Coaching Matters: 2022 Pittsburgh Steelers Coaching Staff Preview

July 2, 2022

Eli Grabanski previews the 2022 Pittsburgh Steelers' coaching staff in search of buy-lows, fantasy football sleepers, and risers based on play-calling and historical data.

After every NFL season, NFL teams take the time to evaluate not only the players but also the coaching staff and front office as well. While many teams choose to retain the same head coach, offensive coordinator, and defensive coordinator, a few other teams opt to go in a new direction with their coaching staff.

The Pittsburgh Steelers saw former defensive coordinator Keith Butler retire this offseason, but otherwise, they will be bringing back many of the key coaching staff members from 2021. Mike Tomlin will return as the Steelers' head coach and Matt Canada will be back as the team's offensive coordinator. Teryl Austin is the only new coordinator, being promoted from senior defensive assistant to defensive coordinator.

This article will look at the potential impact this coaching staff will have on the players and try to pinpoint the Steelers players' fantasy values in it.

The Baseline

To get a better understanding of the value the Steelers coaches help bring to this team, we can look at the NFL league averages in each of the past two years in a variety of statistical categories and then compare them to the averages achieved by the Steelers' coaches. Here are 'The Baseline' NFL league averages over the past couple of years:

QB Impact

RB Impact

WR Impact

TE Impact

Defense Impact

Previous Coaching Staff

To get an understanding of how the Steelers' fantasy players may be impacted this year, we also need to take a look at how former Steelers defensive coordinator Keith Butler's defenses performed during his time with the team. By doing this, we will have a better understanding of where the new coaches are starting from and where the primary changes will occur.

Former Defensive Coordinator: Keith Butler

2022 Offense

2022 Offensive Coordinator: Matt Canada

Matt Canada had been a long-time offensive coordinator at the college football level, but 2021 was his first opportunity to take on the role at the professional level. The team had its ups and downs offensively through Ben Roethlisberger's retirement tour and ultimately ended up as just the 21st-best scoring attack in the league. With quarterbacks on the roster who are better suited for the offense that Matt Canada had success with at the college level, 2022 should give us a better indication of what this offense will look like going forward under Canada.

Note: If you are also interested in seeing Canada's college career data, it is all provided in last year's 'Coaching Matters' team preview of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

QB Impact

RB Impact

WR Impact

TE Impact

Matt Canada Takeaways & Expectations

In Matt Canada's 175-game college career as an offensive coordinator, his offense averaged 29.74 pass attempts per game, but it was a different story in his first year as an NFL offensive coordinator as the Pittsburgh Steelers averaged 39.06 passing attempts per game. With longtime Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger retired and replaced by former 2nd overall pick Mitchell Trubisky and 2022 1st round pick Kenny Pickett, it's a safe assumption that Canada will dial back the passing attempts slightly and begin to morph the offense into a more balanced attack he ran at the college level.

Besides the passing numbers, for fantasy football purposes it's also important to look at some of the rushing numbers of Canada's quarterbacks during his time as an offensive coordinator. In his 175-game career as a college offensive coordinator, Canada's quarterback room averaged 9.09 rushing attempts per game. Last year with an older immobile Ben Roethlisberger running the offense, his quarterback room averaged just 1.47 carries per game.

Now that the Steelers have a pair of new quarterbacks, we can expect a little more rushing usage (about three to five carries per game) from the quarterback position – whether it's Trubisky or Pickett starting. Because of the uncertainty over who will be the Steelers starting quarterback and the likelihood the team scales back their number of passing attempts this year, it doesn't make sense to draft Mitchell Trubisky or Kenny Pickett outside of the final round of your fantasy draft in most leagues.

Jumping to the running back position, last year the Pittsburgh Steelers' backs averaged 21.06 carries, 78.65 rushing yards, and 0.41 rushing touchdowns per game. This wasn't nearly as much as the averages from the 175 games where Canada was a college offensive coordinator where his running back room averaged 26.62 carries, 135.95 rushing yards, and 1.33 rushing touchdowns per game.

While the college game doesn't translate directly to the pro game, this does show that Canada is willing to give his running backs more work than the 21.02 carries per game they saw a year ago if the right situation arises. There's a good chance we see a slight increase in the amount of work on the ground given to the Steelers' running backs in 2022 given the team's roster moves this offseason.

Besides the number of carries, the distribution of carries is another important factor in determining a player's fantasy ceiling. So in terms of the distribution of carries, how often is Canada going to give the ball to one player versus rolling with a running back by committee approach?

Clearly, Canada decided to utilize more of a bell-cow approach for the 2021 NFL season with Najee Harris. Expect this to continue going forward with Najee Harris in the prime of his career.

The final aspect we should look at concerning Matt Canada's running backs is how much he has traditionally utilized them as pass-catchers. Under Matt Canada last year, the Pittsburgh Steelers running back room averaged 4.65 receptions, 6.24 targets, 29.35 receiving yards, and 0.18 receiving touchdowns. In addition, over the course of his 175-game college coaching career, Canada's running back room averaged 2.66 receptions, 26.22 receiving yards, and 0.19 receiving touchdowns per game.

Regardless of whether it's college or the NFL, this passing game usage seems to be slightly below what we've seen from other offensive play-callers. Overall, with Matt Canada calling the shots Najee Harris should be a reliable RB1 once again for the 2022 season.

Looking at the wide receiver position, Canada saw his wide receiver room combine to average 12.27 receptions, 159.89 receiving yards, and 1.04 receiving touchdowns per game over the course of his 175-game career as a college offensive coordinator. In addition, Canada's wide receiver room averaged 14.71 receptions, 24.65 targets, 161.59 receiving yards, and 0.71 receiving touchdowns for the Steelers last year.

