Kenny Pickett putting "everything" on the table for the Steelers to scrutinize during the bye week is a justified claim, but only so much can be looked at and changed to yield tangible, meaningful and impactful answers.
After considering the valuable input from Pickett and the coaching staff, the ultimate responsibility for implementing the required schematic changes to elevate the NFL's 30th-ranked offense rests with Matt Canada. This improvement can from many different routes. Plays can be added, they can be cut altogether or they can be reworked in order to put different players in different positions to result in a higher success rate.
Predictably, Canada remains the Steelers' offensive coordinator into this Week 6 bye. He will still be the offensive coordinator in Week 7 when the Steelers head west to face the Rams. He will, in all likelihood, be the offensive coordinator through Week 18 and a potential postseason spot.
This offense is set to sink or swim with Canada captaining the ship. Can he steer it back on course?
"We're always going to look at things we've not done well enough and figure out if it's schematically down, if we're asking players to do things they can, if it's more detail with the players," Canada said Wednesday at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. "I think (putting) everything on the table is what you do with the bye week, good or bad. No big change there with that."
Only so much can be tweaked from Canada's playbook, but it should be blatantly obvious to anybody watching that more than just "so much" needs to be changed. The Steelers have produced five touchdowns in five games with zero coming from the supposed "identity" of the offense: The running game, which has net only 80.4 yards per game. That ranks 30th in the NFL.
There were hardly any -- if any -- pros to outweigh the cons on a consistent basis to start the season. That should put everything on the table for Canada, Pickett and the rest of the staff to change.
"I think you expand what you think you're doing well, what you can do better," Canada said. "Are there things that we worked on in (training) camp that we haven't gotten to for whatever reason? Are there things we're doing that we thought we'd be better at than we are? Not just in the running game ... but it's everything. We've got to be getting better at everything. We're not producing enough points and we know that. We're excited about some of the guys we have coming back. I think that's a positive. Getting (Diontae Johnson) back, couple guys up front hopefully. Nothing's guaranteed yet, but obviously we're just trying to get ourself back to that point. Looking at everything. Simplifying in some areas, and obviously maybe expanding on some other things."
Getting Johnson back from his hamstring injury is not the cure-all for this offense, but his presence, along with the impending return of Pat Freiermuth, are going to help open things up for this offense.
Johnson said he will be ready to play in Los Angeles in Week 7. Freiermuth could miss time beyond that with his hamstring injury, though he has not landed on injured reserve as a result.
"You've got to cover Diontae too, right?" Canada said. "I think George is getting double coverage and some of those things, so I think that's -- getting Diontae back helps those guys, getting Pat back helps everybody. You've got two big weapons for our offense that we're excited to hopefully have back, and that's a big thing for us."
What did Canada view as positives to the offense to start the season?
"I like how hard they played on Sunday," Canada said. "I thought they played really hard and that's a really -- you guys know the rivalry and what a good team we just played and what a good defense we played. Those games -- I'm not sure how many times those games turn out quite as perfect or pretty like everyone might want. That's what the Ravens games are. Really proud of how they finished there. We're not exactly where we want to be, certainly at this point. We're 3-2, wish we were 5-0 or 4-1, but we're not. Obviously to win the two games we did in our division are big, and we'll just keep working and getting ourselves better."
And, Canada took a broad-stroke approach to answering what needs to improve.
"Everything," he said. "Everything. We've got to get better at staying on the field. First and second down needs to be better so third down is not as imperative. We've had too many third downs. Obviously it's a multitude of things we need to be better at."
