Steelers hire former Pitt offensive coordinator Matt Canada to coach quarterbacks

After a two-year absence, the Pittsburgh Steelers will have a designated quarterbacks coach for the 2020 season.

Matt Canada, who spent the 2016 season as the offensive coordinator at Pitt, was hired Tuesday by the Steelers.

Canada, 47, last coached in 2018 when he served as the interim coach at Maryland. He spent the previous season as offensive coordinator at LSU and worked at Indiana, Wisconsin, N.C. State and Northern Illinois.

We have hired Matt Canada as quarterbacks’ coach.

MORE: https://t.co/JkfBUaNozY pic.twitter.com/r1OfLmgxxr

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) January 15, 2020

Randy Fichtner previously served as the Steelers quarterbacks coach, and he maintained a dual role when he was promoted to offensive coordinator after the 2017 season. The Steelers missed the playoffs in each of their two seasons without a quarterbacks coach.

“Part of it was finding somebody who was the right fit,” Steelers president Art Rooney II said Wednesday.

Rooney and Steelers coach Mike Tomlin were familiar with Canada’s work at Pitt since the two programs share the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on the South Side.

In Canada’s one season overseeing the Pitt offense, the Panthers set a school record by averaging 42 points per game. Pitt led the nation in red-zone touchdown percentage and scored at least 28 points in all 12 regular-season games.

“I think Mike and I both felt it was an opportunity that we had and good to add somebody to the staff that can help with the young quarterbacks as well as help with the offense,” Rooney said. “We’re happy somebody like Matt, who we knew from down the hall here, was a known quantity for us and like some of the work he’s done and we’re happy to have him on board.”

The Steelers are banking on Canada helping develop young quarterbacks behind starter Ben Roethlisberger, who will turn 38 in March and is coming off right elbow surgery.

Mason Rudolph will be entering his third season and undrafted free agent Devlin Hodges, who started the final five games of the season, will be entering his second. Paxton Lynch, a former No. 1 draft pick, also is on the offseason roster.

Rudolph lost his starting job to Hodges, who struggled down the stretch when the Steelers lost their final three games. The duo combined for 18 touchdown passes and 17 interceptions while the offense scored just one touchdown in eight of the final nine games.

Rudolph left one game with a concussion and was hit on his unprotected head by his own helmet at the end of another. His season ended in Week 16 with an injury to his left shoulder that landed Rudolph on injured reserve.

Tomlin said after the season that Rudolph would enter training camp as the backup to Roethlisberger, and Rooney concurred when asked whether the Steelers would bring in a veteran quarterback for depth.

“I think as we sit here today, we’re all comfortable with Mason being our backup,” Rooney said. “He had an unusual season and it really had to deal with some unusual circumstances, including injuries and everything else, and I think that was an experience for him.

“Hopefully, it’s was something, what’s the old story, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Hopefully, it’s that kind of situation for him.”

The addition of Canada will allow Fichtner to focus exclusively on coordinating an offense that finished No. 27 in points scored and No. 30 in total yards last season, marking one of least productive seasons for the franchise since the 1970 NFL/AFL merger. The Steelers also had the NFL’s worst red-zone offense.

“I think any offensive coordinator in the league who winds up with three different starting quarterbacks over the course of the season is going to tell you it’s going to be a challenge,” Rooney said. “It is difficult to evaluate. I’m sure Randy, like everybody else, would say there’s things we want to improve on and things we can do better and things we learned from this season.”

The expectation is that a healthy Roethlisberger will return the offense to respectability. Roethlisberger led the NFL in passing yards in 2018.

“I’m not going to call it a cure-all,” Rooney said, “but it will be good to have him back and hopefully at a level like the last time he completed an entire season for us.”

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