This workload for a wide receiver room was very high last year. It's likely that this usage goes down a bit with Ben Roethlisberger no longer behind center, but as long as Canada is calling the plays Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool, and George Pickens should still be solid fantasy draft selections at their current ADPs.

Finally, Canada's historical usage of tight ends is fairly mediocre. Last year for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Canada's tight ends averaged 5.47 receptions, 7.35 targets, 44.47 receiving yards, and 0.47 receiving touchdowns per game. In addition, over the course of his career as a college offensive coordinator, Canada's tight end room averaged 2.13 receptions, 24.43 receiving yards, and 0.30 receiving touchdowns per game.

From a fantasy football perspective, based on this information it seems more likely that Pat Freiermuth sits in the low-end TE1/high-end TE2 range again this year rather than have a breakout season.

Fantasy Relevant Players: Mitchell Trubisky, Kenny Pickett, Mason Rudolph, Najee Harris, Benny Snell Jr., Anthony McFarland Jr., Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool, George Pickens, Miles Boykin, Anthony Miller, Calvin Austin III, Derek Watt, and Pat Freiermuth

2022 Defense

2022 Head Coach: Mike Tomlin

Mike Tomlin has been one of the best defensive minds in football over the last couple of decades. He served as the Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator in 2006 before being hired as the Pittsburgh Steelers head coach in 2007. In his time as the Steelers' head coach, the team has compiled a 154-85-2 regular-season record and never had a losing record. Given Tomlin's defensive background, let's take a look at the defensive statistics his teams have compiled over the course of his career as a defensive coordinator or head coach.

2021 Defensive Coordinator: Teryl Austin

Keith Butler retired after serving as the team's defensive coordinator from 2015 to 2021, giving Teryl Austin the reins as the team's new defensive coordinator. Below are some statistics from Austin's previous stints as an NFL defensive coordinator with the Detroit Lions (2014-2017) and the Cincinnati Bengals (2018).

Other Notable Assistants

Special Teams Coordinator: Danny Smith - Danny Smith has been the Pittsburgh Steelers' special teams coordinator since 2013. He's also been a special teams coach for the Philadelphia Eagles (1995-1998), Buffalo Bills (2001-2003), and Washington Redskins (2004-2012) as well as tight ends coach for the Detroit Lions (1999-2000).

QB Coach: Mike Sullivan - Mike Sullivan has been with the Pittsburgh Steelers coaching staff since 2021. He has served as a quarterbacks coach for the New York Giants (2010-2011, 2015) and the Denver Broncos (2018) and has also been an offensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2012-2013) and New York Giants (2016-2017).

RB Coach: Eddie Faulkner - Eddie Faulkner has been the Pittsburgh Steelers running backs coach since 2019. The Steelers have been the only NFL team that Faulkner has coached for.

WR Coach: Frisman Jackson - The Pittsburgh Steelers will have a new wide receivers coach in 2022, going from Ike Hilliard (who is now the wide receivers coach at Auburn) to Frisman Jackson. Jackson has served as a wide receivers coach at the college and NFL levels since 2008, most notably spending time as the Tennessee Titans wide receivers coach (2017) and the Carolina Panthers wide receivers coach (2020-2021). He also played wide receiver at the NFL level for the Cleveland Browns from 2002 to 2006.

TE Coach: Alfredo Roberts - Alfred Roberts has been with the Pittsburgh Steelers coaching staff since 2021. He's been a tight ends coach in the NFL for the Jacksonville Jaguars (2003-2006), Cleveland Browns (2007-2008), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2009-2011), Indianapolis Colts (2012-2015), and Los Angeles Chargers (2020). He also played tight end in the NFL for the Kansas City Chiefs (1988-1990) and Dallas Cowboys (1991-1993).

OL Coach: Pat Meyer - The Pittsburgh Steelers will also have a new offensive line coach in 2022, going from Adrian Klemm (who is now the associate head coach & offensive line at the University of Oregon) to Pat Meyer. Meyer has been coaching football since 1997 in a variety of roles. He has previously served as an offensive line coach at the NFL level for the Los Angeles Chargers (2017-2019) and the Carolina Panthers (2020-2021).

DL Coach: Karl Dunbar - Karl Dunbar has been the Steelers' defensive line coach since 2018. He's also been a defensive line coach for the Chicago Bears (2004), Minnesota Vikings (2006-2011), New York Jets (2012-2014), and Buffalo Bills (2015) at the NFL level.

LB Coach: Brian Flores - Brian Flores is new to the Pittsburgh Steelers coaching staff and will serve as the team's senior defensive assistant and linebackers coach in 2022. Flores was the head coach of the Miami Dolphins from 2019 to 2021 compiling a 24-25 record during his tenure. He also worked in a variety of roles for the New England Patriots from 2008 to 2018.

ILB Coach: Jerry Olsavsky - Jerry Olsavsky has been the Pittsburgh Steelers' inside linebackers coach since 2015. He played linebacker in the NFL for the Pittsburgh Steelers (1989-1997) and the Baltimore Ravens (1998).

Secondary Coach: Grady Brown - Grady Brown has been with the Pittsburgh Steelers coaching staff since 2021. He served as the defensive coordinator at McNeese State in 2020.

Enjoy this series? Be sure to check out all of the other 'Coaching Matters' team previews!

AFC North: Cleveland Browns

Follow Eli Grabanski on Twitter: @3li_handles

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