The NFL coaching fraternity can be a tight-knit one. With longer and more grueling hours than players, there’s nothing more frustrating than spending 16-hour days devising a game plan, watching tape, trying to find a way to win only for it to fall flat on gameday. It’s a results-oriented business and in Matt Canada’s tenure as OC, the results weren’t there, meaning a change had to be made.
But interim OC Eddie Faulkner doesn’t view Canada’s struggles as a failure exclusive to him. It falls on the entire coaching staff. And calling Canada a friend and good man, Faulkner’s promotion to NFL offensive coordinator is, in his words, bittersweet.
For the first time in his new role, Faulkner spoke to the media Thursday about the change.
“When you sit back and see all that’s being said about him and the offense, we all, and I’m speaking for the offense when I say this, the staff, we all felt that we’re all part of that,” Faulkner said as tweeted by The Trib’s Chris Adamski. “And so nobody’s absolving themselves from anything that’s happened in that regard. We feel like we let him down. And so I gotta say that because, ’cause that’s what a real one would do. And that’s a friend of mine and that’s not gonna change.”
Faulkner worked with Canada throughout the latter’s entire tenure with the team, first hired as quarterbacks coach in 2020 before being promoted to offensive coordinator the following year. Faulkner, the team’s longest-tenured offensive coach, hired in 2019 to lead the running back room, has done well to develop UDFA Jaylen Warren and create a running game the last two seasons.
Still, the Steelers’ offense has struggled for several seasons, and everyone involved, coaches and players, share some of the blame in that. While Canada called the plays and was in charge of scheme, execution was often the problem in Pittsburgh. That’s more reflective of personnel not being good enough and a reflection on the positional coaches in charge of developing and coaching technique. But Canada drew most of the fans’ ire. The most disliked coach in the NFL, fans chanted for him to be fired all over the country and at College Gameday, ‘Fire Canada’ signs were as common as Lee Corso wearing a mascot’s head. For Faulkner, it’s clear he took that personally.
“Matt Canada’s a friend of mine,” he said. “We’re friends. I care about his well-being. I care about his family, our wives are friends, our parents are friends, our kids are friends. We spent a lot of time together. Love the dude. I couldn’t say enough good about Matt Canada.”
As outlined by Mike Tomlin Tuesday, Faulkner won’t act as the team’s play caller. Instead, he’ll be in charge of leading and organizing the offensive staff on a weekly basis to formulate the game plan and to review tape after each game. As the responsibility shifts to him and QBs Coach Mike Sullivan (who will call plays), the goal stays the same. Score points. Improve the offense. At this point, even an average offense should be enough to put the Steelers into the playoffs.
