4 reasons Steelers are making a mistake keeping Matt Canada

3. Steelers passing concepts are among the worst in the league

It was a running joke all year among Pittsburgh Steelers fans that Matt Canada avoided the middle of the football field like the plague. Fans of other teams would wonder how true this really was, but anyone can see what I mean if you take a quick look at the week-by-week passing charts from Next Gen Stats.

Admittedly, these don’t tell the whole story. That’s why we let the game film do the talking. Sadly, the more we watched, the harder it became to defend Pittsburgh’s underwhelming offensive coordinator.

In an effort to protect his rookie quarterback from making risky passes over the middle of the football field, Canada’s passing plays were designed to go to the sidelines. The problem with this is that it left very little room for receivers to help their QB out by chewing up yards after the catch. As a result, Pittsburgh was among the worst teams in the league in YAC.

While Canada liked to use pre-snap motion in the run game, his passing concepts greatly lacked creativity. There were very few pick plays or routes designed to work off each other. This wasn’t just with Pickett either, as Ben Roethlisberger went through much of the same. Teams that can’t throw the ball over the middle of the field or struggle to create yards after the catch rarely have top-ranked offenses, and it’s pretty self-explanatory as to why.