Mike Tomlin is a loyal man. He’s rivaling Vin Diesel “family” Fast and Furious levels over here. And the Pittsburgh Steelers, starting with ownership, have a long history of not making coaching changes midseason or before contracts expire. It’s one reason why the Steelers have kept controversial offensive coordinator Matt Canada even as the team’s offense has never gotten in gear under him.
After another subpar performance in Monday night’s 26-22 win over the Cleveland Browns, analyst Scott Kacsmar, formerly of the now-defunct Football Outsiders, tweeted the list of names Pittsburgh could’ve had to coordinate the offense. Instead, the team has stuck with Canada with, leading Kacsmar to call it as potentially “the biggest mistake in Tomlin’s career.”
Here’s what he tweeted.
Hired as the team’s quarterback coach in 2020, Canada was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2021, replacing Randy Fichtner. Canada proved to be an awkward fit for Ben Roethlisberger’s final year, and behind a new and bad offensive line, the unit struggled. Pittsburgh transitioned into the post-Roethlisberger era the following year, swapping out Mitch Trubisky for Kenny Pickett a quarter into the season. With the youngest offense in football, the Steelers had plenty of growing pains and though they finished the season 7-2 with a better offense, points remained difficult to come by.
It made 2023 the all-important year. The offense had all it needed. More experience, better talent, time together. So far, the results haven’t been much better. Just seven points in Week One followed by a deceiving 26 Monday night. Pittsburgh scored two defensive touchdowns and needed two long Chris Boswell field goals to put points on the board. The Steelers’ offense only found the end zone once, George Pickens’ 71-yard catch-and-run. The running game still remains a mess, unable to carry over the end of 2o22 success, while Pickett has not shown to take any sort of a leap so far. If anything, he’s regressed.
In the final year of his contract, this was viewed as a make-or-break year for Canada. Right now, he’s not on a track to return as Steelers’ offensive coordinator with calls to fire him now, including a chant that broke out last night at Acrisure Stadium. It would be a massive upset if Pittsburgh did part ways with Canada during the season though if things aren’t better by the Week Six bye, those calls will become deafening.
