The Pomp And Joe Show
12PM - Mark Kaboly thinks Mike McCarthy is current favorite for Steelers HC; We discuss how Danny Rooney continues to grow in Steelers organization
21 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The show took a decided turn with the Mendoza, Will Howard conversation. It spilled into the hallway with our bosses, with Mark Caballi, with Paul Alexander. And suddenly it dawned on me. Now we've already addressed this today. And the big boy is sitting across from me, Mark Caballi of the Pat McAfee show with an unbelievable hat on iron city beer. And what does your sweatshirt say?
Jaguars baseball, TJ, right? There you go, brother. There you go. Um, Andy Weidel, if this guy leaves the building and goes to Atlanta, who's the football guy? Who's the football guy at the head of the operation, big boy?
Well, I think right now that would happen. First of all, I don't want to anticipate that happening. Why? I think it's honestly more of a next year type of conversation than this year.
Because why? He wants more opportunity?
No, I mean, this is his first real interview, right? I don't know. Normally, that does not happen that way. I would not anticipate that happening. Of course it could, but I wouldn't anticipate him leaving. Next year, there would be a prime time for him to leave. His contract may be up. I'm not 100% sure on that. But they got a couple other guys. I mean, I think Mark Sadowski, he's a guy.
There's guys right beneath him that are ā Yeah, but it's worrisome.
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Chapter 2: Who is Andy Weidl and what role does he play in the Steelers organization?
No ball.
It's worrisome. Who's the football point man if he's gone?
It would probably be one of the guys right below him. Sadowski's pretty knowledgeable and pretty around. But you don't want to lose Andy White. But what are you going to do? Who's steering the ship here, big boy? But what are you going to do, though?
I don't know. I don't know what you're going to do.
What I'm saying is you can't just say, Andy, you can't go to Atlanta.
Oh, no, you can't do that. Of course. But do you trust Omar and Art to get the right guy here before we talk about who you think the right guy is? Do you trust the captains of the ship here?
Yeah, because I think Omar is smart enough to know his shortcomings. Why do you think Andy White was here? Andy White was here because he knew he wasn't the best in personnel guy, best in picking out, so to speak, the draft guys, you know? Stuff like that. So he brought in a guy like that. That was part of his hiring. Hey, you hire me as GM.
I want to bring this guy to be my right-hand man to help me on my shortcomings. So I think Omar is very good at that.
Delegating things.
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Chapter 3: Why is Mike McCarthy considered a favorite for the Steelers head coach position?
Yeah, Danny Colbert. He's a guy that's ā rose his way up through the ranks as well. There's a lot of those guys that they've put together. I mean, the combine, all this stuff now moving forward is just basically getting to know the people maybe that you need a second look at. They pretty much know what they're getting in the draft right now. Now, Future years are different.
I mean, I don't think ā I mean, what has Omar had, 23, 24, three drafts now? I mean, if you're going to grade his drafts, put it better. Their last three under Omar has been better than Kevin Colbert's final three.
I attribute the drafts to Mike Tomlin more than anybody, good and bad, and mostly bad. But yeah, what you say is fair. But let's not bury the lead here. Mark Cabaly brought to you by Keystone Custom Apparel, the region's premier spirit wear and sports uniform provider. Let's not bury the lead, Bob. Mark Cabaly has a very educated opinion on the Mike McCarthy situation.
He seems to know something. He's giving me that wink wink as I'm talking to him in the hallway. Is Mike McCarthy going to be their next coach?
I wouldn't be shocked if he was.
Is he your betting favorite?
Right now, I would say yes. First of all, I think they're going to be extremely patient with this. They're going to let the entire process play out, and if that means you have to wait until a week from now or a week and a half from now.
Is he on anyone else's list right now? That's the thing. He could wait as long as he wants, I imagine, right? Are there other coaches who have other interviews?
Yeah, right now. But, you know, anybody could pop up at any time.
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Chapter 4: What influence does Danny Rooney have in the Steelers organization?
If it's a quarterback this year, if it's next year, if it's Will Howard Mendoza, right? Right, Pump?
Yeah.
Will Howard Mendoza.
He's on the roster.
Whoever it is, you use him. Because you look at McCarthy's record. I mean, he did wonders for Dak. Obviously Aaron Rodgers. But before that, you remember Aaron Brooks in New Orleans? He came out of nowhere. Had four good years in New Orleans when McCarthy was the GM there. Not the GM, the offensive coordinator. You go back a little bit even further than that to the Kansas City days.
He had a year with Alex Smith. So he's had a history of being able to develop quarterbacks wherever he's been able to go. So to me, I think that is what pushes you over the top right now. And I don't think it's a bad thing, to be honest with you. I've really started to warm up to this of saying not every single Steelers coach has to be here 20 years. Why?
Use him for what's left of him, then move on.
Someone called in and said, could he be a head coach who has a coach in waiting under him? And we'll use Sheilhaus as an example. Sheilhaus.
They've done that before with coordinators, right? They brought Terrell Austin in to be the replacement to Keith Butler. Right.
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Chapter 5: How does the coaching search impact the Steelers' future?
But if you do make sure that you have a viable quarterback, which I was saying prior, I can accept that. If it's like bring McCarthy in because we think we're going to win next year because Aaron Rodgers is here, no, I don't want that. I don't think anybody wants that.
