The Pittsburgh Steelers have fired Matt Canada and will move on the rest of the season with Mike Sullivan and Eddie Faulkner sharing his duties. After the 2023 season wraps up, the Steelers will have a decision to make. They could stick with one or both men, but they could also go outside the organization, something they opted against doing with Randy Fichtner and Canada.
With Canada’s midseason firing, a historic move by the franchise, we have plenty of time to talk about potential replacements. And with his firing so recent, settling on one “a guy” to advocate for right now is a rush to judgment. Today, I want to run through a list of names that I’m not claiming should be considered or hired but ones who have ties to the Steelers. Though no guarantee of the future, essentially every offensive coordinator hire of the last 20 years has some sort of link with the team prior to being placed into that role.
Below is a list of names who fit the bill. There’s a dozen more names I’m sure I’m leaving out and many of these names have probably been suggested all over the Internet over the last 24 hours. I wanted to do some extra research before putting together any sort of list, preliminary as this one is. After the season, we may have a second list of other candidates who feel like true outsiders with no tie to the team. These names aren’t listed in any order.
Pep Hamilton – NFL Network (Analyst)
Hamilton is out of the NFL, spending 2023 working as an analyst on NFL Network. He’s notable for his quarterback background (it seems most likely the team will hire an offensive coordinator with that type of resume to help/fix Kenny Pickett). In 2020, he coached Los Angeles Chargers’ Justin Herbert to winning Rookie of the Year before moving onto the Houston Texans for 2021 and 2022, first as the team’s passing game coordinator before being named offensive coordinator in 2022. The Texans had little talent to work with and struggled before the coaching staff was replaced in 2023 by new head coach DeMeco Ryans.
In 2021, Canada was fully expected to replace Randy Fichtner as OC but the team looked at external options. Hamilton was one of them, though it’s not fully clear if he actually interviewed for the job. Pittsburgh, though, put in a request to do so.
A couple years later, I could see the team still having interest. He’s still relatively young, 49 years old, and has been working around passing games as a quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator/offensive coordinator since 2004. There’s lots of experience here.
Darrell Bevell – Miami Dolphins (QBs Coach/Passing Game Coordinator)
One of the most logical names on the list, Bevell is part of an offense that is among the best in football and capable of putting up 70-plus points in a game. The Dolphins are first in points, first in yards, first in most passing categories, first in yards per carry, and first in red zone production. Bevell has a blend of experience, an offensive coordinator at four different stops, an interim head coach in 2021, recent success, and overlap with Mike Tomlin. The two coached together in Minnesota in 2006, Bevell as the offensive coordinator, Tomlin as the defensive coordinator.
Bevell certainly has his critiques, especially at the end of his Seattle Seahawks tenure, but this would be a sensible name for the Steelers to at least interview. At a baseline level, he checks all the boxes.
Byron Leftwich – Unemployed
The top name that will be discussed in connection with the Steelers’ offensive coordinator job. In fact, he already has been with several ex-Steelers advocating for him. Leftwich was once among the hottest names in football, nearly becoming the Jacksonville Jaguars head coach before they pivoted to Doug Pederson. Despite winning a ring there, Leftwich’s tenure in Tampa Bay ended on a sour note, and he was criticized for running the ball too often.
But given his ties with Tomlin and the Steelers, a quarterback in Pittsburgh for four seasons, it’d be surprising if he wasn’t interviewed.
Mark Whipple – Unemployed
Last with Nebraska as the Cornhuskers’ offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach, if the Steelers’ main goal is to make Kenny Pickett work, Whipple is as good a name as many. He was Pickett’s offensive coordinator at Pitt for most of his college career, including his breakout 2021 season that helped land him with the Steelers. Pickett has credited Whipple multiple times for preparing him for the NFL.
Whipple is no stranger to the Steelers. His first NFL job was with Pittsburgh in 2004 and was Ben Roethlisberger’s first NFL quarterbacks coach, serving in that role through the 2006 season. He never coached directly with Tomlin but there’s still people in that building, including GM Omar Khan and owner Art Rooney II, who knew him then.
Jay Gruden – Los Angeles Rams Consultant (2022 Season)
We know Jon Gruden isn’t going to become the Steelers’ next offensive coordinator. What about his brother? Gruden has had a bumpy NFL career and his time as Washington’s head coach was a disaster. But there are lots of ties to Tomlin. The two worked together in Tampa during the 2005 season, Jay as an offensive assistant, Tomlin as the defensive backs coach. Despite Gruden’s struggles, Sean McVay thought highly enough of him to hire him for the 2022 season.
