Outside of perhaps the quarterback(s), I don’t think there is a person in Pittsburgh right now who is more of a hot topic than Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada, about whom everybody has an opinion even if there is a relatively limited about of information we can glean from what you actually see in-game.
As is the case with almost every offensive coordinator for every team in the history of football, Steelers fans by and large want Canada fired and believe he’s terrible at his job. Truth be told, his track record is as yet not his best defense.
Former Steelers safety Ryan Clark recently hopped onto 93.7 The Fan yesterday with Andrew Fillipponi to talk Steelers, and as you might imagine, the subject of the offense and Canada’s role within it came up—as did the fact that Canada briefly coordinated as Clark’s alma mater, LSU.
“I think when you look at what he does, there is some good stuff”, he acknowledged, talking specifically about pre-snap activity. “Nothing’s wrong with the way that he uses movements, the way that he uses shifts, the way that he uses motions. Like, all of those things are beautiful”.
“It’s what you do after that. When are you gonna use the middle of the field? When are you gonna throw in the seams inside the numbers?” he added. “I think just getting an offense that works more vertically than horizontally, and I think that’s been an adjustment for him”.
That is the challenge for Canada, but it’s not one simply of scheme. It’s also a matter of personnel. Does he really have the players he needs to do what he wants—and is the group of players he has available restricting what he is comfortable asking them to do? We can’t answer that.
What we do know without question is that, whatever it takes, Canada’s offense has to start getting better results, or it might not be long before he no longer has a say behind how it’s run. A mid-season formal dismissal is unlikely, though not beyond reason, but we could certainly reach a point where he has some responsibilities, such as play-calling, taken away from him.
The secret weapon, of course, is Kenny Pickett. Until the rookie starts, he can always fall back on the notion that he could do more with the quarterback of his choice—the quarterback that he even recruited to come to Pitt.
But there probably hasn’t been an active member on this board who hasn’t shared his thoughts on what Canada’s offense is not doing. Like, empowering his offense to respond to what they see on the field through audibles. Or exploiting the middle of the field better. Or being more varied. Or any number of other things, really.
