As Steelers fans wait on pins and needles for news on whether or not Matt Canada will return as the offensive coordinator, it feels like an appropriate time to take a deep dive into a controversial part of his playbook.
It doesn't take much scouring through social media or the comment sections online to find fans complaining about Canada's use of jet sweeps. If anything, they've become a go-to punchline for jokes about the second-year coordinator.
The only way to know how successful or disastrous they were is to go back and look through all of the film from the season. That's exactly what I did.
Now, I counted up all of the jet sweeps. This does not include reverses or end-around runs. Those are different enough run designs that use some form of misdirection. This only includes pre-snap motion that led to a handoff or handing it to a player coming immediately across the line off the edge.
On the whole, the Steelers ran 37 jet sweeps this season for a total of 222 yards. That's exactly 6.0 yards per carry. And, out of the 17-game schedule, the 38-3 beating at Buffalo was the only game where the Steelers did not run a jet sweep.
Of the 37 jet sweeps, 15 of them picked up first downs and only one resulted in a touchdown. 13 of the 37 were ran on first down, 17 on second down and the remaining seven on third down.
In terms of trends, those 17 jet sweeps on second down were run at an average distance of eight yards needed for a first down. Remarkably, 10 of those 17 rushes moved the chains. On the third down carries, the Steelers needed one yard for a first down five of the seven times and needed two yards one other time. The outlier was a random jet sweep to Chase Claypool on third and 12 in the season opener at Cincinnati.
Bringing players into it, seven different players recorded at least one jet sweep:
• Chase Claypool: seven carries, 43 yards
• Gunner Olszewski: eight carries, 39 yards
• Diontae Johnson: six carries, 17 yards
• Steven Sims: 11 carries, 57 yards
• George Pickens: one carry for a 1-yard touchdown
• Connor Heyward: two carries, 27 yards
• Jaylen Warren: two carries, 38 yards
Sims not only led the way in the number of jet sweeps and yards gained, but also picked up five first downs. Both Heyward and Warren batted 1.000 in picking up first downs. Five of Claypool's seven jet sweeps came in Week 1 at Cincinnati.
Pickens' lone carry also resulted in the only touchdown produced on a jet sweep, and it required some improve by the rookie receiver:
It was no secret that pre-snap motion and jet sweeps were going to be part of Canada's unhinged offense. However, there was quite a lull during the early-to-mid portion of the season. After opening with five jet sweeps in the season opener, the Steelers only ran four over the next four weeks. It wasn't until Week 6 against Tampa Bay where it became a real part of the game plan again, running four of them for only 11 yards.
Even so, the opponent still had to prepare enough for jet sweeps that it gave Canada an opportunity to trick the defense. Perhaps his most genius moment came at Philadelphia where Claypool took the handoff on a jet sweep, but wound up throwing the ball to Derek Watt for a touchdown early in the game:
But, at the same time, that lent itself to the opponent being able to snuff out when a jet sweep might be coming, especially when it's a familiar opponent. It's no accident that the only game where the Steelers finished with negative yards from jet sweeps came in the rematch with the Bengals in Week 11:
After the bye, the Steelers not only learned to become a little more selective of when to use jet sweeps but who should carry the bulk of them. They also executed much better in run blocking, which obviously made it easier to run the ball in any form.
But as Mike Tomlin said about Canada in his end of season press conference, "I thought he got better, just like our team got better." The prudent use of jet sweeps was part of that improvement.
Over the final four games of the season, the Steelers ran 11 jet sweeps for 112 yards. Another time Canada deserved credit for dialing up a jet sweep came in the final minute of the Week 16 win over the Raiders. It was the only jet sweep of the game, but the decision to give it to Heyward when the defense was expecting another run up the middle was a stroke of genius.
Another nice wrinkle in this area of the Steelers' offense came the following week at Baltimore. To this point, only receivers or Heyward had ran a jet sweep. But, this is when Canada decided to include Warren in the fun. The two jet sweeps were his only ones of the season, but they produced 38 yards and two first downs, including this 31-yard scamper on the opening drive of the game:
I asked Canada the following week why Warren wasn't included more often in running jet sweeps.
"I wish we could have everything. I wish everything was ready to go back in September, the entire offense, with all these rookies that we’re playing and young guys," Canada said. "I wish it all would have just been that that way. I know you all would have liked that better, and we would have too, but some things evolve over time. And with guys learning, you don't want to give somebody too much. ... But I think as we continue to evolve, and those guys get more comfortable, then there's more and more you can do, which ultimately, we hope makes us harder and harder to defend."
Now, this isn't an endorsement for Canada to keep his job as offensive coordinator. On the whole, 37 jet sweeps account for only 3.3% of the 1,109 plays the offense ran in the 2022 season. His job performance will be graded on much more than that.
But, that small part of Canada's offense wasn't nearly as dreadful as some make it out to be. The numbers back it up.
