Matt Canada to stay up in booth while serving as offensive coordinator
He’ll have the ear of the quarterback but as an eye in the sky.
Matt Canada, as he has during preseason games, will perform his duties as Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator from the coaches’ booth this season. The Steelers’ three previous offensive coordinators — Randy Fichtner, Todd Haley and Bruce Arians — worked from the sidelines.
“Calling the plays, there’s no middleman with that,” said Canada, who has radio communication into Roethlisberger’s helmet until the play clock hits 15 seconds. “A lot of (other coordinators) are, obviously, doing it in the league. When Ben comes off, (quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan) is right there with him. We’ve got a headset for Ben. If Ben wants to talk to me or if I want to talk to Ben, he puts the headset on.
“We did that last week (during a preseason win against the Detroit Lions): ‘Here’s what we saw. Here’s what we’re thinking. What about this?’ It’s a very fluid situation there. I think it went very well last week, and, obviously, last week was just what it was, but we feel good about where we’re at with that.”
Haley tried working from the booth during his final season with the Steelers in 2017 but the experiment never made it to the regular season.
A longtime playcaller for several college programs — including Pitt in 2016 — Canada is in his first season as Steelers offensive coordinator. His first NFL job was as Steelers quarterbacks coach last season.
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Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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