The Pomp And Joe Show
Mark Kaboly thinks Mike McCarthy won over a lot of people on Tuesday
28 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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It's time for the big boy, Mark Caballi. Joining Pomp and Joe, he's in the building. Mark Caballi brought to you by Keystone Custom Apparel, the region's premier spirit wear and sports uniform provider. Big boy, you were there. You were piping up with a question. Yep. And I'll just ask you what I asked listeners and Bob right off the top before we get to the whole Aaron Rodgers thing.
Did McCarthy win the news conference? Did he have this, you're a McKeesport guy, right?
Well, I worked in McKeesport for 15 years.
Where'd you grow up? Bell Vernon. This Bell Vernon guy tugging at his heartstrings. Did he get you? He got to me. Yeah, he got you. He got to me early.
Yeah, you know, you just look at some of the social media comments. And that's life now, right? That's the pulse of the fan base, right? They were all negative, negative, negative. All the ones I looked at yesterday were very, very positive. Like, yeah, this guy got me. He knew what to say. He wasn't fake. You know what I'm saying? It was real. He was real. He was emotional.
And to me, he's a guy that is really passionate about having the Pittsburgh Steelers job. It's not a professional job. It's not like he's going in here and I'm getting paid and let's work 9 to 5 and go home. This is something that's passionate to him. And that came across very well. It wasn't fake. He had 20 family members there. There was players there.
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Chapter 2: Did McCarthy win the news conference?
I understand the decision from that standpoint, especially if what Pony reported is true, that Chris Shula's interview didn't go well and that Sheilhaus they looked at and said, I don't know if this guy's ready and never will be. We can scoff at whoever Pony's source was if you want, but the proof is in the pudding. Nobody else hired those guys either.
Yeah. I mean, I don't know about the interview and bombing. Weren't we also say that Schilhaus knocked it out of the ballpark?
Jerry Dulac said that, not Pony's source.
Oh, I'm saying that's been floated down the road as well. Right.
If he did, why in the world would you not have that guy? If he was that great in his first interview, why wouldn't you at least bring him in for a second one? I agree with that.
Well, but did you see what Mike McCarthy did yesterday? That's what I'm getting at. Maybe it got to that point where it's like, man, this is the guy. He has everything that we want, that passion, that ability of a resume to be able to make a quarterback successful, and a guy who has...
Honestly, he has the same exact resume as Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh, but he's considered a boob and the other ones are considered Hall of Famers. So he's a pretty doggone good coach.
Who considers him a boob?
I think everybody in Dallas.
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Chapter 3: What emotions did McCarthy convey during his introduction?
He also got to other NFC Championship games, and some of them are very closely contested. I think there was an overtime. I know, but he has one playoff win in his last seven years as a coach. No, I get it, but I'm saying that he's been ā You know, in Green Bay, just because the one Super Bowl, he's taken teams that have been on the precipice of winning others. He just never got to that point.
Sure, with Aaron Rodgers in his prime.
Yes. Well, well, well, yeah, but he might not have drafted Aaron Rodgers, but I would say that he helped develop him, right? It's only a year or so in, right?
I think I would say a lot of people would have developed maybe the most talented quarterback prospect of all time. I do give him credit there, but he has one playoff win in his last seven years as a coach.
Dallas is almost... You know, Dallas is a place that hasn't won a playoff game since ā no, not a playoff game.
They won one.
They won one since, what, 95 or whatever it was. Yeah, and he was the one who won it. So that's not like it's a slam dunk over there as well as being a team that wins a lot of playoff games in Dallas. But, you know, as for McCarthy, I mean, okay, how do you explain a guy like Cooper Rush?
They threw off the bench and he won like four out of five games of keeping in playoff contention a couple years ago. How does he identify Aaron Brooks in 2000 to make him into a pretty good quarterback for a three-, four-year span? So there's both ways to that. I mean, he can identify him. Put it this way, and one more thing I'm putting is this way. We're doing it three times.
Out of all the other coaching candidates, who would you trust the most of identifying, drafting, acquiring, and developing a quarterback of the future?
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Chapter 4: How have fans reacted to McCarthy's comments?
That's how the story goes.
Well, that was like 1990 whatever. But, okay, I mean, you could have some misses as well. But what I'm saying, out of the group that they were interviewing, I'm Tress McCarthy doing it more than any of the other guys. Anthony Weaver is going to do this?
Which quarterback? Would he still be a defensive coordinator? I haven't heard that. They're going to have to. Joe and I were talking about defensive guys and Jim Schwartz being one of those guys. He's under contract, but they can make a move to get him. Ask permission, can't they? If they wanted to.
