How much different could the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense look this year, even with a new group of quarterbacks, with the same offensive coordinator? That’s what we’re going to find out within the next month or so as we get an idea of what Matt Canada really wants to do when not constrained by the weight of an established Hall of Famer at quarterback.
The team signed Mitch Trubisky in free agency as the expected 2022 opening day starter, and at least thus far, even with the drafting of Kenny Pickett in the first round, that plan hasn’t changed. Speaking to Bryant McFadden for CBS Sports, the sixth-year veteran talked a bit about what he likes in Canada’s offense.
“I think it’s dynamic and multiple. They’re taking the things that we’re really comfortable with, moving the pocket, the sprint outs, the play actions, and the run thing”, he said. “And everything’s tied in together, so the run’s gonna look like the pass, the pass is gonna look like the run. And we have a lot of quick jet motions that can really confuse the defense and throw them off”.
This certainly isn’t far removed from the sorts of things we were hearing about Canada since the team first hired him as a quarterbacks coach in 2020, but we have only seen some of this incorporated in spurts here and there, never fully integrated into the overall philosophy of the offense—at least not effectively or convincingly.
“Without giving away too much, it’s pretty dynamic, and it allows the playmakers to get the ball, and I think it also takes care of the guys upfront”, Trubisky added of what he is saying in Canada’s offense. “And then once we get to it, we’ll utilize the mobile quarterback as well, so me being able to move around and run back there, I’m looking forward to that”.
The installation of an offense, of course, comes in stages, kind of like learning math. You don’t move on until you have a foundation in one discipline, because you’re going to be able to need to apply that to the stages that follow.
Taking advantage of a quarterback who can move around in the pocket and scramble and things of that nature really is an end-stage part of the development process, but it’s also something that largely just comes naturally from the player himself.
We should get a good look at Trubisky leading the offense during the first preseason game later this week against the Seattle Seahawks. Of course, we should expect to see a largely vanilla offense, but consider it a bit of an appetizer for what is coming.
