Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
I don't know, Limits. Are the Steelers the victims of a bad hiring cycle?
Chapter 2: Are the Steelers the victims of a bad hiring cycle?
Is that a fair question?
It's definitely a hiring cycle favoring defensive coaches and also retread coaches.
This hiring cycle sucks, Limits. The number one coach on the market, everybody agrees, I'm looking at a ranking from USA Today at the moment, is John Harbaugh. And to be really fair and honest, his resume is not that much different than Mike McCarthy's, although I will say Harbaugh has won playoff games lately.
Not a ton, but three since 2020, which is two more than McCarthy's won in his last seven years.
Chapter 3: Why is this hiring cycle favoring defensive and retread coaches?
I think that one is viewed from the prism of where they're going. Harbaugh is seen as a savior for a broken franchise, right? McCarthy is seen as running in place for a franchise that was running in place. Do you know what I mean? But does Harbaugh like if the Steelers had hired Harbaugh, would you have been jumping for joy?
No. But what he brings to the Giants is, I think, what was different and what was necessary for stability for a culture builder. It's all about fit.
Chapter 4: What makes John Harbaugh the top coach on the market?
And that's why I don't like the McCarthy hiring here, because I don't think the fit is good, because it's basically what they had already had. They needed something significantly different. And the only thing that's different is that McCarthy's an offensive coach and Tomlin was a defensive coach.
I know, but that's beside the point of who the people are that are getting hired. Are they great hires? Would they electrify the fan base? Would Harbaugh have? No. No. Would Jesse Minter have people... Planning a ticker tape parade. I thought he was a pretty good candidate. A pretty good candidate.
But I don't know that he's the type where these lines would be lighting up, where I would be lighting up saying, this is just an unbelievable hire. You? No, it would be a good hire. All right. That's two. He's ranked second. Number three is the guy I actually wanted. Is it the guy I actually wanted too? Kevin Stefanski. Yes, that was the number one guy on my list.
43 years old, two-time coach of the year, got screwed by basically ownership in Cleveland.
And a bad GM.
Yeah, they put the wrong quarterback in place, sold their soul to Deshaun Watson. I think he would have been a great hire, a great hire. Actually, he would have been my guy. However, saying that out loud, he is Kevin Stefanski from the Cleveland Browns. And we saw games where we're like, what the hell is he doing?
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Chapter 5: How does the perception of McCarthy differ from Harbaugh?
I will acknowledge that. So if the best hire here was Kevin Stefanski, maybe it wasn't the greatest coaching cycle ever. Can we at least acknowledge that? Yeah, we can. Number four is Robert Sala. Come on. Number five is Jeff Halfley. And number six on this list is McCarthy. It just, it wasn't a great cycle. Wow, McCarthy ranked last. So far, yeah. That's not a great cycle of coaches.
It's just not. It's not a great pool.
I mean, compared to last year when it was Ben Johnson.
Compared to most years, I would really say. Yeah, for Abel. Well, then the other thing about it is, too, although if you include Harbaugh and McCarthy, and sorry to interrupt, a lot of people would say, wow, you had two resumes there. Art said, told Dulac, how often do you get to hire a coach like this? I don't know. Harbaugh was in the same cycle. You could have hired Pete Carroll.
You could have hired Bill Belichick. There's lots of resumes out there. I mean, not a lot, but there were hireable coaches out there like him, at least three.
There was also a huge oversaturation of the market this year. Like there were 10 jobs available. When has there ever been 10 jobs available? Maybe one other time? Yeah. So because of that, there's naturally going to be other candidates that likely would not have gotten a job when there's typically like seven jobs available, maybe six jobs available.
Like maybe it's Halfley or maybe it is McCarthy that misses out because of how few jobs are available or whoever's going to get the Cardinals job. That's a factor.
Yeah. Let's look at some of last year's hires, shall we? Brian Schottenheimer. Pete Carroll. Liam Cohen was a good one. Kellen Moore. Ben Johnson and Mike Vrabel were great hires. But did we know that at the time? I mean, Johnson definitely seemed like a hot commodity. You knew Vrabel was a great hire? Yeah, I think so.
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Chapter 6: Would hiring Jesse Minter have electrified the Steelers fan base?
Based on what? Based on what he did in Tennessee and what they became after he left. Okay, then you're one of the few who knew this was going to be a great high.
I didn't think they'd go to the Super Bowl in year one, but I thought they would double their wins and be a good team because they also have a franchise quarterback. I didn't see Super Bowl coming. Neither did I. I saw them being very successful, like going to the playoffs. You did? Maybe not a playoff win, but yeah, I picked them to be a wild card team.
Okay. Then you had a higher opinion of it than me, honestly. I mean, things seemed to peter out in Tennessee, did they not? He was 9-7, 9-7. Then he had two really good years in which he won. There was only one season in Tennessee where he won any playoff games. So he went 9-7, 9-7, 11-5, 12-5, 7-10, 6-11.
It was time to go. There's no denying that. His roster had gotten older.
He was 54 and 45. And in two, four, six seasons, there was only one of them where he had a playoff win. So I hear what you're saying. But to me, at least, it wasn't like, wow, this is the greatest candidate ever based on what he did in Tennessee.
Johnson was a better candidate. But then again, who ever wins in Tennessee? You know, other than the early 2000s when they went to the Super Bowl, Tennessee doesn't win. I know, I know. And Vrabel had some success. They were a number one seed in the AFC at one point.
Very interesting to look at this pool of candidates and analyze it from that perspective. Am I starting to come around to McCarthy? Is that what's happening here, Limits?
That's what it sounds like to me. At least you're trying to talk yourself into it the further and further that we go. The passage of time is healing some wounds.
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