Overreactions from Steelers Nation: Oh Canada!
Welcome to my weekly edition of “Overreactions from Steelers Nation” a weekly column where I poke fun at fans, reporters, and so-called experts while trying to figure out if some of these hot takes are real – or just for attention.
It really feels like I discuss this topic far too often in this column, but some things that transpired this week make it necessary to talk about it once again: Steelers fans demanding the team fire offensive coordinator Matt Canada.
Now, I’ll preface this article by saying Canada’s job performance since becoming the OC back in 2021 has been disappointing. That goes without saying. I believe the Steelers can do better, but I also don’t have to act like a grown toddler because the organization hasn’t.
This week alone I witnessed fans in attendance at Acrisure Stadium chant “Fire Canada” ad nauseum, whenever the Steelers offense failed to generate anything of substance against the Baltimore Ravens. Worse, I heard some less classy folks chant another four-letter F word instead of “fire” as part of that chant too.
The hysteria carried over to the Pittsburgh Penguins 2023 home opener on Tuesday too. Yes, hockey fans were chanting to fire a football coach at a hockey game.
I had to do a double take, because I wasn’t sure why hockey fans were mad at Canada when the Pens were facing the not Canadian Chicago Blackhawks. Then I realized what was going on.
I get it: we love the Steelers. However, what possesses a human being to be so obsessed over another person’s job?
My first recoil is to usually ask individual how they’d feel if someone were on their case about doing poorly at their job. Do they demand the McDonald’s manager fire the drive thru employee because they forgot your sauce cup? I honestly can’t think of another line of work where this rabid behavior would be considered acceptable. Yet, we’ve seen it happen time and again in Pittsburgh.
I’ve seen fans call for the heads of Bruce Arians, Todd Haley, and Randy Fichtner. All three were the previous offensive coordinators before Canada, an outside hire from the college ranks with fresh ideas they begged for.
Incidentally they did the same to defensive coordinators Dick LeBeau and Keith Butler too. However, these same fanatics have forgotten their war cries for those individuals and now riminess of the days they called the plays.
That may suggest the grass isn’t any greener on the other side, but it doesn’t stop them from wanting to try. I’ve seen the calls for bringing in everyone from former Tampa Bay Buccaneers OC Byron Leftwich to retired quarterbacks Ben Roethlisberger and Charlie Batch for the job.
Let’s set aside that changing offenses with the season underway is a tall if not impossible task. What might qualify Roethlisberger or Batch, who to my knowledge have never coached football at any level, to jump in for a poorly performing coach with twenty years of experience?
If that doesn’t sound like a recipe for disaster then you weren’t paying attention when the Indianapolis Colts tried it last season with retired player and never-been coach Jeff Saturday.
As for Leftwich, the team had the opportunity to sign him this offseason after he was fired from Tampa in January. Even if Leftwich were brought aboard, he has only been coaching since 2017. It’s also debatable as to how much credit he should be given for the Bucs offense, seeing as Bruce Arians had called plays for part of his tenure and Tom Brady was the featured quarterback. (Leftwich didn’t last much longer after both left those positions.)
The fact Leftwich hasn’t caught on with another team yet too makes his story a little less enticing.
Likewise, who’s to say Roethlisberger – who has made millions upon millions of dollars as a player – wants to leave retirement and sampling craft beer on his podcast for the daily grind of pro football again?
Those calling into Steelers postgame shows and kissing up to Batch should consider the same, as Charlie has it quite well in the booth and has also earned a decent buck as a player. Would he want to leave that post? It’s unlikely.
Yet, that hasn’t stopped the pie in the sky ideas that will certainly be better than Canada. One of the more egregious ideas has surfaced from respected Steelers beat writer Gerry Dulac, who suggested maligned former NFL head coach Jon Gruden could fit the bill of working with good friend Mike Tomlin under the auspices of being his offensive coordinator.
Gruden, who has controversy surrounding his name due to racial allegations and ongoing lawsuits with the league, wasn’t very successful in his NFL return after leaving the game for the broadcast booth. He too is a multimillionaire who would be a sparkplug topic for a locker room neither party needs together. However, the precedent is already there for the Steelers, who signed Brian Flores as a defensive assistant last year despite having similar ongoing legal battles with the NFL.
I wouldn’t turn down the salivating prospect of adding someone like Gruden, should they be a fit (and those allegations don’t carry over to team turmoil) but I’d surmise the chances of that happening are slim to none.
The most likely scenario is that current quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan, who has previous offensive coordinator experience with the Buccaneers and Giants, steps into Canada’s shoes when the latter is gone.
Critics will oppose an “internal” hire, however, Sullivan’s hiring the year before may have been with the foresight that he would takeover if Canada fails: much like when Canada was hired as the quarterbacks coach during the final year of Randy Fichtner’s tenure. Both were technically outside hires made a year in advance, as to not bring them aboard a moving train and already have them settled in ready to roll.
Sullivan is credited as getting the most out of quarterbacks Josh Freeman and Eli Manning during his time coaching both players. If he truly is a offensive guru, then he might be the logical answer to the current problem especially if he can get the most out of a young and growing Kenny Pickett too.
