Mike McCarthy’s sideline call for Patrick Graham shows the 'pliable' nature of the Steelers staff

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Mike McCarthy is fanatically meticulous in his preparation. Just don't mistake that thorough approach with being inflexible.

The Pittsburgh Steelers coach knew something had to change after several of his team's high-profile defenders — longtime defensive tackle Cam Heyward and perennial Pro Bowl edge rusher T.J. Watt chief among them — grew visibly frustrated during a Week 4 loss in Cleveland.

“It needed to be different,” McCarthy said.

And during Sunday's 34-22 victory over Indianapolis , it was.

Defensive coordinator Patrick Graham moved from the coach's booth to the sideline for the first time this season, shifting the dynamic and providing the kind of face-to-face communication that is hard to replicate by talking on the phone to someone a few hundred feet above the fray.

“I mean, you used to always talk about the Monday morning quarterback,” McCarthy said. “You can’t wait until Monday. ... We can’t have things that we miss that we’re talking about after the fact.”

So McCarthy opted to give Graham a different, more immediate viewpoint. And while McCarthy didn't ask his players for their input, he also didn't really have to.

Inside linebacker Patrick Queen called Graham's presence on the sideline “great," because of the immediacy it created.

“He’s coming to us, telling us what he wants the next drive, what he’s thinking, and then asking for our thoughts of what we’re seeing, what we want,” Queen said.

The result, a victory that pushed the Steelers to 3-2 ahead of two long road trips to Tampa Bay and then Paris for a meeting with New Orleans, was important.

Perhaps even more impactful over the long term is the way McCarthy assessed a situation — one he'd been contemplating since a preseason game against Green Bay — and figured out a change was needed sooner rather than later.

Graham's preference would have been to stay in the box. His boss wanted something different. Rather than dig in, Graham pivoted.

“You have your principles and things of that nature, but you've got to be able to be pliable and adjust,” Graham said. “You gotta do, and when it comes down to it with football, we gotta do what we think is best for the team.”

The decision offered proof the “self-scouting” the team did after letting one get away against the Browns wasn't limited to the guys on the field.

McCarthy is still in the early stages of trying to carve out his own way of doing things for a franchise that spent the past two decades being defined by former coach Mike Tomlin.

While Tomlin was hardly intractable — he did bench a player once thought to be the team's franchise quarterback of the future to stick with backup Mason Rudolph , a decision that sparked a run to the 2023 playoffs — the 62-year-old McCarthy is proving to be decidedly proactive in ways that offer a departure from Tomlin's approach.

Whatever the defense was doing over the opening four weeks wasn't working well enough for McCarthy to stick with the approach. So he changed it up, and it paid immediate dividends.

Maybe he'll stick with having Graham on the sideline no matter what going forward, or maybe at some point Graham will head back to the box to shake things up if they go stale.

Just about everything seems to be on the table at seemingly all times, an approach that can earn points in a locker room still trying to get a feel for how its first-year coach likes to do things.

Sure, the charismatic Graham is always engaged no matter what part of the stadium he's doing his job in. Still, there's something about having him right there that resonated with the men he's tasked with coaching. Sometimes in surprising ways.

“He's always fired up,” Queen said. “He gave me a headbutt on the side while I had my helmet on. I definitely wasn’t expecting that, but it’s good to have him.”

Letting Jaylen Warren be Jaylen Warren.

The Steelers have spent years seemingly trying to avoid making Warren the top option in the backfield, having him serve as the 1B to Najee Harris early in his career, even though he was at times the more effective player. Warren graduated to 1A status last season, but still split playing time evenly with Kenny Gainwell , who ended up being selected as the Steelers' 2025 MVP by his teammates. The team signed Rico Dowdle in free agency eyeing a similar setup this season, but Dowdle's toe injury and Warren's emergence as the most important player on the offense should shift the dynamic permanently even when Dowdle returns.

The return game with rookie Kaden Wetjen remains very much a work in progress. Wetjen's longest runback so far this season is all of 27 yards. There are 71 players in the league with longer returns through the first five weeks. The inability to create splash on special teams is forcing the offense to consistently navigate long fields.

DK Metcalf's attention to detail. The longest pass reception by a Steelers running back in 80 years wouldn't have happened if Metcalf didn't clear a path for Warren along the sideline by shoving not one but two Indianapolis defenders out of the way.

The edge rushing group's hot start has given way to back-to-back performances in which Watt, Nick Herbig and Alex Highsmith have largely been neutralized. The trio didn't even register a hit on Daniel Jones, much less a sack, and the inability to create consistent pressure against one of the league's most mistake-prone quarterbacks allowed the Colts to stay in the game into the fourth quarter.

The wide receiver room is hurting after Ben Skowronek (calf) and Roman Wilson (hand) left in the second quarter, further depleting a unit that will be without Michael Pittman (foot) for at least a month after he was placed on injured reserve on Saturday.

94 — career completions of at least 50 yards by Rodgers, the most by a quarterback in NFL history.

Try to win consecutive games for the first time this season when they visit Tampa Bay on Sunday.

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