Capers left to take over the then-expansion Carolina Panthers in 1995 — Dick LeBeau, Jim Haslett, Tim Lewis, Keith Butler and Teryl Austin.
Austin joined former head coach Mike Tomlin’s defensive staff in 2019 and was promoted to coordinator three years later. The Steelers’ defense ranked in the top 10 in points allowed over his first three seasons but never higher than 12th in yards allowed. They were in the bottom half of the NFL in all four seasons in yards allowed per play.
This past season, six starters were 30 or older. Five significant contributors are eligible for unrestricted free agency,
In other words, there could be changes for the 2026 Steelers defense — particularly with a new head coach overseeing it.
“It’s difficult,” cornerback Joey Porter Jr. said of the expected turnover in his unit, “but I kind of got that first taste my rookie year. The locker room is going to change every year.
“It’s a big boy business. It happens, but it is what it is.”