The personality of the Pittsburgh Steelers throughout their history has almost always been rooted in defensive football. That doesn’t mean they haven’t had their share of great players on the other side of the ball, even good offenses.
While this current unit might have some talent—much of it yet to be proven, however— there is no good argument to be made that this offense as a unit even offers competence, let alone greatness. And there’s a reason people keep pointing fingers at offensive coordinator Matt Canada. There are plenty of fingers to spare, but the finger of scorn goes to the man running the show.
To be quite honest, I cannot recall another time in which there has been so much focus on one coordinator in a negative light. Not just in Pittsburgh. Not just in the NFL. Not just in football. Canada is a national topic of discussion in the sporting world on a weekly basis. It’s widespread.
“Just even amongst the insiders, it’s like, ‘Man, what are they doing there?’”, former two-time Super Bowl-winning Giants executive vice president Marc Ross recently told Brian Batko on the Chipped Ham and Football podcast. And is anybody surprised? Players around the league comment on how bad the plays they run are. We’ve heard numerous times from opponents about how their predictable plays and patterns are the reason they made plays.
Hired in 2020 as quarterbacks coach, Canada was promoted as offensive coordinator in 2021 in Ben Roethlisberger’s final season. Since then, he’s gotten a fresh start every year. His first year, it was the fact that he couldn’t run his full offense because of Roethlisberger. Last year, it was the same excuse because they didn’t have stability. What’s the excuse now? Because you don’t want to do anything about it?
“Their loyalty, it can be good, but also in football you have to have proper self-evaluation and awareness, self-scouting for what you’re doing as an organization”, Ross said of the Steelers’ pattern to stick by their personnel, both on and off the field. Canada is in the final season of his contract.
“You really have to take a step back and look at it and say, ‘Alright, is what we’re doing the right thing to do? Is this the right person?’”, he added, “and to have that self-awareness to say, ‘Something’s wrong here’. Then that’s when you really have to make changes”.
According to head coach Mike Tomlin, they are not there yet, or at least, they are there and they haven’t found enough evidence to reach the conclusion that Canada is one of the primary causes for so much of their struggles. Even if it is the conclusion that everyone else has reached.
“Almost for the psyche of the team, almost for the psyche of the organization, you have to make a move”, Ross added. Still, even he hedged, saying that you have to have a replacement. But really, you don’t. When you make an in-season move, you’re doing it for addition-by-subtraction purposes. Virtually any alternative is preferred. You’re not going to find your next long-term coordinator on the fly, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make changes in the meantime. The Steelers will continue to be laughed at, locally, nationally, publicly, privately in NFL circles, until they do make a change. Because they’re not going to turn this boat around any time soon just by putting their foot on the pedal. If anything, they’re spinning in circles.
