Don’t expect the Steelers to move on from OC Matt Canada

Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada finishes the 2022 season with an offense that struggled most of the year before showing signs of life towards the end.

The biggest question now is, will the Steelers fire Matt Canada based on the underperformance of the offense? If you look at what coach Mike Tomlin and the players had to say, I’d suggest not holding your breath.

I thought he got better, Just like our team got better. I’m not going to speculate about him or anyone as I stand here today.

– Steelers Head coach Mike Tomlin

Nobody should be surprised by Tomin’s response here, as it becomes expected every time the media seeks answers related to changes within the Steelers organization.

Any improvements that the Steelers offense made from 2021 to 2022 were minimal. The same could be said about their improvements from the first half (starting 2-6) this season after their bye week (finishing 7-2 after the bye).

Most people seem to forget that the Steelers schedule became much easier after the bye, and it needs to be mentioned. However, the most significant issue was that the team did not understand Matt Canada’s offensive “vision” until the bye week.

At the beginning of the year, everybody was iffy; everybody was iffy on the O-line. Everybody was iffy on everything. It definitely built my confidence up when I could start seeing a little bit of the vision.

 

The bye week definitely opened up a lot of people’s eyes to his true vision because we had that sit-down [talking about] what he expects and what he wants to happen in the future.

– Steelers guard Kevin Dotson

Usually, these sorts of issues are addressed during training camp and in the preseason, but the Steelers needed the bye week after a 2-6 start to figure things out. Dotson said the team sat down with Matt Canada and coach Mike Tomlin to “open their eyes” offensively during the bye.

You will have to forgive me for finding this to be ridiculous that this team came into the 2022 season this underprepared. I understand the growing pains at the quarterback position with rookie Kenny Pickett. You lose me when it’s players and a coach who have been on the same roster in a previous season.

Mind-blowing stuff, if I am being completely honest here. Maybe not as mind-blowing as Najee’s comments on Canada regarding the OC’s predictable playcalling.

Man, we all believe in Canada,you know, everybody’s saying that he calls the same plays, but everybody calls the same plays. You can look everywhere; everybody calls the same plays, just dressed up a different way.

 

If you really know X’s and O’s, that’s really what it is. All that play-calling stuff, I think that’s just a cover-up for just the lack of stuff that we were doing on the field as players. I never bought into any of that. I never really looked into that stuff.

– Steelers runningback Najee Harris

For context, when Najee says, “everybody’s saying that he calls the same plays,” he’s responding to opponents calling Matt Canada’s playcalling “predictable.” More specifically, it was Bengals linebacker Germaine Pratt who said, “We knew what they were going to do. They like to do the same plays over and over.”

You could write that up as divisional rivals doing divisional rival things, but I don’t buy that. I’m confident other teams felt the same about Matt Canada’s playcalling in 2022.

Regardless, we find Najee Harris and others defending Canada’s offensive playcalling and pushing the blame on themselves. For the fans hoping the Steelers move on from the offensive coordinator, it’s not a good sign.

All signs point to the Steelers sticking with Canada in 2023 based on everything said after the 2022 season ended.