That's tough. They would have to let him go. He would have to say, I don't want to work there, but then they would have to pay.
I don't know how that would work.
I know, but if you're still under contract, you're still under contract unless the new coach says, I don't want you.
How about if you say I have an opportunity to be the same position in Pittsburgh, but with the table of associated head coach?
Well, you probably would have to add something like that. That's what I mean. But in Cleveland, why would you let him go? But if Munkin comes in and says, I don't want this guy here, then of course I would definitely look at him. There's only two names I've heard for sure.
My biggest takeaway about his hiring here is that he's an offensive mind, and I was hoping that would be the way they went. You can always figure out ways to do what you've got to do on defense, but they needed a fresh offensive approach, and I think this guy offers that. How about Clint Kubiak? Would he have been a candidate you've been interested in? I like him.
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Chapter 5: Why do some believe McCarthy's coaching cycle was unimpressive?
That's BuyAToyota.com. Toyota. Let's go places. I think the draft evaluation process has actually gotten worse over the years. Even though they have all this stuff at their disposal, I think there have been more mistakes at critical positions, not just here, but in all of football. And I don't know if you really can rule out anyone just because of what round they're drafted in. I want to see.
You can't, but if the draft were held again today, Mendoza would go 150 picks higher than... Will Howard. Okay, but as I said to you, it's a similar resume. Sure. I'm not disagreeing that there's a chance that Will Howard could do it. For him to be a central part of this conversation, as if he's going to lead them where they haven't gone the past few years, to me at least, is ludicrous.
Well, I'm not saying that would happen in year one, but you may discover a guy who can be that guy moving forward. Maybe. That was my whole contention about this whole situation. Yeah. They got to figure it out. Did you come away thinking about Aaron Rodgers after what he said?
Let's let him play this and interpret it, Bob. Okay, because I interpreted it differently than Joe. Just slightly, I think. This was Benzie off the top rope early in the ballgame here, Kabaly. You were there. And Bob interpreted this as McCarthy being diplomatic, and Bob doesn't think Rodgers will be back. I interpreted this as an emphatic endorsement of Rodgers, and I do think he'll be back.
Take a listen.
I'm not asking this from any other perspective except your own personal preference. In your best case scenario, do you want Aaron Rodgers back as your quarterback next year?
That's nice the way he asked that, right? That was slick. But, I mean, definitely. I mean, obviously, why you wouldn't? But, you know, I think just like anything, you know, knowing Aaron long enough going through seasons, you know, I think when players, you know, to see Mel Blunt here, I mean, when guys ā or up at that stage of their career, they need to step away and decompress.
I think that's very important. The game is so emotional, you know, what these men commit to and what they put into it. I think that time away is important, and I have spoken to Aaron, and so that's really where we are there. But I was able to sit back and watch the games. I watched most of the Pittsburgh games on TV, and I thought he was a great asset for the team.
Mark? Well, I think he caught himself. I think Benzie off the top rope, as you said, got that first sentence out of him. Like, of course I'm going to come. Then he's like, man, I better back this off a little bit and just talk about Mel Blunt in the first round. I mean, in the front row there. The way I look at it is he's put in a bad situation there. He can't say yes. He can't say no.
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Chapter 6: How does McCarthy compare to other coaches like Tomlin and Harbaugh?
Well, how do you develop, though, if he's the starting quarterback? That's, to me, the tricky question. That's basically what I asked him.
I did ask him, how do you balance the two?
We heard you pipe up, and we were very proud on the show.
How do you balance that two, right? How do you win now and develop a quarterback? I don't think he answered me.
Well, do you endorse the move of bringing Rodgers back if it happens? Do you think they should?
Honestly, I think they should because, like I said, obviously the draft is not full of talent. Even if you do draft one, he's not going to play right away, right? Ty Simpson, is that the best case scenario? He ain't playing right now. You look at the free agent market.
May I interject for a moment? If we don't think that Ty Simpson is playing right now, then why in the world do we think Will Howard has it? Not that you do, but why would anybody think Will Howard will? Because he's essentially still a rookie.
I don't think. Like I said, I think they got high hopes for him, but you just can't move forward with hopes because they have not seen him in game action. It might be a different story if he got to play in the preseason last year.
If he got to practice for more than two months and practice with quotes marks because they barely put on pads at the end of the year, so how much is he really practicing? It might be different right there. But right now, I don't see any harm in bringing Rodgers back and having him ā another term, bridge quarterback, right, of him teaching Will Howard the Mike McCarthy ways, right?
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