Former Pittsburgh Steelers TE Jace Sternberger is bringing some insight into the incredible simplicity of a Matt Canada offense. Not just about the concepts but in the way the playbook was drawn up and the way players were coached. Having spent time in Pittsburgh and Green Bay, he says the Packers accounted for every detail and every possibility. In Pittsburgh, it was as basic as basic gets.
Appearing on the Locked On Packers podcast with host Peter Bukowski, Sternberger described what it was like in Pittsburgh.
“The details were night and day,” Sternberger told the show. “I can’t even say night and day. It was night and you want to go back 10 years in the past. Every team runs the same concepts. Just different verbiage and different styles. I’m referring to the drawings. How it was installed. They had the assistant draw with a Sharpie and a pen and go to the coffee room on break time and print copies. The details on the assignment were nothing. It was literally like, ‘five yards. You’re running the stick.'”
Sternberger was selected by the Packers in the third round of the 2019 draft. His career didn’t work out there and he bounced around the NFL, including spending time with the Steelers in 2021 and throughout the 2022 offseason, released at the end of training camp.
Canada has been criticized for an offense that feels like it’s out of high school or from the 1990s. Very basic, very nuts and bolts. Sternberger’s comments reinforce that idea not just of the calls but how simply the playbook was laid out. Essentially, here are the routes for this play and that’s it. Something that may work better at the college level for younger players without the time or football IQ to learn in-depth details. But at the NFL level, everything is done to the extreme. No coaching point goes unaddressed. Sternberger said the Packers’ offense was explained to a much deeper degree.
“[Head coach Matt] LaFleur, I kept his playbook just because it was a treasure. Because if I ever wanted to coach, I wanted to steal everything from this. The organization, the details. If you’re to the boundary, you’re plus-four outside the hash on this play, you need to be thinking this.”
He again brought it back to how the Steelers’ playbook is constructed. Far less detail and far fewer notes about each play. Compared to the Packers’ that had the assignment with specific additional coaching points about how to run the play successfully.
“Matt Canada [would say] ‘What do you have on this?’ Oh, I have a five-yard slant, or I have a corner route. Green Bay, I have a five-yard slant. If it’s press, I have to give time to give the inside guy room to run his fade. You have to give three or four coaching points every assignment.”
Sternberger also said the Buffalo Bills’ offense was “insane” with the level of details. Sternberger is currently out of the NFL, released by Buffalo at final cutdowns this year. He doesn’t seem to have an axe to grind with anyone. His insight is a behind-the-curtain look of how the Steelers run things. While Pittsburgh’s playbook was incredibly simple, Sternberger says in many ways that made it harder to understand.
“Going to Pittsburgh was harder to learn,” he said. “Because I’m like, ‘Why are we doing this? What’s the reasoning behind it?'”
Good coaching explains the “why” instead of just the “what.” For players to understand what their role is and how it impacts the rest of the play, adding those coaching points is critical. In Pittsburgh, it sounds very basic. You run this, he runs that, this is where the quarterback wants to go with the football.
In fairness, Sternberger pointed out the risk of the Packers’ system being too complicated and leading to potential mental errors, especially for the young group they have. Still, it’s clear he enjoyed learning and being part of the Packers’ offense much more than he did the Steelers’.
Check out the full clip below.
