Now with former OC Matt Canada out of town, all eyes turn to the men stepping into his shoes to run the offense as well as QB Kenny Pickett to lead the ship and get it heading into the right direction.
That’s how Pro Football Focus’ Trevor Sikkema sees it in his recent piece highlighting how each NFL team should approach the rest of 2023 season.He stated that it should be the Steelers’ primary objective to find out if their second-year quarterback can be the guy they can trust going forward.
“The Steelers may be 6-4, but I think they are punching above their weight class, given how their roster is constructed,” Sikkema wrote. “They recently fired offensive coordinator Matt Canada, and I believe a big catalyst for that was because they’re now having to honestly question whether their former first-round quarterback is the man to lead this franchise long-term. Pickett has not looked like the answer under Canada. Perhaps the team will learn it was Canada holding Pickett back. Either way, they need an answer.”
Sikkema referenced the need to find out if Pickett was the guy at quarterback for the Steelers yesterday in PFF’s Week 11 recap, stating that part of the motivation to get rid of Canada likely was tied to a conversation had behind close doors to use this time to figure out if Pickett was merely being affected by the offense he was in or if his struggles are something he can’t work through personally.
Sikkema is driving the point home that firing Canada was step one in finding out if Pickett is truly the long-term answer for the Steelers at quarterback, or if they may need to start searching for another successor to Ben Roethlisberger sooner rather than later. Pittsburgh’s offense has been atrocious the last two seasons with Pickett at the helm, and a lot of that can be pointed back to Canada and his offensive system, but Pickett’s play hasn’t been exactly inspiring either as a quarterback who struggles to throw for more than 200 yards in a game and looks to be allergic to finding the end zone.
We all knew Canada was not the answer for the Steelers as their offensive coordinator and the organization did the right thing by parting ways with him to end the failed experiment and allow this offense to try and do something new, giving the likes of RB Coach Eddie Faulkner and QB Coach Mike Sullivan a chance to make their case to be his successor next season.
Pickett has shown flashes as Pittsburgh’s starting quarterback, but those flashes need to become full games’ worth of performances, not just a good quarter or a drive. He’s got seven games to show it. And it starts with the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday as the Steelers prepare to take on their second team missing their starting quarterback with QB Joe Burrow out for the year.