“You guys know how close Jay has been to me,” McVay said in August 2022 of the hire. “He’s been such an instrumental part of my coaching career. Huge mentor. So he’s going to help us out in a consulting role.
“He’s a guy that I heavily rely on and have always, whether he is rocking the Rams’ blue or not.”
McVay and Tomlin are close so if McVay endorsed the move, Tomlin might too, even if they’re drastically different roles. Overall, Gruden is arguably a less likely name, but I wouldn’t discount him either given his overall experience and past success as an offensive coordinator, most notably with the Cincinnati Bengals, whom Tomlin’s Steelers had to deal with in the early 2010s. Before Gruden was hired in Cincinnati, they were a four-win team and terrible offense. When he left to take the Washington job, the Bengals were a playoff team and top-six offense.
Tee Martin – Baltimore Ravens (QBs Coach)
Part of the infamous list of “quarterbacks drafted ahead of Tom Brady,” Pittsburgh took Martin in the fifth round of the 2000 NFL Draft. His NFL career was brief (though he has the distinction of my favorite “stat of the weird” of all-time, completing all six of his NFL passes to Hall of Famers – five to Jerry Rice, one to Tim Brown) and he got into coaching in 2006.
A winding college road led him back to the NFL for 2021, hired by the Baltimore Ravens as the team’s wide receivers coach. For 2023, he was moved to quarterbacks coach where he, along with new OC Todd Monken, have produced a stellar season for QB Lamar Jackson, boosting his completion percentage by nine points compared to last season.
Still just 45 years old, his hangup is never calling games at the NFL level (he did it at USC) but beyond that, there’s a lot to like.
Alex Van Pelt – Cleveland Browns (Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach)
Sticking with the theme of “onetime quarterbacks drafted by the Steelers,” Van Pelt was taken in the eighth round of the 1993 NFL Draft, back when they had those extra rounds. A Pittsburgh native who, like Pickett, played his college ball at Pitt before before briefly bouncing around in the NFL until landing as a longtime Buffalo backup. With the Panthers, Van Pelt broke Dan Marino’s school record for passing yards until Pickett topped his mark.
He’s been coaching quarterbacks and offenses since 2005, starting out in NFL Europe before landing stateside in 2006, coaching the likes of Aaron Rodgers throughout his career (and Rodgers didn’t seem too happy when the team moved on from AVP).
Of course, his title begs the question – why jump ship to become an offensive coordinator in Pittsburgh when he’s the offensive coordinator in Cleveland? Van Pelt isn’t the Browns’ play caller. That’s Kevin Stefanski’s role. While you may have to sell the idea to Van Pelt (and the Browns would have to give him permission to interview, given this lateral move), he would have full control with the Steelers under the defensive-minded Mike Tomlin. That’s a selling point, in addition to truly coming back home.
Chad O’Shea – Cleveland Browns (Wide Receivers Coach/Passing Game Coordinator)
If Van Pelt can’t be wrested away, maybe O’Shea can. I almost didn’t put his name on this list. He’s spent more time coaching wide receivers than quarterbacks, though he did play the position in college. He had a stint as the Miami Dolphins’ offensive coordinator in 2019 but it went up in flames, O’Shea lasting one season until being fired by Brian Flores. Reportedly, his Patriots-inspired playbook was “too complicated,” and players struggled to learn it.
But O’Shea has rebuilt his reputation. Though not hired, he became a popular name in the offensive coordinator hiring cycle last year, earning interviews with the New York Jets and Baltimore Ravens before remaining in Cleveland. And again, we love our dot-connecting. O’Shea was on staff with Tomlin in Minnesota in that 2006 season, serving as an offensive assistant.
David Girardi – Kansas City Chiefs (QBs Coach)
A Pittsburgh-area native, Giradi was born in New Kensington, a suburb of the city before playing QB at D-III Geneva College. He coached for many years in college before becoming the Kansas City Chiefs’ quality control coach in 2018 and slowly climbing the coaching ladder there. In 2021, he became the team’s assistant quarterbacks coach and in 2023, he was promoted to quarterbacks coach working with Patrick Mahomes each day.
He’s never been a coordinator and is a bit unproven but a name to consider given his local ties and time spent in a successful organization learning under Andy Reid and until 2023, Eric Bieniemy.
