Why the Pittsburgh Steelers won’t fire Matt Canada
From media to fans, everyone is going off the rails. They’ve had it up to here with Matt Canada and for good reason. The Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator is back to his old ways (though he never really left) of designing a boring, predictable scheme that a PeeWee football team could defend with its eyes closed.
No question — Kenny Pickett shoulders a lot of blame with his subpar performances in weeks 1 and 2, but he’s only attempting to execute what he’s been directed.
The Steelers find themselves in the same boat as 2022, painfully in the basement of NFL offense rankings. Six points — not including those from kicker Chris Boswell — is all they’ve put up in eight quarters. The dreadful output and lack of spark is a fireable offense in most organizations.
But not in Pittsburgh.
So, why won’t the Steelers fire Matt Canada? It’s simple. They don’t fire staff members in-season. You’d have to go back two decades for the last time a coordinator was fired. In 2004, defensive coordinator Tim Lewis was shown the door, but that was after the season had ended. The damage had already been done.
A coordinator has never been fired by the Steelers in-season, and it’s not going to suddenly change. The offense will suffer, and so will Kenny Pickett. The defense will be the unit to put points on the board, but a game like Monday night versus the Cleveland Browns just isn’t sustainable, no matter how good your defenders are. Aside from Minkah Fitzpatrick, we know Pittsburgh doesn’t have the secondary talent to pull off pick-6s or fumble recoveries for touchdowns, so the pressure will be on the likes of T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith.
“I share their passion,” Tomlin said when asked about the “Fire Canada” chants during Monday night’s game. “We love our fans. They inspire us. They challenge us. We don’t run from challenges. We run to challenges. It is our job to win and entertain them. We don’t begrudge them for that. We want them to be fat and sassy and spoiled.”
While he shares Steelers Nation’s passion, he doesn’t share their concern. “I don’t share their concern because of my perspective. I’m a part of the process. When you’re a part of the process, it’s less troublesome to you.”
Despite many fans thinking he had this year left on his contract, Tomlin actually gave Canada a one-year extension in the 2023 offseason. Whether the offense continues to struggle or just does enough to win games, Canada will be on board until at least January 2024.
But the Steelers have done some un-Steelers-like things recently, under general manager Omar Khan, like sign a receiver to a second contract and trade away players they drafted in an effort to get better. So, they could surprise us. The Week 6 bye, starting October 15, could be it. Then again, probably not.
