The comments coming out of Sunday’s loss to the Cleveland Browns from the Pittsburgh Steelers’ locker room were rather startling, especially after yet another awful offensive showing. The Steelers gained just 249 yards of total offense, including just 106 passing yards, making the fourth straight game the Steelers threw for less than 200 yards.
Running back Najee Harris was frustrated after the game, stating that he was “tired of the shit” and really held back on what he truly wanted to say at times. Quarterback Kenny Pickett was frustrated and rather short and terse with his answers post-game, while wide receiver Diontae Johnson was frustrated throughout the game and then had some pointed words Monday in a media availability.
All that, along with the underperforming nature of the Steelers’ offense, which has been outgained in every game this season, led to the Steelers firing offensive coordinator Matt Canada Tuesday morning.
For former Indianapolis Colts center and interim head coach and current ESPN analyst Jeff Saturday, appearing on ESPN’s Get Up Tuesday during the breaking news of the Canada’s firing, head coach Mike Tomlin had no choice but to make the move — something he’s never done in his career — now.
“Tomlin knew he is losing his locker room and you as the head coach, you understand if every player on the offense — you saw Najee Harris after the game talking about can we fix it? And he kinda mocking. He says, yeah, we can fix it. —  you  are kinda reading all the signs, right?” Saturday said regarding the news of Canada’s firing, according to video via the ESPN YouTube page. “Diontae Johnson, they’ve had a lot of frustrations this season and Pickett has not progressed the way they wanted to. I mean, you’re talking about guys who were coming and throwing more touchdowns than Pickett, and they played two or three games.
“You can’t have that type of thing going on with the Steelers in the hunt. Again, disappointing. Coaches unfortunately take a fall.”
Tomlin and losing a locker room typically aren’t in the same conversation, but Saturday’s comments were certainly eye-opening Tuesday morning, because key players within the Steelers’ locker room were starting to express frustrations publicly. The Steelers didn’t really adjust much offensively all season long, looked very bad albeit against a good Browns defense and consistently were ill-prepared and outcoached weekly on that side of the football, from the top down.
Too often, we’ve heard players and coaches state that they were expecting one thing from opponents, then they did something different, and the Steelers weren’t able to adjust. That’s the game of football: adjustments. The Steelers couldn’t do it consistently, or fast enough, and it cost them often.
Those frustrations started to boil in the Steelers’ locker room, all but forcing a change.
Now that the Band-Aid has been ripped off and fresh air is pouring in, will things change offensively? That remains to be seen. It’s unlikely there will be a drastic difference this season, but a move needed made. The Steelers finally made it, even if it was a bit late. Hopefully that calms the locker room a bit and is the reset the team needed on that side of the football.
