Will Canada improve ?

With everything being done, he knows what he has to work with, will this make a difference.

 

Maybe but I am not sure it will be enough....I hope to be wrong

 

Yes eventually the fires will die out and air quality will improve with a steady southeast breeze blowing the smoke out towards Hudson's Bay.


Oh wait you meant Matt Canada then no, lowered expectations is the way to go that way the bar is very low.

 

Not until Quebec becomes a sovereign nation, eh?

 

Don`t know what the stats say, but overall, I thought maybe I saw some better play calling late last season.

If there was what looked like better play calling, no way of knowing what was going on for sure. Questions abound.

How much of the playbook was Kenny comfortable with last season? Was it gradual progress with that comfort level for Kenny or was it Canada getting better at his job?

I remember Kenny throwing a lot of picks in his first few starts, imagine how that must tie the hands of an OC until that got under control.

This is a prove-it year for both Kenny and Canada. No excuses. Major progress expected.

 

No

 

Well he better. He was a Tomlin direct hire.

Looking at his college career it is not screaming positive.

They brought in Glenn Thomas to help with the passing attack.

I'm holding out hope. But I do feel the jury is still out.

 

With the expected growth of KP and his receivers alone, yes.

I also expect some bad calls with at least one costing us a game.

 

As I've stated many times. I thought the Guy should never have been hired.......Yet a man can get better, learn, and improve. I thought I saw glimpses last year. I can only hope that He does continue, and improve. It's not impossible.....especially if He doesn't believe He knew everything before He got Here. Here's hoping He does.

 

We shall see.


In Canada's Defense, in the past two seasons, he has had to deal with the following;



1.) A Big Ben way past his expiration date.


2.) Creating Game Plans for two different QBs. For that matter, not just two different QBs, creating a Game Plan that was efficient enough for a Rookie QB at that.


3.) Little to no Deep Threat Options from the WR Corps.


4.) Little to no YAC Production from the entire group of Offensive Weapons not named Najee Harris or Pat Freiermuth.


5.) An Offensive Line that has seemingly been in rebuild since 2019.




All this said, this does not mean he is without blame here. While he has had some stretches of plays within a small amount of time, his overall capabilities to call plays consistently to net points has been disappointing. This is even more evident in the Red Zone where the Steelers have not finished within the Top 20 since coming here. Having Glen Thomas, a former QB Coach who did oversee the likes of Matt Ryan in addition of knowing Kenny Pickett himself well, also compounds this issues as Glen Thomas has had success in terms of developing good Offenses at Arizona State and Baylor. More over, many of Glenn's schematics are primarily set upon establishing the run but through a more streamlined approach. As for his passing coordination chops, Thomas has been well known to create opportunities for his Receivers to generate either as much separation as possible or to obtain as much YAC as possible. Most importantly is how well a Glenn Thomas Offense can put points up on the board; Baylor, Arizona State and even ULNV all receiving production increases from an Offensive Standpoint. All of these points further illustrate how inefficient Matt Canada has been. This leads me to my own answer.



Will Canada Improve?!



As I stated earlier... we shall see. However, for Canada, this is put up or shut up time. Either he improves or we see Glenn Thomas slowly imprinting his own stamp onto the Offense as Canada will be phased out from contribution.

 

Actually they brought him in as offensive assistant. Fans turned that into passing game coordinator etc

 

It wasn't just a young QB. The whole offense was young. Before that Ben was old, some guys were young and many not that good.

 

I don’t think anyone expected him to be an offensive genius the past couple years, but we expected him to be better and closer to his peers. He is one of 32 offensive coordinators/coaches. There shouldn’t be that much difference between him and the 31 others. We see a guy like Purdy succeeding and we ask ourselves is Shanahan truly that much better than Canada

 

Kyle Shanahan though has had much of his system in San Fran long before Brock Purdy ever came into the fold. For that matter, while Brock Purdy has shown he can compete at a high level, the team around him is just ridiculously stacked. Matt Canada came in during a continual period of transition. That said, a key component of an Offensive Coordinator is working with what you have and mitigating the shortcomings of what you don't. Canada has had small bits here and there but mind you, those short microbursts of success only appear for a Quarter or two per game as opposed to the whole game itself.


