Stats show Matt Canada's approach and Ben Roethlisberger's preferences even further apart than Steelers may have thought - TribLIVE

For those of us in the media suggesting Matt Canada’s offense will be a big change for Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, we were wrong.

It’s actually going to be gigantic.

Well, it will be if Canada decides to incorporate many of his tendencies and preferences from his college coaching days now that he’ll be calling the plays at Heinz Field.

If Canada just decides to simply form-fit an offense to what Roethlisberger wants, then forget you ever clicked on this link.

To contextualize the difference between how the offense operated under former coordinator Randy Fichtner and how it may pan out under Canada, check out these numbers Pro Football Focus posted Monday.

The stats-based football website published a list of offensive efficiency rankings. For the record, they had the Steelers dead last in running and 17th in passing.

Neither of those two results is surprising, but what stands out was the explanation of how vast the change might be in offensive approach once Canada starts calling the plays.

Especially if Canada’s college track record of using lots of pre-snap motion and under-center alignments carries over to his new pro duties.

According to PFF writer Seth Galina, last year “the Steelers played in shotgun at the fourth-highest rate in the league. Canada’s last college offense, the 2018 Maryland Terrapins, did it at the 117th-ranked rate in the country.

The Steelers used pre-snap motion at the 23rd-highest rate in the league, while the Terrapins used it at the second-highest rate in college football.

Roethlisberger wanted to sit in shotgun, catch the snap, stand there and get rid of the ball as fast as possible. That’s never been Canada’s style of play, but Roethlisberger is the veteran, so he may have enough influence to sway the Canada offense in a different direction. There might not be a more dissimilar quarterback-offensive coordinator pairing in NFL history.”

Everyone who has followed the Steelers over the past few years and knows anything about Canada’s resume has theorized that he and Roethlisberger will have to make significant adjustments to click with one another philosophically.

Those numbers infer that the two sides may have even further to go to meet in the middle than anticipated. That said, Canada makes it sound like he’s willing to make most of the concessions in terms of his approach for the sake of Roethlisberger’s comfort level.

“We’re gonna do what Ben wants to do and how Ben wants to do it,” Canada said Tuesday. “Our job is getting every player in position to make plays. There are changes with terminology. That’s an adjustment for Ben. He’s been great in learning it. Doing really well with it. He has adapted easily as we all knew we would.”

Canada insists that forcing too many unfamiliar elements on Roethlisberger would be counterproductive.

“Matchups are how you win football games,” Canada continued. “It starts with the quarterback. What does he do well? What does he like? What does he see? What is good to his eye in the passing game? Then we build off of that. That’s what we are gonna do. His voice. His vision. What he sees will be what we’ll do.”

As for Roethlisberger, he’s trying to tamp down any discussion that a shift in philosophy is going to be all that seismic in the first place.

“We have gone under center,” Roethlisberger said during organized team activities on June 1. “We have shotgun. He has more motion. But I feel like that is where the NFL is going right now, a lot of the jet sweep motions and stuff. I can go under center. I never said I didn’t like it. We will be in the gun, we will move. We will throw a lot of different looks and schemes and things at people and see what works.”

At the same time, though, Roethlisberger admits that some adjustments will be tough.

“It’s definitely harder,” Roethlisberger said. “When you’ve had the same offense or similar offense for 17 years and then all the sudden something looks the exact same but is called something completely different, it is very difficult, and it is a big challenge. But that’s the game of football, learning new things and new challenges.”

For Roethlisberger, it’s more than being comfortable with concepts and the verbiage. It’s polishing up the footwork aspects of working from under center more often at game speed, the ball-handling involved in Canada’s offense and working with a new center now that Maurkice Pouncey is gone.

That’s where new quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan comes into the mix.

“He’s putting in the time. He can certainly do those things,” Sullivan said. “If that’s gonna help us be more effective offensively—help the run game, help the play-action passes—that’s ultimately what’s going to help us win.”

Whatever tune-ups Roethlisberger needs on those fundamentals isn’t worrisome to Canada.

“Ben can do everything really well. I don’t have any concern about Ben doing anything we want to do,” Canada insisted.

So for those worried about Roethlisberger being an old dog who doesn’t want to learn any new tricks, Tuesday’s tone from Canada and Sullivan implies that won’t be an issue.

For those who think that a lot of what we saw last year with Roethlisberger calling all the shots strictly suited to his comfort level will happen again in 2021…let’s see what Big Ben’s “vision” is really like in his advancing years.

After the way the last six weeks of 2020 went, I hope he got a new pair of bifocals.

Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via Twitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.

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