PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin said there are many layers to evaluating his decision about Offensive Coordinator Matt Canada, who's contract expired after two seasons. He said he's paid to make tricky decisions, but would not hint as to what his decision might be hours after the season ended on Monday.
"You know I thought he got better just like our team got better," Tomlin said at his season-ending news conference about Canada. "I'm not going to speculate about him or anyone as I stand here today. We fight and that fight has come to an end. I'm just beginning the process of transitioning and wrapping a bow around it and seeing what 2023 looks like."
Tomlin described himself as a fundamentalist when it came to this team. It wasn't the first time he noted that he was more conservative. His plan, from the beginning of training camp, was to be conservative. Do enough on offense without making mistakes to allow the defense to win games. It's where they had most of their payroll and experience.
"When I have red paint, I paint my barn red as a coaching cliché," Tomlin said. "What you saw from us was what was appropriate, particularly in the second half of the year in an effort to engineer victory. As we move forward, we are continually trying to get better and get better in all areas."
What we should extract from that is you can expect the offense going forward to take more chances. To allow for the opportunity for splash plays. This year the Steelers were last in the NFL with only three plays of 40-yards or more and they all happened in the second half of the season.
In totality, the numbers are not pretty for the offense Matt Canada was responsible for, but under the guidance of Tomlin's edict of painting the barn red.
· Only one team scored fewer touchdowns than the Steelers
· Steelers had the fewest touchdown passes in the NFL with 12
· The 16 rushing touchdowns were middle of the pack
· Averaged 15 points a game the first eight games
· Averaged 20.9 points a game over the last nine
Again, Tomlin was not going to discuss what his decision would be, if even he had made up his mind by the time he talked to reporters on Monday.
"I'm just not there," Tomlin said. "We got some work to do. Largely, I thought he got better in the ways that we got better. So, it was encouraging."
