Art Rooney II: Improved offense in 2nd half of season led to Matt Canada's return as offensive coordinator

The way the Pittsburgh Steelers offense in general and rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett in particular finished the 2022 season were factors in the organization retaining offensive coordinator Matt Canada for another year.

Given those strides the Steelers made, team president Art Rooney II said Thursday he didn’t want to start fresh with a new offensive coordinator to oversee Pickett’s development in his second NFL season.

“They seem to work well together,” Rooney said in an interview with about a dozen beat reporters. “They built a good working relationship. To start over with a new offensive coordinator, you could wind up back in the same situation again where the first half of the season: You’re breaking in a new coordinator.

“We felt like there is enough there to build on that we can continue to keep that group together.”

Rooney didn’t want to risk a repeat of the first half of 2022 when Canada, in his second season as Steelers offensive coordinator, had two new quarterbacks to develop in the wake of Ben Roethlisberger’s retirement.

Veteran Mitch Trubisky started the first four games before being benched in favor of Pickett at halftime against the New York Jets. Pickett started all but one game the rest of the way and endured growing pains before the bye week.

The Steelers concluded the first half with a 2-6 record. Pickett, in four-plus games, threw eight interceptions against just two touchdown passes.

The offense began clicking in the second half as the Steelers went 7-2 to finish with a 9-8 record. Pickett threw just one interception the rest of the way, the offensive line improved its blocking and running back Najee Harris had a strong finish to reach 1,000 rushing yards for the second year in a row.

“You want to see a team improve over the course of the season, start to finish, no matter what your record is,” Rooney said. “What you’re shooting for is to get better as the season goes on. I thought we did that. Obviously, you’d rather not dig too deep of a hole at the beginning of the season, which, unfortunately, we did.

“Breaking in a new quarterback — two of them, in fact — was a factor in at least some difficulties we had in the first half of the season. We weren’t playing that well on the defensive side in the first half of the season, either. Giving up big plays early in games didn’t help. I don’t discount the first half, but the key is to see improvement over the course of the season is encouraging.”

Rooney was particularly impressed by Pickett’s play at the end of games down the stretch. He led last-minute touchdown drives that helped produce wins against Las Vegas and Baltimore. In the season finale, with a playoff berth within reach, the Steelers scored 28 points, their most in a victory the entire year.

“That means a lot, being able to function like that in pressure situations,” Rooney said. “The game is on the line. The season is on the line, really. In those situations, it’s good to see.”

Despite the second-half improvements, the Steelers still finished No. 23 in total offense and No. 26 in points. Rooney didn’t discount the Steelers bringing in a senior offensive assistant to work with Canada, much like they did a year ago when Brian Flores was hired as senior defensive assistant under Teryl Austin.

“I wouldn’t take anything off the table,” Rooney said.

Rooney was impressed by the way Canada’s offense started to “dominate teams” in terms of time of possession in the second half by running the ball effectively and converting third-down chances.

“All of those things are related and can be part of a formula for success,” he said.

Rooney, though, isn’t lobbying for the Steelers to return to the 3-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust days or emphasize a ball-control approach that was prioritized by former coach Bill Cowher two decades ago. He thinks the offensive playbook can be expanded in Pickett’s second season to allow the young quarterback to be more aggressive.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’d like to have an effective passing game, too,” Rooney said. “The best teams can do both. Being a team that is tough to defend means you can do a lot of things right. What we’re looking for is to be balanced. We need to improve in the passing game, for sure. We need more yards after the catch from our receivers. Obviously, we need to be better in the red zone. There are places we need to improve on (but) to score more points is the bottom line.”