The Pomp And Joe Show
1PM - Mike McCarthy's 1st Steelers staff is coming together; Sports Director Jeff Hathhorn joins to talk Steelers coaching and Penguins
29 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the latest news about Mike McCarthy's coaching staff?
All right, Mike McCarthy's staff starting to take shape a little bit. James Campen, the offensive line coach. What you need to know about him is he was McCarthy's guy in Green Bay for a long time, has a nice resume. Patrick Graham, Jerry Dulac saying they're really getting ready to hire him. It sounded like to me in that story, Bob, he's on his way here or here.
Jordan Schultz has said he is going to be hired. Who knows?
So he has a track record and a resume. It's just not impressive at the NFL level. There may be more to that story. That may be unfair.
He got his start with Bill Belichick for six years, though, so I know if you regard that as helpful, which I do, that could be something.
There are other guys. We talked about Clint Kubiak the other day who's flourishing in Seattle, but he had places where he didn't flourish because the talent around him was bad. But Patrick Graham arrives here. If you just look at the hard, cold numbers, there's not many good ones on his NFL resume as a coordinator. That's just a fact right now.
And then, Bob, we see Scott Tolzien, according to Fowler, going to interview for the offensive coordinator, which is not a play caller here, but is still, if you look at McCarthy's track record, guys who do that under him seem to get hired, like Brian Schottenheimer, for example. So Tolzien's interesting. He was backup quarterback for the Packers.
under McCarthy, and he coached with him as a quarterback's coach there. Dak Prescott, they did well with him. Prescott was good before they got there. He got better, though, it's fair to say, when McCarthy got there and Tolzien was the quarterback's coach. Still a pretty young guy, only 38. This seems like a decent hire if it happens.
Not a ton you know about him, but he won't be calling plays either.
I like the idea, though. And I like guys who are former quarterbacks getting involved in this, too. You have a lot of different people who've gone through all of the things necessary to be the leader of the offense, and I think that can only be viewed as a good thing. And he's young enough. He needs to go through this. He can learn from him. Yeah, I like it.
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Chapter 2: Who is Scott Tolzien and what role might he play with the Steelers?
If you're going to look at numbers, the numbers that McCarthy, regardless of whether or not he inherited a quarterback, developed one, used one, whatever the case, the numbers are good. Except in the playoffs. Okay, there are a lot of reasons that could be the case, too. I'd like to look at each of these games. As I would suggest here, people say, well, you get blown out. They did.
And it was the defense that, not so much the offense.
No, the offense only had, oh, in Pittsburgh? Yeah.
Yeah. In Pittsburgh, it was, oh, he got blown out. It was the defense, which is supposed to be the strength of their team. I'd like to see inside. But the point is, during the course of the regular season, he puts up big numbers.
He does. I mean, yes, he does. He had two number one ranked offenses in Dallas. Again, he had a quarterback in Dallas, which is helpful. But those offenses, once they got to the playoffs, crashed out, Bob. 12 points against the Niners, and that was a very good defense. 17 against the Niners, again a good defense. And 7 points in the first half against the Packers.
In a game they lost 48-32, something happened to them in the playoffs. And again, that's my concern with him. He underachieved with Aaron Rodgers in the end. If we say that Tomlin did with Ben, don't we have to say that about McCarthy and Rodgers? Totally.
That's an equal assessment. Right. If you have a guy like that, now they got to some NFC championship games, but they didn't win championships, and it is tough to do. There's no question. A lot of teams have not even sniffed the playoffs, let alone championship games. So there's that. I want to see it develop. I want to see what happens. I want to see what they do.
I want to see a noticeable change to how they play offense.
They got blown out in Green Bay the year after they beat the Steelers, 37-20 as an eight-point favorite. The next year, 45-30 they lose to the Niners. A lot of losses to the Niners for old Mike.
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Chapter 3: What are the expectations for Patrick Graham as the defensive coordinator?
He hasn't signed it. He's like 15th now.
I don't actually know that. But you're right about the division. Do the Steelers have the best roster in the division, Bob? They can't because they don't have a quarterback.
Well, that's the one thing. And my answer would be no because they don't have the quarterback yet. We don't know how that's going to play out. But I would say they have pieces on both sides of the ball that make me encourage that they could add more pieces to it and have a pretty good core of players on each side.
