Stepping up to the podium for the first time as the interim offensive coordinator was a bittersweet moment for Eddie Faulkner.
Promoted to that position just two days ago, Faulkner, 46, is getting an opportunity that he has worked hard for over the past two decades he's spent in coaching. But the opportunity came at the expense of a friend and colleague he has known for some time in Matt Canada, whom he also coached with at previous stops in his career.
"I'm thankful to coach (Mike) Tomlin the Rooney family, (GM) Omar (Khan), anybody involved in this decision to give me an opportunity, super excited about it," Faulkner said Thursday at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. "Matt is a friend of mine. 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. I love that dude. I couldn't say enough good about Matt Canada.
"And so it's a little 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 – 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've let him down. And so I gotta say that."
Tomlin relieved Canada, their offensive coordinator since 2021 earlier this week after the Steelers' 13-10 loss last Sunday against the Cleveland Browns dropped the team to 6-4. It marked the fifth time this season the Steelers failed to score at least 20 points as their offense ranks 28th in the NFL in both scoring and total offense.
Correcting that in the final seven games – starting with Sunday's AFC North game at Cincinnati (5-5), now falls on both Faulkner, who takes over the day-to-day duties of Canada, and quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan, who will handle game-day play-calling duties.
It's made for different duties this week for Faulkner and Sullivan, but Faulkner expects a smooth transition.
Faulkner said he and Sullivan will both be on the sideline during games and will be in constant communication with each other between possessions. But the ultimate job of calling the plays and in what sequence they are used will fall on Sullivan.
"When I talked to the guys the other day, one of the first things I said was good teamwork is communication," Faulkner said. "I don't care if you're talking about it within your family, you've got to communicate. So he and I are going to work real hard to be in lockstep with each other. I know on game day, any play caller wants to be able to be narrowly focused on what he needs to do and I'm not going to interfere with that.
"But at the same time, we're gonna have enough conversations and tee ourselves up as well as we can. So when we go into that game atmosphere, we're all on the same page when the chips start to kind of fall out from there."
The foundation of making sure they're on the same page with everything that's called will come through the daily meetings both pre- and post-practice.
That's when most of the conversations will take place. Sullivan will need his space to operate when the offense is on the field. He'll be the voice in the ear of quarterback Kenny Pickett.
"I'll be right there close to solid, you know what I mean?" Faulkner said. "He's going to want to be locked into the game and seeing what he's seeing and dialing the plays up, and I don't want to interfere with that. I know I wouldn't want that to be the case for me. And so we'll be right there next to each other and we'll have conversations in between series to map a plan forward for that next series."
It's going to be a change for both men. It's been a change for the entire offensive staff.
But being able to adapt on the move is often something that's needed for anyone coaching in the NFL.
And Faulkner believes he and the rest of the offensive staff have the tools to make it work.
The Steelers have long asked their position coaches to help with game planning specific to their positions. That's not going to change.
But with Sullivan and Faulkner taking on additional duties, more will be asked of offensive assistants such as Glenn Thomas, David Corley and Isaac Williams to chip in even more so than before.
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"We've got a bunch of really good coaches," Faulkner said. "We got guys kind of in the auxiliary staff on offense, we've been coordinators for a long time. Why would you not use all of those resources? And that's what I'm doing. So I told the guys, that's what we're going to do. And I talked to him about communicating with each other. Like it all comes back down to communicate, how can we funnel our energies 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."
That focus also remains on doing what's necessary to beat the Bengals this week, as well.
"There was really no like, 'Oh, this could segue into this or that,'" Faulkner said. "This was all about getting ready for the Bengals. And that's been my only focus. I promise you."
