Arthur Moats Is Scared That Steelers' Matt Canada Will Lay A Dud During Preseason And "Hurt His confidence"

The Pittsburgh Steelers chose last season to retain one of the most unpopular offensive coordinators we can recall, Matt Canada. The OC is almost always the most hated person on a football team when points aren't being scored. They get blamed for nearly everything and take almost no credit when things go well. After fans ran former coordinator Randy Fichtner out on the rails, they had high hopes for Canada and the unique offense they were promised, but ended up feeling let down.

It is hard to dispute that Canada has been handed some difficult situations since taking over. After spending the majority of his career as a college coordinator/coach, he joined the Steelers in 2020 as the quarterbacks coach. Many were surprised he moved up to coordinator after only one year. He spent his first year coordinating the last year of future Hall of Famer Ben Roethlisberger's career. While the Steelers are notoriously hush-hush about any conflict, there were reports that Roethlisberger ran the offense how he wanted, the old "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" routine. 

Then after Roethlisberger retired, the Steelers acquired Mitch Trubisky during free agency and Kenny Pickett via the 2022 NFL Draft. The original plan was for Pickett to learn behind Trubisky, but four weeks into the season, Trubisky was benched in favor of the rookie. This meant Canada had to plan for two different quarterbacks at different stages of their careers and run the offense in different ways.  

Amazingly enough Canada and the young offense bounced back at the end of the 2022 season, ending on a high note, winning seven of the last nine games. While some will say it was in spite of Canada, that is not necessarily fair or accurate. His play-calling may not have gotten to where fans wanted it to, but according to some, that was by design, trying to protect a young Pickett. 

Now with the 2023 season just starting, all eyes are on Latrobe, PA, and St. Vincent College where training camp takes place. The Steelers play their first preseason game on Friday, August 11th against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Tampa. Generally, during the first preseason game, teams do not play most of their starters. The veterans like Cam Heyward and T.J. Watt do not need those reps, but the rookies do. 

These games are a chance for the young guys to shine and for players who are on the bubble to work on earning a spot on the roster. This has folks talking about who it is they are excited to see and how they think that person will perform. Sometimes there is the worry that performance during a preseason game will hurt a player if they do not do well. Two former Steelers linebackers are worried that Canada might fall into that camp. Many eyes are on him to see what will be different this season, but this might be premature and unfair.

Arthur Moats And Terence Garvin Hope Matt Canada Doesn't Shoot Himself In The Foot In Tampa

Former Steelers linebacker Arthur Moats hosts a podcast called The Arthur Moats Experience. He frequently has his former locker mate Terence Garvin on the show to talk all things black and gold. On a recent episode, they discussed the upcoming game in Tampa and who they are looking forward to seeing. 

Moats says that it makes him wonder what Canada will do. Which playbook will he show to fans? Will he show us the same plays as last season or will he use the new, inventive plays we've caught glimpses of in camp?

"I feel like the OG playbook is gonna hurt his overall approval rating," said Moats. "We love the approval rating in training camp because we can see it. I see shifts, motion, align empty, change the strip. If you're playing this Matt Canada offense right now, you'd be releasing and shifting every single call." 

Both Moats and Garvin agreed that what they have seen in camp this year is very different than what was shown last year. When it comes to preseason teams want to be careful not to disclose too much of what they are doing. The games don't count towards the overall record so it is not worth it to tip their hand. 

In addition, according to Moats, Canada is the one that has everything to lose in this situation. Fans everywhere were hard on him despite the improvements that were shown. Does it raise his stock to show improved play-calling during preseason? Moats said it could work against him and he doesn't want to see that. 

"I feel like he got his arrows pointed up. If he goes out there and lays a dud, I feel like they're gonna be looking at him sideways. I don't want it to hurt his confidence, is what I'm saying. I'm nervous."

Garvin agreed with Moats, saying that he also likes all the reloads, shifts, motions, etc, all the new looks we've seen at camp. He added that from his perspective, it is sending a message to other teams and those that are watching that we are doing something different. 

What are you expecting to see from Canada this preseason? Do you think the play-calling will be mostly like last season, or do you expect to see some new plays being called? Click to comment below!

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