3 Steelers who will benefit most from Matt Canada’s new offense

The Steelers offense will look different in 2021. Here are three players who could benefit most from the chance this year. 

Randy Fichtner just wasn’t working with the Steelers, and fans were calling for him to be fired by the second half of the season. Over their final six games, Pittsburgh managed a dismal 19.6 points per contest. This simply cannot happen in 2021, and Matt Canada is here to make sure it doesn’t.

Canada was Pittsburgh’s quarterback coach before being promoted to offensive coordinator this offseason. Ben Roethlisberger recently voiced in a press conference after an OTA practice that the Steelers offense shouldn’t be predictable this year.

It’s clear that changes were needed. While there will probably be some growing pains with the switch to Canada’s stretch zone offense and an increased amount of pre-snap motion, here are three players who will likely benefit the most from the change:

WR Chase Claypool

Early in the 2020 season when Matt Canada’s fingerprints were all over the offensive playbook, rookie receiver Chase Claypool was perhaps the biggest beneficiary. He was used all over the field and even took a few end-arounds in pre-snap motion, punching two of them in for scores. Working more play-action early on in the season also afforded Claypool more opportunities to get wide open down the field.

Sadly, Pittsburgh seemed to revert back to Fichtner’s old offense late in the season that consisted of predictable runs and Ben Roethlisberger in shotgun virtually every snap. Claypool was most effective early in the season when the offense was more creative, and I can see him having a huge second season with Matt Canada calling the shots.