The Pittsburgh Steelers have not exactly been known throughout their history for their production of great offensive minds. Their organizational identity has been rooted primarily in the defensive side of the ball, and when it comes to offense, more often than not it’s been about the ground game.
This current team is no exception, and the spotlight more than ever is now on offensive coordinator Matt Canada, going into his third season in that post with the team. It’s also his second with quarterback Kenny Pickett, the general perception being that it’s put-up-or-shut-up time for him or he’s out of a job come 2024. And part of the reason for that is because we see other teams do more with less, like the San Francisco 49ers.
“It’s either the pass catchers aren’t that good, or there’s something missing from a play-caller”, Pro Football Focus’ Steve Palazzolo told Mina Kimes recently about Pittsburgh’s offense. “For perspective, Kenny Pickett had a 75 grade last year. Kyle Shanahan makes magic with 75-graded quarterbacks. He turns Jimmy Garoppolo into one of the winningest quarterbacks of all time and one of the most productive quarterbacks of all time using EPA and certain metrics”.
Not to diminish what seventh-round rookie Brock Purdy did with the 49ers last season, but at least in Pro Football Focus’ database, he and Pickett and even Mitch Trubisky graded out rather comparatively last year. Yet only one of them ran an offense that was very friendly for the quarterback.
“That’s where I see that big disconnect with Canada, where I thought Pickett added more to the offense than Trubisky last year. They both had more to play with than late-career Ben Roethlisberger, but there’s still something missing there”, Palazzolo added.
“There has to be more out there, whether it’s just a few more gimmes for Pickett, because he did show he can backyard it a little bit”, he continued, “but he’s got to have the gimmes to complement that, and then you’ve got a more complete offense and a much more dangerous offense to defend”.
While one can make the argument that the instability at quarterback was a big reason why the Steelers struggled to put the offense together, the reality is that they were having similar issues at the start of the season with Trubisky having worked the full offseason as the starter.
The vast majority of the best moments for the offense last year, at least in the passing game, came from Pickett—and yes, Trubisky as well—playing hero ball at critical moments, often taking unscripted plays and turning them into momentum swings.
That’s not sustainable for just about anybody, let alone a rookie quarterback. So while Pickett should be in a much better place this offseason just because of his natural progression from year one to year two, there also needs to be growth from the man running the show from the booth.
With the way that Pittsburgh has set up the offense this year, I’ve already made the argument that the most likely reason for any failure from the group this year will be on Canada’s shoulders. Every offense needs easy wins to be highly productive, even the great ones. That’s what separates play-callers and designers like Shanahan from what Canada has been up to this point in his NFL career.
