The early returns for the Pittsburgh Steelers offense under Matt Canada in year two are underwhelming to say the least. They’ve run 37 plays for 510 yards and scored just two touchdowns. Their longest completion of the season is a 32-yarder.
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, Mitch Trubisky (left), and offensive coordinator, Matt Canada (right), during practice, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022, at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. | Matt Freed / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The calls for the Pittsburgh offensive coordinator to lose his job coming off a 17-14 loss against the New England Patriots, in which they produced a grand total of 243 yards, were to be expected. According to some reports, there’s frustration within the organization regarding the lack of success for an offensive unit that has finished 21st in points for, 29th in net yards per attempt in the passing game and 29th in rushing yards in Canada's first year.
Steelers head coach, Mike Tomlin said he doesn’t “know if significant changes are what’s required,” in his press conference on Monday. Firing a coordinator sure seems like a significant change and Mike Florio pointed out something else important too on Pro Football Talk, Thursday morning in the show’s preview of the Steelers and Cleveland Browns on Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video:
“Who do you replace him with on the fly? You’re changing the tire on a moving car. Somebody else from the same coaching staff that isn’t getting it done. You fire your offensive coordinator after two games, what are you going to do to replace him? Mike Tomlin’s not an offensive coach. The easy part is getting rid of the guy we don’t like who’s not getting it done with all these receivers and Najee Harris. Ok fine, who do you replace him with? - Mike Florio on Pro Football Talk Live
Florio raises a great point with this. Great offensive coordinators aren’t just sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring, especially when the NFL is already well into the swing of things in Week 3.
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, Kenny Pickett (left) and quarterbacks coach, Mike Sullivan (right), participate during 2022 training camp at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, PA. | Jordan Schofield / SteelerNation (Twitter: @JSKO_PHOTO)
Steelers Offensive Coordinator QB coach connections
The easiest answer to the question would be to promote quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan. He has previous experience as an OC, most recently, with the New York Giants and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He’s best known for helping Eli Manning to the best numbers of his career when he was the QB coach for them in 2010 and 2011. When he was running the show in the Big Apple, his rushing attack finished 29th in yards in 2016 and 26th in 2017. In total yards, they finished 26th and 21st respectively. Is this really going to be a step up?
Also, as Florio points out, Sullivan has been a part of the Pittsburgh staff now for both seasons under Canada where the offense has struggled. This would also mark the third time in a row Pittsburgh bumps the quarterback coach into the coordinator position which the team did when Todd Haley was let go at the end of 2017 in favor of Randy Fichtner, and then again when he was replaced by the incumbent Canada. Pittsburgh also resorted to the same tactic in 1998 when Bill Cowher needed to replace the outgoing Chan Gailey who’d been hired as the head coach for the Dallas Cowboys.
The window to replace a coordinator will probably have to wait. Maybe, the biggest change coming is the team bending to the calls from fans and former stars for first round rookie Kenny Pickett to replace Mitch Trubisky. We will have to wait and see, but if this offense can’t turn it around, the doubts about Canada will not be going away any time soon.
So, Steeler Nation, do you think the team can fire Canada in-season? Who would you hire to replace Canada? Let us know in the comment section below or on our social media accounts!
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