It’s common belief that second-year Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett will take a leap forward in 2023, becoming a franchise-level quarterback for the Black and Gold.
But if Pickett takes that next step forward, could the seemingly unexpected happen and offensive coordinator Matt Canada generate some head coaching buzz and interviews from around the league?
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio certainly believes that could be the case.
Appearing on the 93.7 The Fan PM Show Wednesday with hosts Andrew Fillipponi and Chris Mueller, Florio stunned many by stating he believes Canada will look more attractive to owners around the league if Pickett continues to develop and take that next step as a young quarterback in an offense-driven league.
“Canada benefits from that. If Pickett really takes off this year or next year, that really does help Canada because owners out there will look at it and give a lot of credit to the coach,” Florio said Wednesday, according to audio via 93.7 The Fan. “Canada is going to look like a lot better coach if he’s got a quarterback that’s playing a lot better than he was able to in his rookie season.”
Those comments caught Fillipponi off guard, who needed to take the time to formulate a follow-up to Florio, making sure what he was insinuating regarding Canada and being a potential head-coaching candidate moving forward was what he was correctly hearing.
Florio doubled down.
“Isn’t that how it goes? The coaches from the teams with the best records and the best offenses, typically offenses, and young quarterbacks have done well, that’s how it goes,” Florio said. “Those names end up bubbling up on the list of coaching interviews because everybody wants to bring in that quarterback and coach. But if you’re hiring a coach nowadays in this era of football, especially if you have a young quarterback, you want to have an offensive coach.”
Well then. That’s not something anyone could have expected to write anytime soon regarding Matt Canada, yet here we are.
Canada, for what it’s worth, has overseen an offense his first two years that has been below average.
In Canada’s two years as offensive coordinator in Pittsburgh, the Steelers finished with the No. 21 offense in 2021 and No. 26 offense in 2022 in points per game, scoring just 18.1 points per game last season. Yikes.
It gets worse too.
Pittsburgh has struggled to create explosive plays, recording just 102 explosive plays gaining 20-plus yards since 2021 with Canada at the helm. Those 102 explosive plays are near the bottom of the NFL, ranking just 28th in the league over that span. Red zone success is poor, too, with Pittsburgh sitting No. 23 in that statistic in 2021 and 2022.
That’s not exactly a body of work that should entice owners around the league to take a look at Canada.
Of course, that could all change if Pickett takes a leap, the Steelers’ offense looks like a legitimate NFL one with all the firepower they have, and Canada gets a bit more creative and unleashes some of his concepts from his days in college.
That’s a steep hill to climb though for Canada. If he’s ever going to generate head-coaching buzz in the NFL, he’s going to need to put together a more consistent body of work than one or two years, as Florio suggests. Time will tell.
