Steelers' Mike McCarthy Receives A Testimony From Former MVP On How He Is Truly A Quarterback Whisperer

The Pittsburgh Steelers have been stuck in purgatory for years now, and the hope is that new head coach Mike McCarthy will be able to fix all that. He has developed a reputation for being a "quarterback whisperer," but that will get put to the test here in Pittsburgh. The two young quarterbacks on the team currently are not projected to be great at the NFL level, and odds are the team won't be bad enough to be able to select a top-flight option in the 2027 NFL Draft -- so they're just stuck with what they have now. 

There is hope that McCarthy can take one of these supposedly uninspiring quarterbacks and turn either of them into a quality starter in the future. In a recent conversation with insider Gerry Dulac, former NFL MVP Rich Gannon detailed exactly how the new Steelers coach fixed his career and turned him from a mid-round nobody to the elite of the elite.

"I really feel, looking back, like I wasted my first seven years in the league," Gannon said. "I’m not going to criticize other coaches, but if I had someone like Mike [McCarthy] in the first half of my career, it would have been a lot different. He just made me a better player... Mike just took it to another level. I was almost 30 years old before I learned how to prepare for a week of football. I had blinders on for the first seven years. I wasn’t exposed to that type of preparation. I owe a lot to him."

For many years, Gannon was the definition of mid: He worked well in a pinch, but he was not the guy that a team wanted to rely on for a full season, as he never got above a 60% completion percentage in his first seven seasons in the NFL. After he left the then-Washington Redskins in 1993 and missed all of the 1994 season with a shoulder injury, he had "career backup" written all over him. 

Gannon worked with McCarthy during their time together with the Kansas City Chiefs. The quarterback said that that's when he truly learned how to be better prepared for each game and truly work through each week. The numbers didn't change much while he was in Kansas City, but he was still going through the process of taking his coach's lessons and implementing them on a regular basis.

It wasn't until Gannon's 13th season where McCarthy's teachings came out in full force, despite being separated from him. In 1999 with the then-Oakland Raiders, he put up nearly 4,000 yards of passing while playing all 16 games for the first time in his career. The next year, he was a First Team All-Pro while leading the Raiders to a 12-4 record. In 2002, he led his team to the Super Bowl while winning MVP that season after putting up a career-high 4,689 passing yards.

Steelers Hope To See Similar Output With Current Group Of Quarterbacks

Despite it being very early in their careers, many pundits have Will Howard and Drew Allar tabbed as future nobodies, like Gannon initially was. Howard is a former sixth-round pick whose roster spot is not even guaranteed. Allar was underwhelming in big games at the college level, so how could he possibly do well in the NFL? If McCarthy helped turn Gannon from a backup to an MVP, he should be able to help one, or both of these young passers become suitable starters. 

If the offseason program is anything to go off of, Howard and Allar will get plenty of chances to prove their worth throughout training camp and the preseason. The rookie will almost certainly be QB4 during this process, but that's to be expected of a long-term project player like him. Howard, on the other hand, has mostly been QB2 over Mason Rudolph during the offseason, so it shouldn't be shocking to see that happen again in August.

What do you think about McCarthy helping turn Gannon into an MVP? Let us know on X at @Steelers_ChrisB.

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