The Steelers offense has struggled mightily through the first two weeks of the 2023 season, leading fans at Acrisure Stadium to call for offensive coordinator Matt Canada‘s firing during Monday’s eventual win over the Browns. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin acknowledged the offense’s struggles and admitted to hearing the fans’ “Fire Canada” chant, but he told reporters that he doesn’t envision making a change to his staff.
“We aren’t going to have knee-jerk reactions in terms of making wholesale changes to change that outcome, but we do acknowledge two is a pattern,” Tomlin said (via Mark Kaboly of The Athletic). “We’ve had two outings that are not up to snuff in that regard, so it has our attention.”
Through eight quarters, the Steelers offense has found the end zone as many times as the defense (twice). As Kaboly notes, the unit has had 12 three-and-outs on 25 drives, and the offense didn’t have one snap in the red zone during their win over Cleveland.
Naturally, the offense’s lack of success will be a reflection on Canada. Still, as Kaboly points out, it’d be unlike the organization to make a major coaching move during the season; the last time the Steelers made such a move was when Bill Cowher removed Ray Sherman’s play-calling duties during the 1998 campaign. Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette echoes that sentiment, writing that it’d take “a lot” for Canada to get fired before the season ends.
You can’t blame the Pittsburgh faithful for being frustrated. Since getting promoted from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator in 2021, Canada hasn’t been able to guide the Steelers to even an above-average operation. The team dropped from 22nd in points score in 2021 to 24th in 2022, and while they jumped from 25th to 19th in total yards, the passing offense took a major step back.
Tomlin has continued to bring back Canada despite the underwhelming results, and the team retained him for 2023 with the idea that he’d offer some continuity to Kenny Pickett and the young offense. The Steelers coach hasn’t changed his tune, but he did admit that his staff has to do a better job of preparing the offense.
“It starts with coaching,” Tomlin said. “We have to coach better. We have to get these guys playing faster with more fluidity and surer. We have to play more coordinated, especially early in games. We have to anticipate the schematics of those we play against a little bit better. Displaying anticipation is a component of preparedness. We have to put them in really good circumstances, we have to recognize those circumstances and perform.”
Well they should
they could fire him tonight and I wouldn’t consider it “knee-jerk”
Yeah, I don’t think that anything with Canada is knee-jerk at this point.
They’ve been pretty patient with him, which I understand conceptually, but the results haven’t been good. I mean, the Steelers’ offensive line has severely hindered ANY type of production since the old Pouncey crew fell off several years ago, but Canada hasn’t impressed, even considering that. The line is better now than it was, but Canada still has not improved.
I seen Pitt play last year and some this year was not impressed at all. I don’t know where they got that quarterback from but he is terrible. Actually Rosenberger was terrible his last few years too so it’s been a while since Pitt has gotten anything out of the position. They would be wise to tank the season and get a better player in the draft then this guy.
It’s apparent you don’t know anything about the Steelers or Pittsburgh. Pickett, who went to Pitt, is second year QB on a team that is retooling. He’s going to take his lumps but will get better. Again, it’s year two. And who is Rosenberger? It is Roethlisberger. Come on man… if you’re going be a critic of Steelers football, you’d better come with some accurate comments.
I think whomever made the decision on whom to draft for their offensive positions should be the one held accountable. Not sure the OC has anything to do with that.
Not only draft, but sign. The IOL is about 20m in FAs and they have not been good either. I don’t know if it’s talent, coaching or scheme. But I’d they don’t show more the next two weeks it’s going to be a long season.
They should have made a “knee-jerk” move and fired him before week 2 of 2021.
Continuity is great, when it’s successful. An offense that is ranking lower in the league every year you’re the coordinator is not successful. A steady decline over 2 plus seasons is not a knee jerk reaction. He should have been canned after last year.
Trying to get someone fired is cold. In season changes are rough on the players too. Training camp is there to build a rhythm, and a firing right now would disrupt that. Give him the season and then reassess. He might need to think outside the box to keep his job.
Pittsburgh media has figured out that blaming coaches vice players is really popular w fans. Doing it w Pirates batting coach too.
Canada isn’t great but their oline is bad, Najee is so slow and Pickett has been worse than last year.
He shouldn’t have finished the year last year.
He certainly should have been replaced in the off season.
He should go now.
He’s not good at his job.
I heard a stat that a Matt Canada offense has never produced a 400 yard offensive output.
Im not certain if that meant as a Steeler, in the NFL or ever….but not wonderful any way you pick.
Every other NFL team has had a 400 yard games except the Steelers since Canada took over
I’m not real familiar with the Steelers fan base, but am curious as to where they stand on Mike Tomlin.
I think we’re split. There’s the “he’s never had a losing season” bunch. They are the ones who blame everyone but Tomlin for a poor start, then give him all the credit for the winning record. I’m more of the he’s leading the Steelers to mediocrity type fan.
