People tend to want to see some firings when things aren’t going too well, so it’s only fitting that there is a call for firings within the Pittsburgh Steelers organization. Public enemy numbers one consistently has been offensive coordinator Matt Canada in his second season in the job.
93.7 The Fan radio host Andrew Fillipponi caused a bit of a storm within Steeler Nation earlier this week when he misconstrued something one of his guests, Aditi Kinkhabwala, told him. He asked her if she thinks that the Steelers will fire Canada over the bye week if the offense struggles a lot again this week.
While she did say yes, Filllipponi portrayed her answer as definitive rather than speculative, implying that she has some kind of direct source who has told her that Canada will in fact by fired if the Philadelphia Eagles defense makes his unit look poor again.
Thus far, nobody has come out and said that they’ve been told Canada is under threat of being fired in-season. Because nobody has actually heard anybody relevant to the organization say that. But we have heard plenty of people say that they doubt it would happen, including Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in his most recent chat.
While he did say that he doesn’t expect Canada to be fired in-season, he also allowed that he “wouldn’t be surprised” if he suffered a similar fate as 2013 offensive coordinator Jack Bicknell Jr., who had his responsibilities redistributed in-season, only to be fired after the season.
This is something that we have been talking about for a while now, and it’s certainly the more likely scenario. I wouldn’t think that Canada would be taken entirely out of his responsibilities, but it’s quite reasonable to think that if things continue to lack positive development, we could see other coaches stepping in and taking greater responsibilities.
That could including head coach Mike Tomlin himself, but quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan is another obvious candidate, not just because of the nature of his job—offensive coordinators tend to come from the ranks of quarterback coaches—but because he has some prior experience.
Another coach Tomlin has always been high on is running backs coach Eddie Faulkner. Hired a few years ago, Tomlin has always praised his football mind and his insight and has discussed him as a rising up-and-comer.
I don’t think Steelers fans have much confidence in any coach on the roster on the offensive side of the ball, but it seems they would be willing to accept any change for the sake of change in the hopes of improving things.
I think it can be taken for granted that Canada will not be back in 2023. As far as how his 2022 season plays out, I’m not sure anything would shock me. The Steelers don’t have a history of firing coaches in-season, but nobody has a history of anything until they do it for the first time. They didn’t trade first-round picks. They didn’t guarantee salaries in the third year of a deal.
