On Saturday the Pittsburgh Steelers reached an agreement on a five-year deal with one-time Super Bowl winning coach Mike McCarthy to become the team’s new head coach. The hiring of the 62-year-old Greenfield native was a stunner to many in the Steelers going against their past history of hiring 30’s something head coaches. However, all week the chatter behind the scenes was leaning toward McCarthy’s direction in that this search was setting up to be different than the Steelers run of having three coaches since 1969.

Pittsburgh this week began in-person interviews, meeting with Brian Flores on Tuesday, followed by an eight-hour + meeting with McCarthy on Wednesday. Pittsburgh on Friday met with Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver who really impressed team officials and was Pittsburgh’s clear #2 candidate in the search. Despite the history with Flores, there was just too much pause surrounding his past and demeanor. Flores even knew the writing was on the wall mid-week he wasn’t going to be a legitimate candidate. The team, though, this weekend wasted no team in ending the search as the Weaver interview on Friday satisfied the Rooney rule in allowing the Steelers to hire a coach at any time. Late Saturday morning Pittsburgh began reaching out to candidates that McCarthy was the pick and the rest is history.

Listen the Steelers knew this wouldn’t be popular among some as the internet was fixated with the Rams assistants. Chris Shula was more of a media guessing narrative as his virtual interview was poor along with Jesse Minter’s and as impressed as the Steelers were with Nate Scheelhaase and the upside they feel he had, they were never hiring him.

Why McCarthy who has a 174-112-2 overall record and most recently led the Dallas Cowboys to three 12-win seasons over five years?

Here’s Why:

Mike Tomlin was the ultimate CEO type coach in the organization Steelers ownership just could not overlook in this search. Tomlin ran so much behind the scenes many aren’t aware of that the Steelers top team officials were never comfortable going with an unproven individual, sources say. McCarthy’s ability to come in from day 1 and bring those attributes without losing a step in those areas was vital. And the cherry on the top for the Steelers is McCarthy’s offensive background.

The relationship with Omar Khan sure didn’t hurt but the Steelers as a whole just became sold McCarthy checked every box moving forward they sought:

Leadership/CEO Type/Experience, and an offensive presence to develop the quarterback position and evolve the offense. Amped with cap space and draft picks, Pittsburgh is taking the bet McCarthy can elevate the current group and at some point develop a long-term QB.

The biggest opportunity for McCarthy from the get-go is putting an elite coaching staff under him, something Mike Tomlin never did over the last seven-to-eight years. McCarthy’s staff in Dallas was intriguing to look forward to in filling out Pittsburgh’s staff.

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