DK Metcalf has played seven NFL seasons for three head coaches — and all of them were defensive-minded.
That ends this year, and the Steelers receiver made it clear Tuesday, July 28, at Saint Vincent College that is a big deal to him.
DK Metcalf On Playing For His First Offensive Head Coach
When asked what has changed most under Mike McCarthy, Metcalf did not point to the scheme or the personnel. He pointed at who is running the room.
“The biggest difference for me is having an offensive coach,” Metcalf said, per Mark Kaboly of 93.7 The Fan, adding that it is the first time in his career he has had one.
Metcalf entered the league in 2019 under Pete Carroll, a defensive back by trade who built his entire career on that side of the ball. When Seattle moved on from Carroll, it hired defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald. Then Pittsburgh traded for Metcalf in March 2025 and handed him to Mike Tomlin, another defensive coach.
Metcalf explained the practical difference in terms of how a bad rep gets handled.
“When the defense messes up, it’s just on to the next play. When the offense messes up, we get to go again. I never had that in my career,” he said.
That is not a shot at anyone. It is a receiver describing what changes when the man running the meeting has a stake in whether the route was right.
McCarthy spent years coaching quarterbacks before he ever ran a team, and he arrives in Pittsburgh reunited with Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback he coached to a Super Bowl in Green Bay. Metcalf is the No. 1 target in an offense now being built by a coach who draws the plays himself.
Mike McCarthy Plans To Move DK Metcalf Around The Formation
The plan is to use him differently.
McCarthy said Tuesday the Steelers intend to move Metcalf around the formation more this season, according to PennLive’s Nick Farabaugh, and added that he was already impressed by the chemistry Metcalf built with Rodgers last year.
“DK can change games,” McCarthy said.
The numbers definitely say something needed to change.
Metcalf caught 59 passes for 850 yards and six touchdowns on 99 targets across 15 games in 2025, the lowest receiving total of his seven NFL seasons. He still owns three 1,000-yard years and 7,174 career receiving yards, and he is making $33 million a season on the four-year, $132 million extension he signed after the trade from Seattle.
Kaboly argued in June that the production was not really Metcalf’s fault, pointing out he was double covered and bracketed almost every week because Pittsburgh had nobody else defenses needed to account for. The Steelers spent the offseason fixing that, trading for Michael Pittman Jr. and drafting Germie Bernard in the second round.
Moving Metcalf around the formation only works if defenses have to respect someone else on the field. That is the bet.
As for his own goals, Metcalf kept it simple. He said he wants to speak up more and grow into a bigger leadership role, then added the part that actually matters.
“I want to win a Lombardi Trophy,” he said, per Steelers Now’s Alan Saunders.
Rodgers has said this is his final season. Metcalf’s deal carries no guaranteed money past this year. For a lot of people in that building, 2026 is the whole thing.
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