Head coach Mike Tomlin spoke to the media on Tuesday during his regularly scheduled press conference after a busy morning that saw offensive coordinator Matt Canada let go. This is an unprecedented move for the Pittsburgh Steelers, as they are normally known for their stability and loyalty. The last in-season move of this magnitude came in 1941.
Tomlin has let go of position coaches during a season before but never a coordinator. He reflected on the move at the beginning of his press conference as posted on the Steelers’ YouTube page.
“I did not come to this decision lightly to be really transparent with you,” Tomlin said. “It’s just a personal belief of mine from a leadership perspective. It is my role to absorb and protect those that I work with, and this doesn’t feel like that.”
One of the biggest aspects of being a head coach in the NFL is leadership. As a leader, you are expected to manage your subordinates—in this case the players and the coaching staff. Part of managing them is absorbing blame for mistakes they make or acting as a shield to pressure from the media and the fan base.
“Obviously, I am not interested in assigning blame or deflecting in any way. It’s more in my natural nature to absorb to be quite honest with you,” Tomlin said. “I’ve been in this role so long I’m quite comfortable absorbing. Just rest assured that this decision was not taken lightly. I’ve got a lot of respect for Matt personally and professionally. It was not easy, but I thought it was necessary. This is a result-oriented business and to be short the improvements were not rapid enough or consistent enough to proceed.”
The move was made three weeks ago against the Tennessee Titans to bring Canada down to the sideline to try to provide a spark. There were some positives to take away from the first two games under that set up, but it all came crashing down in an abysmal effort on Sunday against the Cleveland Browns.
Under Canada, the Steelers’ offense was consistently one of the worst in the league dating back to 2021, Ben Roethlisberger’s final season. They just reached 58 straight games without gaining 400 or more yards. At some point, enough is enough and the Week 11 game against the Browns appears to have been the breaking point.
“There’s a lot of layers to it…our most recent performance a component of it,” Tomlin said. “I just think you know when you’re there to be blunt.”
The Steelers will proceed with split responsibilities between RB Coach Eddie Faulkner and QB Coach Mike Sullivan for the rest of the season.
