It might seem like the Pittsburgh Steelers waited too long to fire Matt Canada but once you dig into the schedule, this might have been calculated and planned. And it might be perfect. Pittsburgh is sitting at 6-4 and is the No. 7 seed in the AFC.
This puts a ton of pressure on the Steelers to win as many of these final seven games as possible. Fortunately for Pittsburgh, the next five games are very winnable and are ideal for a team in transition.
The Steelers face the Cincinnati Bengals this week on the road and quarterback Joe Burrow is out. Pittsburgh also faces those same Bengals in Pittsburgh as the end of this five-game stretch.
In between the Steelers get the Arizona Cardinals, New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts. All teams that are in disarray with their own problems. Going 3-2 or better 4-1 in this stretch would be huge for the Steelers and would mean the move to fire Canada worked.