Something was wrong with Lamar this year. He just was not himself. But man, coming back, the Bengals still have their guys, at least on offense, right? We'll see if they can build a defense.
And you wonder if Joe Burrow is going to be inspired or not. I think he will be. He better be because that's what they're paying him to be. He sounded last year like, in fact, he came out and said, I'm not having fun. Which is interesting comment for a quarterback to make. It's like, okay, you're getting paid a lot of money. Your job is to go out there and do what you got to do.
Fun or not, you still got to do it.
Who's going to be the division favorite at the beginning of the year?
I still say Baltimore.
Really? Yeah. Do you limits? I say Cincy.
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Chapter 4: What concerns exist regarding McCarthy's playoff performance?
So good for him. And the GM made some really good clutch moves that a lot of people didn't necessarily ā
excited about well i mean yeah elevating somebody from an assistant to a head coach that's the same as our quarterback discussion in the draft yeah there's all kinds of busts of course there are if everybody made the right choice then everybody would be in the playoffs but only 14 teams get in of course there's busts as coaches but i just mentioned all the guys that have been successful being elevated from assistants mcdermott was in buffalo
Right? Yes. No, there are a lot.
I'm not disagreeing with that. I was just pointing out the graphics showed up, and I thought it was interesting to see the numbers.
Of course. There's terrible coaching hires every single year. Yeah, those are all internal promotions, though. But here's the point, Bob. Yes, internal. Here's the point.
Like Joe Brady is going to have to fight that trend.
Do you want to take a risk on one of those guys, or are you going to go safe and true with Mike McCarthy? I'm taking the risk, probably. I'm bringing in a Clint Kubiak.
See, I agree. I would have wanted to talk to him. And I may have been in a different frame of mind had I done that. And they could have done that. This was the week to do it. He and those other guys from the Rams. They didn't go down that path. We'll see what the results are.
Kubiak currently considered, according to Fowler, the favorite to get the Raiders job. Yeah. That makes sense.
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Chapter 5: How does McCarthy's offensive strategy impact the Steelers' future?
My tune has always been don't change what you're doing. Play the young guys. However this season plays out, plays out. Not that I want older players, but I know you guys have talked about Robertson. If you can make a trade where you can get somebody that can be a part of a core going forward, I'm all for that. And I think with Skinner, I'd just let it go. I wouldn't trade him. I'd still play him.
And if the contract expires and you don't move him, the contract expires and you don't move him, you're in good shape with goaltending. Although I'm guessing that goaltending will be a part of a package if you're going to get a young
Yeah, and also, you're never guaranteed. Goalies, you know how they go. Up, down, Matt Murray, we thought was going to be here for 20 years, and he was not. You can say Miroshev has all the talent in the world, and he does. That doesn't mean there'll be some ups and downs, and there could be some that, you know, that's my point in all of this.
And Robertson's somebody I would be interested in only because of his age. Yeah, you're going to have to pay $12 to $14 million. That's where this market has gone. But for 26, he could be here for 10 years as a guy who, and look at his history. He's 30 to 35 goals. He is a really good defensive player. He's one of their best primetime players when it comes to game-winning goals, and he's only 26.
But I don't know if I'm interested in any of the old Rangers players. No. Because they're retooling, so they might be available. I don't know if I want an old... Artemi Panarin. Right, right. I don't think he fits the way they play, and I don't know if he moves the needle enough where I would give up something... I don't mind giving up that stuff.
You've got a ton of draft picks, like trade draft pick. I'm for that. Just don't bring in old guys because I don't think old guys fit their system except for the couple of guys they have. They're already old enough.
Yeah, they got Mantha and Brezzo coming in here as guys.
Along with Carlson and Letang and Malkin and Crosby.
He's done a very good job. I think he's a leading candidate, at least one of them, for Coach of the Year or Executive of the Year. I mean, GM of the Year.
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of trading Stuart Skinner for the Penguins?
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Thank you, Mr. Hester.
Very kindly. Our weather has a high of 17, which is a little bit of an improvement. That's Plexiglas Burris, low of zero. It's cold. Fan weather brought to you by Myers Law Group, Pittsburgh's choice for affordable legal solutions. That's going to do it. PM team is up next. Austin, we'll see you next week. Have a good weekend, everyone. Stay safe. Think warm.
And before you know it, we'll be into spring. Have a good day. Thank you, Bob.