It’s easier to fire the OC than it is to bench your 1st round quarterback but I’m thinking this is on Pickett. The coaches are not trusting him to throw downfield. Not sure how many games they can win when they are outgained 408-255 but it worked Monday night. Pittsburgh personifies the phrase….winning ugly…..and right now, they’re offense is ugly. Najee Harris should change the amount of carries he gets with Warren. Warren is a tougher runner
I’ve heard NFL people in radio interviews say that Canada is running a high school offense in the NFL. They literally laugh at it and him.
What exactly do you want Pickett to do about that?
Maybe throw more touchdowns than interceptions. He’s not accurate. How is that on the OC? I watched many passes not even close. Does Harris get the same pass? Warren is much better. Since you like to quote NFL people, do you also remember that NFL people thought Pickett was no better than a 3rd round pick in a normal quarterback draft class? That was a horrible year for quarterbacks and I’m afraid the Steelers reached
Some interceptions are the QB’s fault and some are not.
All of Pickett’s picks I can recall were tips or WR’s falling, etc.
And, FWIW, asking Harris to slam into a pile on first down every time doesn’t help anyone.
Let me see what they can do with a competent play caller.
Hard to assess where the blame lies here. DeerHunter is certainly correct in the assessment about throwing downfield. The question is why? I watch each game and cannot remember Pickett “being allowed to” take more than one shot—if that—downfield.
So they are wasting a talent in Pickens as they did with both he and Johnson last year
Quite simply, it makes no sense
DeerHunter doesn’t want to blame the OC, but if nothing else Canada’s style is the same as it was with Roethlisberger. Dink and dunk passes. Nothing downfield. Run your backs into brick walls
I saluted the selection of Pickett but playing under this guy is killing any evolution you might have seen under Haley or Arians. Canada is a hard head but thanks to “the Steelers way” will continue for an entire season
That may also have to do with the offensive line. This was the same approach that they took with Roethlisberger in their first year together, and it has remained since. The line could not pass protect for more than two and a half seconds. What made it worse was that the Steelers didn’t (and to some degree, still don’t) have a receiver that could reliably break press coverage. Teams just pressed or jammed Pittsburgh’s wideouts at the LoS and let their front seven wreck the offensive line. Roethlisberger got the ball out at by FAR the fastest clip in the NFL his last two or three seasons. He was pretty much reading the coverage at the line, calling protections for the inept line, and then throwing the ball to a pre-picked receiver immediately. He was almost throwing to spots a lot of the time. Somehow, he made it work well enough to reach the playoffs, which was pretty incredible when you saw in detail what he was doing.
Fast forwarding to today, it seems that the Steelers are still running with the same concerns philosophically. Their roster has gotten a little better, and certainly younger, but it seems like Canada is still calling plays with those concerns in mind. I for one thought (and still think) that Pittsburgh had a great draft, but there are obviously a lot of areas needing improvement. Canada doesn’t seem to have adapted the playbook well enough in the last three years to mold to the offense. Pickett being inexperienced makes it difficult to expect him to anything close to what Roethlisberger did. Pittsburgh doesn’t have the best receiving corps in the league, but has decent receivers now who could be better than the current production.
The line is still a big issue, but it just doesn’t seem that Canada has found a way to grow the young players well enough. I’m not saying that it isn’t a tough job or even that he has a great offense to work with, but there needs to be something done to try a new direction. Maybe Canada will do that or someone else will (changing an offense midseason is extremely risky, so they may be committed until next year-which would set back the players another season), but there needs to be something changed or the offense will continue to languish.
So, what do you change? The players? You’ve got four major contributors on rookie deals (Pickett, Pickens, Harris, Freiermuth), so it’s hard to say that it’s all their fault. Or do you change the coach? With that much investment in youth, I’d say it leans heavily to the latter.
Knee jerk? Canada should have been fired two years ago. Tomlin has been an absolute clown and continues to show he can’t or won’t hold anyone accountable. He did it with Brown, he did it with Bell, he’s doing it with Canada. Clean house yesterday.
I’m just dumbfounded by the offensive play calling under Canada, and that goes back to Roethlisberger’s last year here. When you stop to think of how many great assistants have come to the Steelers under Tomlin and then left, you begin to think there’s a pattern to his most recent hires. Arians, Haley, Munchak, LeBeau and others all seemed to get maximum performance game in and game out thanks to creativity and proper usage of talent
Now, not so much
Pretty clear that Canada has no business being here, but it’s evident Tomlin must have great input into the offense given his stubborn streak in addressing the situation
I supported Tomlin for years but now have to wonder if he’s a big part of the problem here. And while I applauded the selections of Pickett, Najee and Freiermuth, none of these guys have lived up to the hype, especially Pickett
And it leaves us with the question of whether they were overrated or is it the play calling? What a mess this offense is
The Steelers pay their assistant coaches less than most other teams now do, that’s why they have been been getting Dollar Tree caliber guys lately.
That’s on the owners.
