PHOENIX — He’s a head coach who calls his own plays, and he has acknowledged he “has to be in that quarterbacks (position meeting) room.”
In that sense, from the outside, it would seem that new Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike McCarthy, in theory, wouldn’t even need an offensive coordinator or quarterbacks coach, right?
To the contrary, McCarthy says. Because he is so involved in the offense and in working with the quarterbacks, it’s essential McCarthy has an offensive coordinator and a quarterback coach he can trust on his staff.
He believes he has that, respectively, in Brian Angelichio and Tom Arth.
McCarthy is familiar with each in that Arth was a player for him — a quarterback, no less — in 2006 during McCarthy’s first season as head coach of the Green Bay Packers. Angelichio was McCarthy’s tight ends coach during his final three seasons as the Packers head coach (2016-18).
“Brian is an outstanding football coach,” McCarthy said this week from the NFL owners meetings. “He’s the offensive coordinator, and coordinating is probably the toughest job in the NFL, I think, going along with the play-calling. So (it’s imperative) to have someone that’s like Brian that I’m aligned with.”
Angelichio comes to the Steelers having worked for six NFL head coaches with six organizations since joining the NFL ranks in 2012. Angelichio also worked on the staff of four colleges, getting his break at the FBS level with Pitt under Dave Wannstedt from 2006-11.
Dating to then and for the past 20 football seasons, Angelichio continually has held the title of tight ends coach, albeit with other responsibilities attached at times. Most prominently, over the past four seasons, Angelichio held a title of “passing game coordinator” with the Minnesota Vikings under respected young offensive-minded head coach Kevin O’Connell.
“He’s got a ton of experience,” McCarthy said of Angelichio. “He’s a great teacher. He’s a glue guy. His knowledge base is as high as anybody you’d sit down and talk football with, and he’s been in different systems.”
Arth’s background differs in that he has only had two NFL assistant gigs but has been a college head coach at two programs, including Akron at the FBS level. Arth’s hire by McCarthy also contrasts to that of Angelichio in that Arth is a holdover from Mike Tomlin’s final Steelers staff.
Arth joins inside linebackers coach Scott McCurley as the only 2025 Steelers assistant coaches still with the team.
“He would have definitely been a candidate even if he wasn’t (previously) here,” McCarthy said. “So I’m excited to be reconnected with Tom and looking forward to getting that quarterback room right and having him on it like I was given that chance a long time ago.
“Tom’s an excellent, excellent coach. He’s been a head coach. He’s been out of football. He’s got such a unique background.”
McCarthy has called the plays for all but four of his 18 seasons as an NFL head coach. Though he’s always named a quarterbacks coach for his staffs, McCarthy is so involved in working with the quarterbacks that he used to put those at that position for his teams though what he called “QB school” every offseason.
McCarthy’s QB school entailed working on fundamentals, football and mechanics. Though it has not been formally permitted since the 2011 NFL collective bargaining agreement limited offseason instruction between coaches and players, that McCarthy takes a heavy hands-on approach to coaching quarterbacks endures.
And while McCarthy will be the first to point out that the true act of “coordinating” an NFL offense throughout a season — or even within an individual week — is a separate responsibility from calling the plays on gameday, rest assured there is enough overlap that the play-caller and game plan-installer must operate together in hand-in-glove fashion.
“We have to be connected.,” McCarthy said. “And so we spend a lot of time together.
“For me to have the confidence I have in (Angelichio) in Year 1 shows what I think of him”