Although Matt Canada‘s Steelers OC stay has not produced a turnaround on offense, the Steelers continue to support him. It does not look like the team plans to move on.
The Steelers are expected to retain Canada, Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. Should this course of action commence, the increasingly unpopular play-caller will be going into his third season in this role. ESPN’s Brooke Pryor noted earlier this week momentum did not appear to exist for a Steelers change here (Twitter link). The Steelers have since confirmed Canada will stay.
Canada has now worked with three starting quarterbacks during his time in Pittsburgh. Following Ben Roethlisberger‘s retirement, the Steelers signed Mitch Trubisky. The Trubisky bridge did not last especially long, with the team making the shift to Kenny Pickett early in the season. Canada sticking around will give the young passer some early-career continuity, though Canada’s offense will likely need to improve in 2023 to open the door to a long-term partnership. One year remains on Canada’s contract, Dulac adds.
Hired as the team’s quarterbacks coach in 2020, after serving as OC for seven college programs from 2007-18, Canada took the OC reins from Randy Fichtner the following season. While the Steelers have regressed in scoring in each of the past three years, going from 12th to 21st to 26th, the team did improve in offensive DVOA this season. After ranking 25th in this metric during Roethlisberger’s final slate, the team slotted 18th during Pickett’s rookie season.
The Steelers finished .500 or better for a 19th straight season, extending Mike Tomlin‘s streak to 16 such years. Canada’s offense was far from potent; the team’s 28 offensive touchdowns were the third-fewest in the league. But Pickett showed progress down the stretch and will enter 2023 as the team’s unquestioned starter. QBR placed Pickett 20th, and the Pitt product piloted the team to six wins in his final seven starts. During that span, Pickett engineered back-to-back game-winning drives — over the Raiders and Ravens — to end the season on a higher note. While Pickett’s 7-to-9 touchdown pass-to-interception ratio (in 13 games) leaves much to be desired, the Steelers are not planning to shake things up early in the first-rounder’s career.
Diontae Johnson, whom the Steelers handed an $18MM-per-year extension late this past offseason, set an NFL record for most receptions (86) without a touchdown. But second-round rookie George Pickens emerged as a potential standout, hauling in 52 passes for 801 yards and four TDs. Pat Freiermuth also took a second-year leap. The Steelers could use another viable pass catcher, after trading Chase Claypool, and their offensive line — a unit chock full of midlevel investments or players on mid-round rookie deals — is certainly not a top-shelf quintet. It appears the team will aim at personnel upgrades rather than overhauling its scheme.
Steelers fans are gonna be pissed.
Can’t be pissed when we knew it all along. Get a full year with the NFL version of Pickett, see what happens.
I’m not even a Steelers fan and I’m disappointed to see this, just as someone who likes watching football. He and Lombardi were the most glaring coordinators who needed to go this offseason.
Greg Roman would like a word
Roman is out
Canada might not be the worst play caller I’ve ever seen, but he’s definitely in that conversation.
I can’t wait to see U-Tree’s reaction to this
This is Days of Our Steelers Moment (TM)
This is absolutely ridiculous. Opposing teams even said they knew what plays were being called. The offense did improve at the end of the year against sub par teams. Unbelievable. 26th in scoring smh
Don’t know where to stand on this, but I’ll give him his last chance. The offense could actually run the ball which opened up the pass game some. This is a young offense. 26 years old is the oldest starter. They found their identity towards the end. I just hope they aren’t settling. I’m assuming they asked Pickett to make sure he was fine with it.
And the rest of the NFL rejoices. Guy has no concept of a route tree. The Steelers have talent on offense yet never manage to have an open receiver. Absolutely horrible.
Maybe they aren’t happy with the OC options out there but just about anyone could be better than this joker. He needs to go back to college
This is why Tomlin also needs to go. Tomlin is protecting Canada and doesn’t want him gone. He makes Tomlin look good by comparison and is there to take the flack for mediocre seasons and beatdowns from better teams. They’re whole playbook for the offense is one sheet of paper with play selection that comes from a 1980s video game with: run right, run left, run middle and short pass, medium pass and deep pass.
Yes, let’s tank team morale by firing the head coach after he kept the squad together following a 2-6 start and had one of the most inexperienced teams in the league competing for a playoff spot. Do you realize how many teams would be waiting to pounce if Pittsburgh let Tomlin go?
Team morale can’t be worth anything as it is. I love how the Tomlinites grasp at straws to make Mikey look as if he knows what’s going on. They looked better near the end of the season against several teams with losing records. Out of the 9 wins, only 2 were against winning teams. Pittsburgh beat a bunch of terrible teams and the fan base screams about how great Tomlin is. Yet during that 2-6 start they gave no fault to Tomlin whatsoever.
Look, I’m not going to pretend Tomlin is perfect by any means, but what exactly did you expect? With the exception of the Jets, Ravens, Browns and Patriots, we had little chance in our losses just based on talent disparity (and it should be noted that Trubisky played a part in all 4 of those). Otherwise, we went 9-4 in winnable games. I’ll take that
Let’s pretend someone else coached the team this season. What do you think would have happened? Do you really think this team was going to make strides in the postseason? From what I can tell, Pittsburgh exceeded nearly everyone’s preseason expectations, so firing Tomlin wouldn’t make any sense
Oh boy. Another year where watching paint dry is more exciting than watching the Steelers offense.
Yes, three jet sweeps a game, a few five yard passes on 3rd down and 10, and a lot of dink and dunk passing. You have Pickens and Johnson, and now Austin, as well, three guys with deep route excellence, but you have a clueless OC
They went 7-2 to close the season against middling teams, and it apparently saved this guy’s job
They obviously don’t think Pickett can learn a new offense in time… Troubling to say the least.
Pittsburgh would’ve made the playoffs had they not gone 0-4 against the AFC East. Next year the Steelers get the AFC South.
Lots of teams would have made the playoffs if they lost less games. In fact, I’m quite sure they all would have.
No excuse for not hiring Leftwich here.
Get someone the players don’t openly mock, maybe.
Would Leftwich come to Pittsburgh? It’s known league wide that the Steelers don’t pay their assistant coaches well.
I don’t know that it’s a pay issue more than the assistant needing to transform into a guy who falls in line behind Tomlin’s philosophies. Not saying Tomlin needs to go or anything else but given the track record here …Haley, Arians, Whisenhunt, Munchak….even LeBeau had run-ins….it’s obvious there is no room for egos here (And I get that Roethlisberger was behind some of the problems)
The rest of the AFC North LOVES this.
Said this above, but they’re placing a lot of stock in their 7-2 finish. I get it and yes, there’s a lot of reason for optimism, but it’s hard to see them competing with top tier teams *without* a solid draft and a few signings that address the lines on both sides of the ball, an inside LB and secondary. In honesty, they need a punter, too
Teams with a great deal of talent can sometimes make up for coaching deficiencies and yes, they have a favorable schedule next year but Canada is just one malfunctioning part in the machine
Who knows? Maybe he’ll evolve this off season
Y’all forget the Steeler offense got better as the season went on. They woulda been playing last weekend except Miami beat the Jets in Week 18.
The Steelers did lose one lower-level staffer — assistant WR coach Blaine Stewart is going to West Virginia University, where his father was once head coach.
The offense got better against a bunch of sub 500 teams. It’s not as if they were playing well against Buffalo or KC. They had 9 wins and 7 of them were against teams with losing records. Don’t act like the team got better, they played terrible teams.
Steelers exceeded expectations but this still feels like a bad move.
Bad move. Need someone that can create plays where receivers are open. His job is to confuse defenses, not let them know what the play is before it happens.