Art Rooney II Leaves Door Open to Steelers Adding Senior Offensive Assistant

Matt Canada is staying on as offensive coordinator for the 2023 season, that much is assured, but Pittsburgh Steelers president Art Rooney II didn’t rule out other changes to the team’s offensive coaching staff.

In speaking with a select group of Pittsburgh media on Thursday, Rooney said that it was still early in the offseason process of seeing which coaches would be available.

Over the last two seasons, the Steelers brought in Teryl Austin and Brian Flores as a former coordinator and head coach as senior defensive assistant to help the defense. Such a move on the offensive side could help that unit develop a more dynamic passing game under Canada, something that Rooney said the team needs going forward.

But with four head coaching vacancies and a number of coordinator positions still open, it’s hard to know who might be available for such a role at this time.

“I wouldn’t take anything off the table,” Rooney said. “We’re at that time of year where Mike’s evaluating coaches, we have coaches that are interviewing at other places. So, the coaching staff, there could still be changes to it. But I don’t really want to speculate on kind of where we might go.”

Former Steelers quarterback Byron Leftwich, recently fired as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator, could be one such option. Another, former Indianapolis Colts head coach Frank Reich would have been, until he was hired as the Carolina Panthers head coach on Thursday.

Last year, when the Steelers hired Flores, it happened in late March, just before the draft. So there’s probably not a big rush on adding additional coaches to the staff at this point.

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