Steelers New OC Sends Message to Fans, Team
PITTSBURGH -- Pittsburgh Steelers' new offensive coordinator, Eddie Faulkner, spoke with the media for the first time since being named the interim OC after Matt Canada was relieved of his duties.
In his first press conference, Faulkner spoke about his attention to detail, working with Mike Sullivan, who will operate as the play-caller on game days, and what he believes could change the Steelers offense for the better.
But he started with a message to those watching.
"Number one, I'm super excited about the opportunity. I'm thankful to coach [Mike] Tomlin, the Rooney family, Omar [Khan], anybody involved in this decision to give me an opportunity. Super excited about it," Faulkner said.
"Second thing, Matt Canada is a friend of mine," he continued. "Like, we're friends. I care about his well-being. I care about his family. Our wives are friends. Our parents are friends. Our kids are friends. We spend a lot of time together. Love the dude. I couldn't say enough good about Matt Canada. And so it's a little bit bittersweet in that way. Because when you sit back, and you see all that goes on, and all this being said about him and the offense, we all, and I'm speaking for the offense when I say this, that we all felt that. We're all part of that. And so nobody's absolving themselves from anything that's happened in that regard. We feel like we let him down. And so I got to say that because that's what a real one would do. You know, I mean, and that's a friend of mine, and that's not going to change, so I gotta get that off."
Faulkner described the opportunity as "awesome" but emphasized that despite it being another step in the right direction of his coaching career, he immediately turned his attention toward the Cincinnati Bengals and preparing the Steelers for Week 12.
"The way this all happened, there's no time to get caught up in any of that," Faulkner said. "We gotta play the Bengals in a couple days. And that was it. That was my sole focus. There was really no 'oh, this could segway into this.' This was all about getting ready for the Bengals, and that's been my only focus, I promise you."
Faulkner also had to send a message to the Steelers. After the news broke and he was named the new offensive coordinator, he was able to speak to the offense. During that meeting, he emphasized the importance of figuring out the plan as a unit and "tweaking it" until it works - the philosophy he'll bring with him into his new role these last seven weeks.
"I feel like if you get around a bunch of different, good, capable men, you empower them to do their job. And we got a bunch of really good coaches. All across the board, we got guys in our auxiliary staff and offense who have been coordinators for a long time. Why wouldn't you use all of those resources," Faulkner said. "So, that's what I'm doing. So I told the guys, that's what we're gonna do. And I talked to them about communicating with each other. It all comes back down to communicating. How can we funnel our energy to communicate with each other to produce a better product? That's it. And that's where my main focus is gonna be to make sure we're in lockstep, and guys are coordinated that way."
The Steelers offense has scored the second-least amount of touchdowns in the NFL this season. With Faulkner at the helm, they'll look to find the improvements they are searching for in the change.
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