Several national NFL reporters went on the record over the weekend with "breaking news" that the Steelers were elevating quarterbacks coach Matt Canada to replace Randy Fichtner as offensive coordinator.
As of yet, there hasn't been announcement from the Steelers. When the Steelers chose not to retain Todd Haley as offensive coordinator in 2018, they announced the elevation of Fichtner the next day.
It will be a week Thursday since the team announced Fichtner would not be retained.
Why?
Because it is nowhere near official yet.
Turns out, according to sources, Canada is a candidate to replace Fichtner, the team's offensive coordinator, who himself had been elevated from the quarterbacks coach job. No hire has yet been made.
Turns out, the Steelers do plan to do their due diligence in replacing Fichtner, something a number of fans and local media were criticizing them for not doing when the reports surfaced over the weekend.
None of this means that Canada won't get the job. In fact, if Ben Roethlisberger is returning in 2021, it would make the most sense to elevate him. Even though he's only been with the team for one season, Canada knows the offensive verbiage the team uses and could adjust his play calling and tweaks to the offense off of that.
A new coordinator from outside the organization would be tasked with either learning the Steelers' system or installing one of his own that everyone else on the team would have to learn. While that can certainly be done, it often comes with some growing pains.
Remember, back in 2012, when the Steelers replaced Bruce Arians with Haley, they allowed Haley to bring his own system of play calls and verbiage.
"It gets frustrating at times. But we’ll keep learning,” Roethlisberger said on the first day of OTAs that year.
That continued into training camp, with Roethlisberger telling reporters early in training camp that both he and veteran tight end Heath Miller thought they were both doing the right thing during a walk-through session, only to find out they were both wrong.
"We're still getting there," Roethlisberger said. "But that's what walk-throughs are for, to learn and refresh our memory before we go out to practice."
That's one of the things the Steelers are currently weighing. Do they want to go in a completely different direction offensively or are they comfortable enough with the offensive scheme that they have in place to simply tweak it?
And that could help decide in which direction they go with an offensive coordinator.
In 2011, going into 2012, they decided a complete overhaul was needed. But their 2011 offense, despite averaging 372 yards per game, which was 12th in the league, was 22nd in scoring, averaging 20.2 points per game.
The offense actually took a step backwards in 2012, falling to 21st in yards per game (332.8), while staying at 22nd in scoring despite bumping its average points per game up to 21.0.
In 2013, that scoring average improved to 23.7 points per game.
So the question Mike Tomlin must ask and continue to ask is do the Steelers want to go through that now or can Canada bring enough new ideas to the table to help improve the Steelers' 32nd-ranked rushing offense if paired with the right offensive line coach?
And apparently, he hasn't come to a conclusion on that front as of yet. In the coming days, he certainly will. At some point, he'll make a determination.
So, how does this information get leaked out incorrectly?
Perhaps the Steelers are leaning in that direction. Perhaps Tomlin told Canada that and he informed his agent and the agent leaked that information out to the national media. That's how that stuff works.
It's much the same way Canada's name surfaced as a candidate to be the offensive coordinator of the Dolphins, even though Miami has yet to seek permission from the Steelers to interview him.
It could be that information was floated to the media in an attempt to push the Steelers toward elevating Canada. After all, the information that the Dolphins were interested in Canada came out the same day Fichtner was let go.
Dolphins are believed to be taking a hard look at Steelers QBs coach Matt Canada for OC. Canada consulted with Miami last year, acquitted himself well in Pittsburgh.
— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) January 14, 2021
If that's the case, Canada and his agent are playing a very interesting game of poker.
Or perhaps this stuff is all true. Maybe it all depends on what Roethlisberger intends to do, and that is why the Steelers are waiting to make a hiring official.
No matter what, it's made for an interesting situation.