I don't think that's going to happen, so ā What, McCarthy or Rodgers? Definitely not Rodgers. I don't know about McCarthy. I think he may work his way into that because of the history that he has, the successes he has had. Yes, there's failures, but every coach has them, I think. Not to the degree that he has and Mike Tomlin has.
in the postseason, but I still get the feeling that they just want to get somebody who they can grow with as a coach.
Here's another thing. It's not like this group of coaches are Ben Johnson and Sean McVay. I mean, there's a reason why three of the four retread so far. I don't think they're knocking anybody's socks off in the NFL world.
That's a good point. We haven't really talked about that. Maybe this group isn't looked at the same way as the last group was.
I've been saying that. I think we said that with our grades earlier. Did we have anybody in the A category? I can't remember. I think the highest I gave was a B+.
I think I had an A- for Shula. That was about it.
That's where McCarthy comes in, right? Well, who's your number one pick? If you could pick any of the guys known to have interviewed.
If I could pick anybody, I would probably ā I like Shula. I mean, a young guy with fire, has the name, has the defensive skills. But that would be a lot based on ā You better bring yourself an offensive guy, too. If you can guarantee me a package deal, which I don't think would happen, Schilhaus and Shula, that would be great.
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Chapter 6: What are the potential quarterback options for the Steelers next season?
Most of it. this guy might want to have his own, spread his wings a little bit, and get an opportunity to show you, I can play call, and this might be a good opportunity for him.
The problem is, is if he's a head coach and he goes to Arizona, that might be your only opportunity. How about Flores? You like him? I do think he has a lot of obstacles in front of him now with his public ā
hearing coming up here i don't think a lot of owners are going to want to touch him well it doesn't matter it just matters if this one would no my no i don't think that he would be on in their top as his head coach but what if i suggested he comes here as defensive coordinator with mike mccarthy would that change your mind on mike mccarthy that would be interesting have two two guys who have been around the block a little bit bob
Would Flores want to do that, though?
He had another opportunity. He pretty much burned his bridges in Minnesota, didn't he? Why? What happened? Yeah, because they didn't resign him, and he came out and had that interview, basically said, I'm just not talking about it. I'm just going to let my agents deal with this right now. I don't think he was quite happy with how it ended there, and if he's not able to get a head coaching job ā
He's another guy. He has one more opportunity, man, as a head coach. Do you want to go to Vegas? Do you want to go to Cleveland? Do you want to go to Arizona? You better make sure this is the right position for you to be able to succeed.
I do want to go to Vegas, by the way, because I get the number one pick.
With not much of a roster.
I'll worry about the roster later.
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Chapter 7: How does the discussion about Aaron Rodgers fit into the Steelers' coaching strategy?
I've got to go work for these guys, and this is how they look at me.
Right. With Deshaun Watson still on the team in Cleveland, Haslam said we took a big swing and missed on the quarterback. He might still be their quarterback. crazy.
What a disaster. But the fact that if he truly said that, which he did, it's in quotes here from a Buffalo News reporter who was there, that he made a decision based on that Denver game. That's no way. That had to be It can't be just that, because if that's the case, you would have known that Josh Allen had everything to do with that loss.
I mean, Joe, you're the Buffalo guy. Don't you say, well, we can't continuously going down this path and blow Josh Allen's career and not have a chance to win. Don't you say that rather than, yeah, we just lost this game.
Right, right. And here's the thing in the context of our conversation that we're having. Is you walk into Buffalo, you do get that guy, you get Superman, but you also get that guy that we just heard owning the team and the GM who got a promotion. That's not a very good roster. So while I still think it's the best job, I'm not sure if it's a winning formula if you walk in there.
I'm not sure with that GM and that owner.
Do you think the new stadium has anything to do with wanting to change the leadership? Maybe. Probably.
I think that's what was going on in Cleveland a little bit too. Sure, but he miscalculated in that they're going to have pitchforks at the old stadium today about Brandon Bean. About what are you doing keeping the GM? Oh, they're promoting him.
and promoting him yes so i don't know man maybe this is maybe this is why maybe this will be a better situation yeah right exactly how about speaking of cleveland that stefanski uh tweet that got under the uh skin of baker mayfield who responded in kind by saying oh this guy hasn't sent me one word not even a text when they got rid of me and he treated me like garbage
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Chapter 8: What are the implications of Weidl's potential departure for the Steelers?
I had a 34 going into the ninth hole. Wow. And choked. I got like a seven on the ninth hole.
We got to get out and go.
Oh, not anymore. Come on now. That's pretty good. I was just killing. That and Chippewa out in Lake Bentleyville.
You been there, Bob? In Bentleyville. Bentleyville. I never heard of that course.
I've been through Bentleyville. Oh, come on. I used to have a dentist in Chippewa, but that's beside the point here.
Do you like that stuff you see on ESPN now where they're having pros, all the best names, play that simulated golf? What is it called, the T?
No, I'm not interested in that. Are you?
On a cold day with nothing else on, maybe. Yeah. After a while, no. Wait, with nothing on? Oh. I thought you meant your birthday suit there for a second. No.
Bob watching naked golf.
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