Did The Steelers' Mike Tomlin Make A Critical Mistake By Resisting Change And Retaining Matt Canada In 2023?

The Pittsburgh Steelers finished 5-11 in 1988 under Chuck Noll. Noll had delivered four Super Bowl Championships to Pittsburgh in the 1970s, but he was going on a decade without returning to the big game. Noll’s Steelers had not won a playoff game since 1984 when they beat the Denver Broncos to advance to an AFC Championship game and team president Dan Rooney was tired of waiting for a return trip to the Super Bowl.

Noll intended to resign, and Rooney was considering firing him before he had the chance. Joe Greene who was the defensive line coach at the time brokered a peace between the two proud men. In exchange for lifetime employment with the team, Noll agreed to purge a significant portion of his coaching staff including Tony Dungy. It was particularly painful for Noll to lose Dungy because he had a lot of faith in his young defensive coordinator.

The compromise worked and the Steelers immediately returned to the playoffs where they upset the Houston Oilers and came within one score of beating the Denver Broncos in Noll’s last playoff game. Two seasons later he retired and served as an administrative assistant until he died in 2014. The Steelers gently pushed him out the door but unlike Jerry Johnson and Tom Landry, he let Noll retain his dignity and retire.

The 2023 Steelers are in the midst of the longest playoff win drought in the Super Bowl era. If they do win a playoff game this season it will be the first one in seven years. Art Rooney II is on the clock and with the hiring of Jim Caldwell as a special assistant to Frank Reich in Carolina. The question has to be asked, are the Steelers forcing Mike Tomlin into a corner over Matt Canada?

The current Mr. Rooney is not his father who was one of the brightest football minds in NFL history. He currently resembles his grandfather who took nearly four decades and empowered his son to put together a powerhouse football team. However, the Steelers have a new general manager in Omar Khan and a draft guru in Andy Weidl, is it possible there is trouble in paradise?

This is pure speculation but is it possible that Khan, Weidl and Mr. Rooney wanted offensive changes and Tomlin decided to fight the moves and protect Canada? Noll was at his wits end in 1988 and was malleable, Tomlin is the darling of the national media. They call him a genius for continually going 9-8 and losing in the first round of the playoffs. Maybe he believes his press clippings, although to be fair the 2016-2019 drafts were dreadful. Tomlin deserves some credit for keeping the recent versions of the Steelers above .500.

Steelers Matt Canada Is Alienating Potential Allies Who Could Help The Steelers Offense

Tomlin, no matter how you feel about him as a coach, has a huge ego. It isn’t unique to Tomlin, any successful coach has the same ego. That personality trait could be working against him behind the scenes. Fans have called for Canada’s head repeatedly and it is not going to happen. But the offensive coaching talent available to be brought in to help Canada has been repeatedly rejected by the team. Now the Steelers are watching as qualified coaches are leaving the staff because they don't want to work with the offensive coordinator.

If Tomlin dug in his heels and potentially put himself on the line for Canada and resisted the change Noll once embraced, he might be making a big mistake. He may have pushed all in on a basic offense that many pundits declare just isn’t good enough to compete. The Steelers have publicly said all the right things but behind the scenes is this chasm in philosophy going to be the agent of change for the organization?

The only thing that makes sense with the retention of Canada and the refusal to surround him with successful offensive coaches is that this is a power struggle, and the front office is hoping for the best but planning for the worst. Dan Rooney was the last one to dictate a change in the coaching staff with the hiring of Todd Haley. The current regime doesn’t have the cache to dictate terms to Tomlin, yet.

If Canada and Tomlin don’t produce a noticeably improved offense in 2023 the power dynamic will swing to the front office. The same group that did not and possibly could not over their coaches’ objections force change in 2023 could go in a completely different direction in 2024. The question is, will Tomlin still be in a position to go along for the ride? Someone is protecting Canada and whoever it is has a lot to lose if he fails this season. 

What do you think Steeler Nation? Does the Steelers' resistance to any outside help on offense indicate that the organization is preparing for a big change? Please comment below or on my Twitter @thebubbasq.

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