Through two games of the 2023 NFL season, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense is one of the worst in football.
Pittsburgh can’t run the football, can’t throw the football consistently and really can’t do much of anything overall. The fact that the Steelers have scored just two offensive touchdowns on 124 offensive plays through the first two games of the season is no real surprise.
That has third-year offensive coordinator Matt Canada under the spotlight when it comes to criticism of the Steelers’ offense. Canada was the target of criticism Wednesday morning from former NFL GM Doug Whaley on 93.7 The Fan, too. It was rather pointed criticism, too.
Whaley, who was the general manager of the Buffalo Bills from 2013-2017 and was the pro personnel coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers for 10 years, stated Wednesday that Canada is “not qualified” to be an offensive coordinator in the NFL, doubling down on past criticism he’s had of the much-maligned Steelers general manager.
“The biggest problem for the offense is, in my opinion, we already know the coordinator. I’ve been on record since he got hired with that one. Let me start here. One of the things I love about Pittsburgh people is if you have any connections to Pittsburgh, they’re going to give you the benefit of the doubt and they’re gonna love you and give you a long leash. That’s what happened with Canada,” Whaley said discussing the issues with Pittsburgh’s offense and the frustration with Canada, according to audio via 93.7 The Fan. “Remember when Canada got hired as offense coordinator, it was ‘Well, he’s gonna be much better when he’s not there with Ben [Roethlisberger].’ But people forget he was Ben’s quarterback coach. … So then that realized to everybody, ‘Oh, he’s just a system guy, so he’s gotta get a young mobile quarterback.’ But when you look at his resume, when did he have a mobile quarterback?
“… He did have a great year at Pitt, but he didn’t do anything since then and he definitely didn’t do anything in the pros, alright? So you get a young mobile quarterback and it’s still the same thing, but people love anybody who has a connection to Pittsburgh. So point being, he’s not qualified.”
Expectations were high entering the 2023 season for the Steelers offensively as second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett was expected to take a Year Two leap under Canada, who was expected to open up the playbook more, push the football down the field much more and really lean into the offensive identity of being bullies with the personnel accumulated.
Through two games, Pittsburgh hasn’t been anywhere close to that. Add in some very puzzling play calls in situational football and the criticism and vitriol directed at Canada is only getting louder and stronger.
Whaley didn’t hold back on Wednesday, questioning Canada’s credentials – and rightfully so.
After a record-breaking season at Pittsburgh in 2016 in which the Panthers scored 40.9 points per game to finish 10th in the country with Nate Peterman at quarterback, Canada took the offensive coordinator job under Ed Orgeron at LSU. He lasted less than a full year as LSU’s offense torpedoed.
Following his firing at LSU, Canada landed at Maryland as the offensive coordinator and eventually the interim head coach following the tragic death of a Maryland player during offseason workouts that got then-head coach D.J. Durkin fired. After three seasons at Maryland, Canada was brought back to Pittsburgh to be the Steelers’ quarterbacks coach for Roethlisberger, which ultimately led to his promotion to OC in 2021.
Since then, the offense has been a disaster. The only time the offense truly had success with Roethlisberger in 2021 was when the Steelers went no-huddle, taking Canada out of the equation. Same in 2022.
So far in 2023, the offense has somehow regressed and has Canada on the hot seat.
Canada’s credentials can rightfully be questioned. He didn’t do anything to truly garner a promotion to the NFL from the college game after his great season at Pitt. Since then, he’s been on the up and up and continues to hold a job with the Steelers. For how long he holds onto his job with the Steelers remains to be seen as he’s in the final year of his deal.
When it comes time to make a decision on Canada, the Steelers will look at the overall body of work. His production as an offensive coordinator is his resume. Right now, it looks like it’s being drawn up with crayons, which is rather concerning at the NFL level.
