Steelers coaching hires point to more of the status quo on offense

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Just after the Pittsburgh Steelers season came to an abrupt and disappointing halt in the first round of the playoffs, head coach Mike Tomlin spoke about changes. This was a team with tremendous expectations after starting the season 11-0 only to watch it all fall apart.

What do “changes” look like for Tomlin and the Steelers after that epic collapse? It means the two most important coaching hires of the offseason on the offensive side of the football ended up being in-house promotions and no one new.

In place of former offensive lineman Randy Fichtner, Pittsburgh promoted Matt Canada who was the quarterbacks coach. After not bringing back offensive line coach Sean Sarrett, Pittsburgh simply promoted his assistant Adrian Klemm to the job.

At first glance, these two hires don’t exactly scream change. The Steelers spent a month looking at outside replacements for both positions for turning inward to in-house hires. Both hires feel like the front office either couldn’t pull the trigger on an outside candidate or couldn’t entice one to come on board.

I sincerely hope I am wrong and these aren’t the hires we are talking about this time next year when the Steelers offense struggles again.