Steelers fire offensive coordinator Matt Canada

Through two-and-a-half years of watching his offense plod along like it was mired in quicksand, Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin remained steadfast that Matt Canada was the right fit at offensive coordinator.

On Tuesday, two days after the Steelers produced just 10 points in a loss to a division rival, Tomlin’s patience ran out.

Tomlin fired Canada with seven games remaining in the season and the Steelers occupying third place in the AFC North with a 6-4 record.

“Rest assured that this decision was not taken lightly,” Tomlin said at his weekly press conference. “I have a lot of respect for Matt both professionally and personally, and it was not easy, but I thought it was necessary.”

Running backs coach Eddie Faulker will take over the title of offensive coordinator, and quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan will call the plays on game day, Tomlin said. Sullivan previously served as an offensive coordinator with the New York Giants and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Tomlin said the decision to fire Canada was not a directive from ownership.

“Leadership is lonely. I don’t run from it, I run to it,” he said. “The decision was mine and mine alone.”

By firing Canada, Tomlin did something unfamiliar to predecessors Bill Cowher and Chuck Noll by making a major coaching change in the middle of the season. It was a first for the organization in the modern era of the NFL.

Canada was in his third season calling plays for the Steelers and his fourth on the staff, including the 2020 season as the quarterbacks coach. His previous 25 seasons were spent coaching in the college game, including a successful stint calling plays for Pitt in 2016.

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In 44 games with Canada as the offensive coordinator and play-caller, the Steelers never reached 400 yards of total offense. In 17 of those games, the Steelers totaled 300 or fewer total yards. His offense averaged a meager 17.9 points per game in his two-plus seasons in his role.

Under predecessor Randy Fichtner, the Steelers averaged 26 points in 2020, his final season.

“This is a result-oriented business,” Tomlin said. “In short, the improvements were not consistent enough or rapid enough to proceed.”

Just twice in those 44 games did the Steelers reach the 30-point barrier — and both came in losses. The past three weeks, Canada coached from the sideline after spending his previous games working from the coaching box on the press level. The Steelers won the first two games, but the offense regressed Sunday in a 13-10 loss against the Cleveland Browns during which second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett had just 106 yards passing.

“There hadn’t been enough continuity in our work. It hadn’t developed at the rate I would like it to,” Tomlin said. “We’re still showing signs of September football in some instances. And that’s unacceptable. It’s late November.”

The Steelers rank 28^th in the 32-team NFL in both yardage (280.1 per game) and scoring (16.6 points per game). In any of Canada’s three seasons, the highest the Steelers ranked in points or yards was 20^th — in points in 2021.

That was quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s final season before retirement. Canada in the two seasons since was entrusted with the development of Pickett, the team’s 2022 first-round pick.

Team president Art Rooney II said Canada’s work with Pickett as a rookie was a reason the Steelers retained him in 2023 for the final year of his contract rather than making a change.

“They seem to work well together,” Rooney said in January. “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 did not provide comment Tuesday.

Pickett is statistically among the worst quarterbacks in the NFL this year. He has struggled with finding open receivers during his second season, and his play in the loss at Cleveland was the breaking point for Tomlin.

“I just think you know when you’re there, to be blunt,” Tomlin said about the timing of Canada’s dismissal.

Tomlin resisted making a change early in the season with Canada, the target of fan criticism. In the fourth quarter of the Week 2 game against Cleveland, fans at Acrisure Stadium broke out in a “Fire Canada” chant.

Although he has dismissed Canada, Tomlin said Pickett will remain the team’s starting quarterback.

“I work with him every day,” he said. “I’ve been really transparent about him, his willingness to work and my experience and what that tells me. This guy will do any and everything. He works extremely hard. I just saw him a few minutes ago in the building (on the players’ day off), and if there is such thing as football justice, man, those guys usually get what they’re looking for. That’s why I remain consistently optimistic about the trajectory of his growth and development.”

While Pickett will remain under center, the people in his ear on game day will change. Time will tell if 10 games into the season was the right time to make the switch.

“There are a lot of challenges, obviously, doing what it is that we are doing,” Tomlin said. “But the unknown component is a potential positive. And so we are going to hold our cards close to the vest.”

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