At Mike Tomlin’s weekly news conference Tuesday, the Steelers coach received a lot of questions about Matt Canada’s firing that essentially amounted to: “Why now?”

Why — after 21⁄2 years of evidence that suggested Canada shouldn’t be an offensive coordinator in the NFL — did Tomlin finally terminate Canada’s role in that position with the club Tuesday morning?

Why not back at the bye after the 17-10 Week 5 win over the Baltimore Ravens? Why not at the bye last season? Why not after last season? Why not after his first season when the Steelers were starting fresh with a new quarterback after the retirement of Ben Roethlisberger?

During the middle of a week, at 6-4, between two crucial divisional road trips, with only seven games remaining in the season is odd timing for the Steelers to make their first in-season head coach or coordinator firing since 1941.

“This is a result-oriented business,” Tomlin said. “The improvements were not rapid enough or consistent enough to proceed. You have to score touchdowns in this business. You have to win games in this business. The totality of it has us where we are today.”

Where they are is 28th in the NFL in total yards per game (280.1). Their 16.6 points per game is also 28th in the league. The passing offense (170 yards per game) is second worst in the league, ahead of only the New York Giants (150.6).

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A lot of those numbers are consistent with, if not worse than, the offense’s production under Canada over the previous two seasons. So, the reasons to fire Canada are obvious. The timing just seems odd, given the franchise’s historical reticence to make such significant changes mid-stream.

Strangely, though, the clearest reason why Tomlin decided to fire Canada is the same reason why it probably took him so long to do it.

“From a leadership role, it is my job to absorb and protect those that I work with. This doesn’t feel like that,” Tomlin said of firing Canada.

Nor should it. I bet it kinda feels like scapegoating to Tomlin.

After all, Tomlin has been in lockstep with this highly conservative, ball-protection, grind-it-out approach to offense dating to when Roethlisberger blew out his elbow in 2019. It’s not like Canada’s conceptual approach to offense was counter to Tomlin’s thinking, or else, as head coach, Tomlin would have demanded he change it.

But the truth lies in Tomlin’s “absorb and protect those that I work with” line. Because by firing Canada, Tomlin is trying to protect someone else.

Kenny Pickett.

Let’s be honest. Pickett is starting to lose the locker room, and the fans and media are starting to turn on him. After months of “Fire Canada” chants, sports talk radio vitriol and complaining about offensive play design and sequencing, scrutiny has shifted to the second-year quarterback.

Internally, a few weeks ago, it was George Pickens who was grousing about his role in the offense. Two weeks later, the two guys credited for helping to talk him off the ledge — Diontae Johnson and Najee Harris — were carping and/or visibly frustrated in the wake of Sunday’s offensive mishaps in Cleveland.

In fact, it was Harris who fed the fire about Canada’s offense when he suggested that defenses sometimes know what’s coming.

Najee Harris was frustrated after the loss. Says the offense needs to have a talk. Said he left like the Browns were on him on every carry and every screen pic.twitter.com/IHt0svzmUG

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) November 19, 2023

But now it’s also devolved into Johnson publicly defending himself on social media in debates over why there are so many miscommunications between him and his quarterback. The quarterback himself acknowledged after the Cleveland game that there is misfiring going on between the two. Even the backup quarterback — Mitch Trubisky — was adamant about how important it is for the two of them to work it out and get on the same page.

The reality is — barring an unforeseen miraculous turnaround — Canada would’ve been gone after this season. The Steelers have much less invested in Canada than they do in a first-round draft choice QB from the school next door, deemed to be Big Ben’s successor, with three more years of team control.

Pickett is way more important to the franchise’s future than a disposable coordinator is. And if he loses the room any more than he has already, those next few years of team control may be a moot point.

And these next five games, none of which are being played against teams with records better than .500, are all extremely important to the Steelers’ shaky playoff hopes.

Not to mention Tomlin’s much ballyhooed “never had a losing season” streak.

If Tomlin can give Pickett the opportunity to re-grip the huddle by making it look like it was his own mistake for keeping Canada on staff all that time, then he’ll gladly “absorb and protect” on Pickett’s behalf.

Here’s the thing, though. Now Pickett has to come through. Now Pickett has to be good. Now, the variable of Canada’s play-design, play-calling and general coordination is removed from the equation.

So now “fourth-quarter Kenny” better start showing up in the first three quarters as well.

And Tomlin better tell new co-coordinators Mike Sullivan and Eddie Faulkner to divorce themselves from the risk-averse, cowardly offensive approach Tomlin allowed Canada to employ.

Otherwise, Tomlin may soon have to pivot from protecting Pickett in the short term to figuring out how he may need to replace him in the long term.

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