I spent years as one of those Steelers fans that believed the organization was different from the 31 other teams for all the right reason.
They keep coaches, they don’t make knee-jerk reactions, they’re loyal and hold themselves to a higher standard.
While there are still some parts of their philosophy I respect, I’m over a lot of it.
The Steeler way is stale.
The biggest example of this…Matt Canada is still the offensive coordinator for the Steelers.
Sure, sure there are reasons his offense has been toward the bottom of the NFL in scoring since taking over two seasons ago.
An aging, immobile Ben Roethlisberger in 2021, Mitch Trubisky and then a rookie quarterback this season with struggling offensive line that finally jelled toward the end of the season are some reasons.
But, Canada’s play-calling has been called out by opposing teams, saying they knew what was coming before the Steelers snapped the ball.
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Sure other teams do that too, but when it doesn’t work, you need to change things up.
The Steelers finished 26th in scoring this past season.
Teams like the Chargers and Bucs have fired their offensive coordinators and they made the playoffs. Heck, the Bucs were 25th in scoring, only one better in the regular season compared to the Steelers.
But Mike Tomlin, while I still think he is a great coach, needs to adapt.
They need to wipe their hands an offensive coordinator that had one successful season at Pitt years ago. They need to hire coaching that may have higher aspirations instead of someone like Randy Fichtner, who would be satisfied being a lifetime OC.
Owner Art Rooney II can’t be okay with finishing the season scoring more than 20 points in two games.
It’s not just Canada, Tomlin is involved in the offense and his belief that a strong defense and conservative offense can win games works sometimes, but not enough.
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The offense needs to take changes down the middle. You see how it can work late in games when Kenny Pickett comes alive and had two game-winning drives in back-to-back games.
There still is a lot of good with the Steelers, they aren’t one of the worst teams in the league but they haven’t been great either.
You know the stats, three playoff wins in 12 years, six straight years without a playoff win, epic collapses to Jacksonville and Kansas City (the Jags game especially). That isn’t winning football.
Retaining Matt Canada isn’t winning football. Drafting Kenny Pickett and hampering his development by starting Mitch Trubisky isn’t winning football.
I don’t believe in a MAJOR overhaul but you can at least start with letting Canada go and Rooney having Tomlin bring in an OC that won’t follow lock and step. They need someone who brings their own ideas.
As Tomlin said, they don’t keep up with the Jones’. That’s fine, but a least try to adapt to this decade of football.