Kenny Pickett talks Steelers OC change – ‘A challenge for everyone’

However, he woke up Tuesday morning to his phone ringing non-stop and saw the news that coach Mike Tomlin had fired offensive coordinator Matt Canada.

“I was not aware of any moves that would be made,” Pickett said Wednesday. “…You hate to see that. You don’t want to see one of your coaches lose their job. We all have to be better. The so-called coach.” [Canada]He wished him luck. We had a great conversation, but you have to come back quickly and be ready to go.”

Pickett said Canada’s ejection feels like a challenge of sorts for the offense to step up in the final seven games of the season.

“It’s a challenge for everyone,” Pickett said. “I feel like you have to take it personally. He’s a guy I’ve worked with since I got drafted here. You want to play great, and you don’t want to see anyone left like that. So we definitely have to do that.” Answer the bell, figure out what we need to do to play better, and then go take care of things.”

Center Mason Cole echoed Beckett’s sentiments.

“Losing his job and getting fired is on all of us,” Cole said. “It’s the responsibility of all the coaches and all the players. We weren’t good enough for him to keep his job, and that’s not just him, it’s all of us. But we have to deal with it as it is. We are playing well.” “The divisional game is here in five days, so the train will keep moving. I’m looking forward to getting into a fight with these guys and putting this behind us and looking forward and having fun.”

Although there has been a change in who makes the calls, Pickett doesn’t expect a dramatic shift in the offense with quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan on the headset Sunday. Running backs coach Eddie Faulkner will handle various weekly offensive coordinator duties.

“You can’t make wholesale changes at this stage of the season,” Beckett said. “We’re going to run the system that we’ve been using, and Coach Sully, Coach Faulk, they’re going to put the wrinkles on it, on what they want to run it and when they want to run it.”

Pickett admitted he was frustrated with his play this season as well, with a QBR of 35.7 and just six assists.

“I’m a perfectionist,” he said. “I’ve always been that way. I’m always a little bit harder on myself and how I need to play and the level I hold myself to. But there’s a balance to it. I want to go out there and have fun and play and do what I want.” “I’ve done it my whole life. So this is what I want to get back to and enjoy the people I do it with and I have great friends on this team. So I just want to get back to playing football.”

Despite Pickett’s frustration with his performance, wide receiver Allen Robinson II and tight end Pat Freiermuth expressed confidence in the young quarterback.

“Confidence is high,” Robinson said. “At the end of the day, the weakness and the things that we encountered on offense are not down to one person or one individual or anything like that. Rather, we as a group again, are able to figure out the things that we need to get better at, how we can get better at those.” things, and then go out and get better at those things.

“I think we have the right group to be able to do that, to push this in the right direction. We have a tremendous amount of talent, and I think we saw everyone in the plays capable of that. Made all areas at every position group.”

Wide receiver Diontae Johnson said he hopes the moves this week will jumpstart the offense, starting with this weekend’s game at the Cincinnati Bengals.

“We harp on that every day trying to figure out what’s holding us back or whatever, but it’s not a mystery,” Johnson said. “I always say just go out there and practice and make the plays look good. It doesn’t matter what type of play it is or who calls the plays or who throws the ball. Everyone has to work as a team and that’s all that matters.”

Cole also believes Canada’s ouster gives the locker room a chance to come together and fight through adversity as a group.

“I think this group will smile at this,” Cole said. “I think that’s exciting. It’s going to be exciting to watch and not care about anything anyone else says and just go out there and play.”

“I don’t think there was a whole bunch of divisions,” Cole added [in the locker room], but having been through this before in a different sense, but I think it brings guys together a little bit. Just kind of us against the world.”