The Steelers offense has underwhelmed through seven weeks, due in no part to a lack of talent. The wide receiver group might be one of the best in the league. Najee Harris was a first round pick. The offensive line has improved and Pat Freiermuth is one of the up and coming talents in the NFL. This offense should be better than 15 points per game. Matt Canada and his system have not been working, and frankly have never worked in his coaching career.
Pittsburgh Steelers Need to Fire Matt Canada
Coaching History
Matt Canada started his coaching career bouncing around the MAC before becoming the offensive coordinator for NC State in 2013. NC State went on to have a less-than-desirable season. The wolf pack went 3-9 and averaged 22.8 points per game. That ranked 98th out of 125 eligible teams in the NCAA. Canada was given a chance to turn it around in 2014 and the team did improve. This might have had something to do with their recruit Jacoby Brissett that would go on to be a fringe starter in the NFL. The team went from 22.8 to 30.2 ppg, so Canada kept his job for 2015. In 2015 with a loaded roster by ACC standards the NC State offense went from 30.2 to 33.2 ppg. Most of these points came from beating up on bad teams, so the fire Matt Canada sentiment won over in Raleigh.
Subsequently, Canada found a job at Pitt, where he was one of the coaches that recruited Kenny Pickett. This year the offense blew the doors off of ACC teams and was top ten in the nation in scoring. As a result, Canada landed a job at LSU to become the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. The team went from 28 ppg the season before Canada’s arrival to 27 ppg the following year. This was with a roster that included Justin Jefferson, Leonard Fournette, D.J. Chark, and multiple other NFL-caliber players. The team and Canada parted ways at the end of the year.
Afterwards, Canada went on to be the offensive coordinator in Maryland for another underwhelming campaign. The Maryland Terrapins went on to finish the year 5-7 with the Canada special of 28 ppg. Canada was replaced at the end of the year and found himself without a job.
Pittsburgh Steelers Career
All things considered, Canada was in no position to end up as the Steelers offensive coordinator. Because of Canada’s experience at Pitt he had stumbled into an opportunity for the Steelers as their quarterbacks coach. The Steelers like to hire local guys that they are familiar with, and Canada just happened to be available at the time. This was a quarterback room with a Hall of Famer in Ben Roethlisberger, likely a career back in Mason Rudolph, and a fan favorite in Devlin Hodges. There was nothing that Matt Canada was bringing to that room that would change the way Roethlisberger played his game. Roethlisberger was already 13 years into his career with two Super Bowl rings.
After Randy Fichtner was fired at the end of the 2020 season, the Steelers needed to find a replacement coordinator. As Roethlisberger was at the tail end of his career, Pittsburgh opted for someone he was comfortable with. Although Canada had experience at the college level, he was in no way ready to run an NFL offense.
The Pittsburgh offense looked almost identical between 2020 and 2021. This was largely in part to Ben Roethlisberger just refusing to run a different offense. 2022 was supposed to be the year that the NFL saw the Canada system unleashed. Yards per game? 30th. Points per game? 29th. This offense is stagnant and does not take advantage of the play makers in the system. The fire Matt Canada chants will keep growing unless something changes.
