Buccaneers to fire OC Byron Leftwich, Steelers rumored to be interested

Pittsburgh Steelers fans are still awaiting a decision from the team at offensive coordinator, and Byron Leftwich is a name they are rumored to be interested in.

Just one day after putting up a dud in their playoff game against the Dallas Cowboys, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are expected to fire offensive coordinator, Byron Leftwich, according to Pewter Report. This firing doesn’t come as a complete surprise, as the Bucs finished the season with an 8-9 record and took a step back on offense this year, but some would argue whether or not it is warranted.

Injuries plagued Tampa Bay this season, and Tom Brady — despite respectable raw numbers — wasn’t nearly as efficient has he was in his past two seasons with the Buccaneers. A combination of factors no doubt led to Leftwich’s firing. Now this decision is met with a great amount of intrigue by Pittsburgh Steelers fans.

Early this week, a rumor surfaced that the Steelers have a strong interest in Leftwich and were waiting to see if he got the axe before making a decision with Matt Canada. We will soon find out how much truth there is to this.

With Leftwich done in Tampa Bay, a reunion with Pittsburgh seems to make a lot of sense, thanks to his ties to the organization. Leftwich was a former backup quarterback behind Ben Roethlisberger back in 2008 and again in 2010 and 2012 to close out his playing career, according to ESPN.

Could Steelers pursue Byron Leftwich?

It’s hard to tell whether or not there is true interest here, but it’s not hard to see why there would be. While Byron Leftwich may not be a fan favorite to be the next offensive coordinator in Pittsburgh, many would be thrilled to have just about anyone not named Matt Canada for the 2023 season.

Though the Buccaneers didn’t find much success this season, Leftwich unquestionably has better passing concepts, and adding him could prove to help Kenny Pickett grow as a passer early in his NFL career. Meanwhile, Canada has two straight seasons as OC in Pittsburgh in which he failed to rank inside the top 20 in points per game.

If the Pittsburgh Steelers were to make a move, we would expect that to occur in the near future, as the team will not want to prolong the process into the offseason. Like most of their hires, Leftwich does have in-house connections as all of his years in Pittsburgh overlapped with head coach Mike Tomlin.

It will be interesting to see if this team is willing to fire Matt Canada soon with a plan to bring in Byron Leftwich. If this doesn’t happen over the next few weeks, Steelers fans need to come to grips that Canada will probably be the offensive coordinator again for next season.