Matt Canada has become a lightning rod for criticism in Pittsburgh. A discussion that’s bled over into the national media. At this point, he’s arguably the most well-known offensive coordinator in football and for all the wrong reasons. But how bad of a job is he actually doing?
Steven Patton has published a model that ranks offensive and defensive play callers (you can read about the details here). For the Steelers, Canada is not the worst offensive coordinator in football. According to Patton’s data, he comes in at 28th.
Here’s the entire list, including numbers for defensive play callers, including Pittsburgh’s Teryl Austin.
Below Canada and the Steelers sits the Atlanta Falcons, New England Patriots, Cincinnati Bengals, and New Orleans Saints. The NFL’s top offensive play caller is Miami’s Mike McDaniel by a comfortable margin.
Obviously, there’s always going to be an element to player production and execution that makes play calling look better and worse. And this is just one data point. But it’s at least an attempt to quantify the value of play calling. While Canada isn’t last, he certainly isn’t sitting pretty in these rankings as the Steelers’ offense continues to sputter under him.
Since Canada took over as offensive coordinator 2021, Pittsburgh’s offense has been among the worst in football. The 730 total points the Steelers have scored since 2021 is 29th in football and doesn’t take into consideration the defensive and special teams touchdowns over that span. Only the New York Jets, Houston Texans, and New York Giants have scored less. The Steelers’ 70 total touchdowns (of every type) over that span are tied with the Giants for the fewest in football.
Though it now seems certain Canada will be kept on staff the rest of the year, it’s extremely difficult seeing him returning for 2024. A remarkable turnaround would have to occur for that to even become a realistic conversation. The team will likely “part ways with” Canada as his deal expires after the season and begin the search for a new coordinator in 2024, interviewing a mix of internal and external candidates.
On the other side of the football, DC Teryl Austin was ranked ninth on Patton’s list. Obviously, Mike Tomlin also has a clear influence in the defense, but this is a strong number for a Steelers team missing Cam Heyward for almost the entirety of the season. Pittsburgh’s defense hasn’t been stout, but it’s made splash plays with 17 sacks and 11 takeaways. The NFL’s top defensive play-caller ranking went to Dallas’ Dan Quinn while the worst play caller was Chicago’s Matt Eberflus, the Bears’ head coach likely to be fired after the season (or even during it).
