After a disappointing offensive start to the Steelers’ season, the front office has decided to fire offensive coordinator Matt Canada.
Canada has been with the Steelers since the 2020 season, when he was a quarterbacks coach. The next year he was promoted to the offensive coordinator job.
Canada has been the culprit behind the Steelers having only the 28th best offense in the NFL this year. He has failed at calling plays to get the ball to the team’s best players by barely targeting Diontae Johnson and George Pickens. Najee Harris has also gotten far too many carries when Jaylen Warren is the clear-cut RB1.
Although Canada was subpar, he was not 100 percent of the problem. Kenny Pickett has severely underperformed so far this year, as he has been unable to push the ball downfield or make throws that every other quarterback in the NFL can make. Pittsburgh has not had a game over 400 offensive yards under Canada, while every other team has had four or more.
One positive from this is that the Steelers are relatively young on offense, with a second-year quarterback and young receivers.
That being said, the Steelers need to stop being so content with throwing checkdowns and scoring 10 to 20 points a game. They need to make attempts to push the ball downfield by taking shots every now and then to Pickens, a receiver with arguably the best catch radius in the NFL.
One thing Pittsburgh should now work on is spreading out defenses and attacking the middle of the field. That has been one thing they have been noticeably bad at so far this year.
If this offense changes for the better over the rest of the season, people are going to be surprised by how much better Pickett will be.
This week’s matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals is going to be a huge test and ultimately the baseline for how the rest of the year might look.