I think you’re being too kind to Tomlin here, and again, I’ve been a Tomlin supporter. Too many whispers about being a control freak to not have some credence
Look, it’s just two games but is there really any difference from what we saw last year? They’re playing against one of the worst defenses in the league on Sunday night but it won’t surprise me if the struggles continue
Steelers fans are nuts.
No offense can function when the QB can’t hit open receivers.
Any defense facing the Steelers is going to play the run until the QB shows he can beat them.
The OL is showing what happens when you don’t have any stars on the line. See was good last year because he got help and didn’t have to provide so much help. On a line where everyone needs help No one can afford to provide it.
The blame lies with Covid, fans and ownership. They choose to keep Ben too long and then drafted Harris and Pickett to stay competitive instead of accepting a rebuild that would take 3-4 years. That wasn’t Tomlin or Canada.
Getting rid of Ben a year or two earlier, drafting the center before the RB and getting a higher upside QB were the obvious route but rating and anti depressants for fans won out.
I disagree about getting rid of Ben (he was doing much more on the field than he got credit for, and more importantly, the team needed a lot more to support a new QB at that time that they could have acquired with Ben holding the fort) but you had me when you mentioned getting the center earlier. I’m not a Pittsburgh fan, but I was absolutely and positively convinced that Humphrey was the perfect pick for Pittsburgh there. I wasn’t really high-or low, for matter-on Pickett. I still don’t have a strong opinion on him.
But I agree that the Steelers could have waited for a better prospect in coming drafts. I think that they wanted to get the puck taken care of in Colbert’s last year running the draft, and Pickett was not a terrible pick at the time. It’s hard to judge right now if his current struggles are all on him or a product of the dreadful offense as a whole.
Thing is, the Steelers have never been a “sick for three years and hopefully get better” kind of team. And that’s most worked for them. So, this is where I disagree. Roethlisberger’s last few years weren’t about staying competitive. It was about ensuring the continuity of leadership and keeping the team culture intact as they rebuilt. Harris and Pickett were certainly picks for the future, not the Roethlisberger era. Claypool was meant to be as well; of course that did not work out (which isn’t that surprising considering the fact that the line couldn’t protect long enough to run a downfield route).
What the Steelers did wrong was to neglect the most important aspect of their decline, which was the disintegration of what once was the potentially the best offensive line for the last decade. Ben actually made the offense look much better than it should have been by getting the ball quickly and scheduling plays at the LoS. He really was doing a lot more than what should have been expected. Pittsburgh would have moved on had it not been for those restructures, but they were not trying to win necessarily with Big Ben. They were trying to reload without tearing the team’s chemistry apart. As I said, I think they prioritized the wrong areas when they did, but I can’t say that retaining Ben held them back in that goal.
Very well stated. The jury is out on Pickett of course. I followed his career at Pitt and the kid evolved each year. With the Steelers, he’s stagnated, at best
I was a big fan of Najee’s at Alabama. To me at least, his biggest strength was the off tackle run where he’d get a block and bust to the outside. For whatever reason, that’s not the style that’s been set for him here. To me, he’s been asked to continually bust into the middle, often getting the ball at the same time the entire D-line is upon him
And whether it was the injury or continually being smashed at the point of getting the ball, he has adopted the Leveon Bell style of trying to pick a hole with a stutter step instead of the quick blast you see from Warren. In any case, a watch of film illustrates something’s off with him
The O-line was horrible for Roethlisberger’s last season. It was horrible last season and from what we’ve seen isn’t much better now
But good OC’s gear game plans to whatever strengths an offense has. You don’t see that here but rather, the same types of plays each week. Same types of runs, same jet sweeps, same short passes
It’s said that Ben did a great deal of audibling the last season, that even he knew what a train wreck Canada was throwing at him
I have one problem with Ben and it’s the same Pack fans had with Rodgers. He took the drafting of a QB—a move meant to say that there must be life after you retire for the team—as a personal insult. Not saying Rudolph would have been a great QB but from all reports, he was ignored by the future HofF’er and that’s reflective of today’s players and the ego
Like you, I don’t think his playing held them back where the current team is concerned. Let’s face it, they’ve never come close to replacing Bell, Hines, Heath, Pouncey, Decastro or even AB, nor have they had anything approaching Troy, Farrior, Clark and the like
They had fantastic drafts and with guys of high character. They had superior assistants. Despite the hype, they’re an average team that look to be in rebuild for some time. Unfortunately, there seems to be a stubborn approach from Tomlin and the Rooneys to bring the franchise into a modern NFL way of competing
What we’ve seen sure ain’t it
I agree, especially regarding Najee and Ben (he should certainly have handled the Rudolph situation much better-didn’t he apologize to him at some point in his show, or am I imagining that?). Of course, the outside run inability also could be the result of poor line play not being able to execute, or the inability to run zone plays. Really though, it just seems like they say, “you’re big, run inside.” Harris is big, but he’s also athletic. Some type of adjustment should be expected.
Mike Tomlin: “But if I get rid of Canada that’s leaves me with 195 other countries I’d have to interview”.
Time to clean house start at the top
Fire Tomlin