I do agree that there shouldn't be that much of a difference in terms of performance when it comes to Canada versus the other 31... minus one major factor. Some of these "Offensive Coordinators" really are outliers as they also function as Head Coaches; their entire Offensive Philosophy having been either long entrenched into the Franchise or one that is nearing completion in other cases. For example, Doug Pederson is getting closer and closer towards repeating the similar level of success he had in Philly as the Head Coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Another example is in Kevin O' Connell of the Minnesota Vikings. Now, time will tell if Kevin will have this aspect called time as much of the corps that the Vikings had from 2016 until 2022 have all but vanished... save for Harrison Smith. Hell, this Offseason was an Offseason of hell for the Vikings; Patrick Peterson, Za'Darius Smith, Chandon Sullivan, Adam Thielen, Eric Kendricks and now Dalvin Cook ... to name a few. Kevin will have his work cut out for him Defensively though Offensively, he is just as close to completion with what he wants to install as Doug does. For those "Offensive Coordinators" dressed in disguise as Head Coaches who have their blueprint complete, Mike McDaniel (Tua is the wild card), Andy Reid and the aforementioned Kyle Shanahan are as about finished with installing their Offenses as one will get. The only major aspects for them are tools based. Other's like Sean McVay and Matt LeFleur do have their own Offensive Schemes in place but their rosters are severely depleted.


Now, Canada should have at least some competency to at least compete now with the aforementioned as far as I know, very seldom does Mike Tomlin instill his own voice into the game plan... sans Kenny's Rookie Season. As Tomlin stated, "I expect him to kill it.". This was not just a vote of confidence in Pickett but also a vote of faith in Canada. However, until we actually see the results, consider me and you both skeptical for the current data we have has been anything but positive.

 

He has an interesting work history. Starts at Midwestern State, and then goes to NFL Falcons and was let go when Mike Smith fired. Then hired by Matt Rhule at Temple, and followed Rhule to Baylor. When Rhule left for NFL Panthers, Memphis hired him. Then hired by UNLV. Then hired by Arizona State. Now he is with NFL Steelers. He definitely has much more college OC & QB coach experience than Canada and was under Matt Rhule for 4 years.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Thomas_(American_football)

Midwestern State (2004)
- Passing game coordinator & quarterbacks coach
Midwestern State (2005–2007)
- Offensive coordinator & quarterbacks coach
Atlanta Falcons (2008–2011)
- Offensive assistant
Atlanta Falcons (2012–2014)
- Quarterbacks coach
Temple (2015)
- Quarterbacks coach
Temple (2016)
- Offensive coordinator & quarterbacks coach
Baylor (2017–2019)
- Co-offensive coordinator & quarterbacks coach
UNLV (2020–2021)
- Offensive coordinator & quarterbacks coach
Arizona State (2022)
- Offensive coordinator & quarterbacks coach
Pittsburgh Steelers (2023–present)
- Offensive Assistant

 

Canada won the PGA Canadian Open today for the first time in 69 years so maybe the tide has turned?

 

Personally, I think constant improvement is essential for anyone, not just Canada.

 

This 100%

 

I expect the offence to be better in 2023 as the younger players are more experienced, the offensive line plays better and Kenny gets a full offseason as the #1. Last offseason Mitch and Mason got a lot of the first team offseason snaps in camp.

In fairness to Matt Canada there were reasons that the Steelers had such a limited playbook in recent years. Between the porous oline and Bens lack of mobility to having a rookie QB last year it was never going to be an elaborate offence.

There can be no such excuses in 2023. The front office has invested in the offence and MC now has one season to show what he can do and what value he can add to an improved group on paper.

 

Canada, has not been a favorite of mine.
Not due to any rankings here but rather what other teams say.

I will say, things improved in that 2nd half of the season. The Steelers dominated in time of possession and that's a good mark.
So, I'd like to think he is capable of improving.
I don't like the idea of changing for the sake of changing, many teams spend a lot of time in that endless cycle of mediocrity.

At best, I am cautiously optimistic.

 

our run game did improve in ranking. the line improved in ranking. time of possession improved. now we have improved players not only because of experience but coaching as well. i believe between sullivan and thomas that kenny is in good hands. i believe between myers and canada our line and run game are in good hands. our TE's and receivers are well equipped to make a huge jump. it seems like what colbert has been trying to get in place on both sides of the ball , kahn and weidl have gotten in place on both sides of the ball. ben finally being gone has allowed this all to come together. we shall see soon enough.

 

I agree with what you and @AskQuestionsLater say.

We also need to remember that early last season the run game was horrific. Once Najee got going, the offense improved.

I'm not expecting the fireworks of a Wisenhunt offense, but with a broader playbook and an established, healthy and young started at QB, there should definitely be improvement.

 

They're keeping him around for familiarity for Kenny Pickett. I am optimistic that the team will do a better job executing in his offense.

Now how that offense runs, that's up to Matt Canada. Every Steeler fan is watching close. He will not be here a year from now if he cannot get his 2nd year QB producing I can almost guarantee that.

 

when was ben at his best? when the bus was rolling and the run game was working. it's not all about kenny. it's been built as an offense as a whole. that takes pressure off of any one player. i like what they have done for canada. there isn't an offensive coordinator out there that can do anything without the players to do it with. way too much blame has been put on canada without the players in place.

 

Makes no difference how many steeler fans are watching him as most don’t have a clue what they’re looking at to begin with