Art Rooney II Reveals Why Steelers Are Keeping Matt Canada

Pittsburgh Steelers fans entered the offseason hoping offensive coordinator Matt Canada would be canned after a disappointing 2022 campaign. Instead, the team has ultimately decided to retain Canada despite the calls for a change.

Many are confused by this decision. Steelers owner Art Rooney II gave some clarity on the matter on Thursday.

Steelers president Art Rooney II said today decision to retain OC Matt Canada was b/c of development and progress of Kenny Pickett. "They seemed to work well together. With a new offensive coordinator, you'd start all over again. We felt there was enough there to build on."
— Gerry Dulac (@gerrydulac) January 26, 2023

Rooney said choosing to keep Canada was tied to young quarterback Kenny Pickett. Pittsburgh doesn't want to essentially start over at OC and ruin any kind of development for Pickett from Year 1 to Year 2, so Canada is remaining on board.

This mindset at least is logical. Pickett will now have an entire offseason to prepare heading into his second year, and he'll have a complete understanding of the offense he's running already. Even veteran signal-callers struggle when transitioning to a new playbook, so keeping this unit intact should allow Pickett to hit the ground running in 2023.

That being said, Pickett has his whole career in front of him. The best thing for him long-term is to find a coordinator that will take him to the next level, which Canada just hasn't shown he's capable of so far. The team is worried about wasting a year or setting Pickett back, but playing in a stagnant offense again won't help him, either.

Hopefully Canada is able to prove he's worth sticking around as OC. Otherwise, the Steelers may regret their decision this offseason.

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Isaiah De Los Santos is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Isaiah De Los Santos also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username zayyy05328. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.

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