Greetings from the sports desk located somewhere below decks of the Good Pirate Ship RedState. Sammy the Shark and Karl the Kraken are too busy sulking after the November 20 losses by San Jose to Vancouver and Seattle to Calgary to write anything, so while they’re preoccupied muttering things about Canada unacceptable for publication, I’ll handle the reporting.

The Pittsburgh Steelers have done something the franchise has not done in 82 years. Namely, make a head coach or coordinator change mid-season. While head coach Mike Tomlin remains in charge, offensive coordinator Matt Canada's employment ended on November 21. The team’s statement couldn’t be more terse if it tried:

Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin released the following statement on Tuesday morning:

Matt Canada has been relieved of his duties as offensive coordinator. I appreciate Matt's hard work and dedication, and I wish him the best moving forward in his career.

According to NFL Network, for the remainder of the season, Pittsburgh will employ a shared role philosophy for the freshly vacated position. Steelers quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan will do the play-calling while running backs coach Eddie Faulkner will take over as offensive coordinator.

At 6-4, in the AFC North, Pittsburgh trails Baltimore by one and a half games and Cleveland, who the Steelers lost to 13-10 on November 19 despite the Browns having to use little-known and even less-heralded Dorian Thompson-Robinson at quarterback due to Deshaun Watson’s season-ending injury, by one game. In the dreaded “if the season ended today” scenario, Pittsburgh would be in the playoffs, but barely. 

Looking ahead, the prospect of a division title in Steel City this season seems dim. One would think that Cleveland will likely fade throughout the rest of the regular season without Watson, but the Browns’ defense is stout and may well keep them competitive. The Ravens seem unlikely to implode barring significant injury, which is a fancy way of saying barring Lamar Jackson getting racked up like he seems to do every year, so it would behoove the Steelers to spruce up their offense if they are serious about securing a wild-card spot. Pittsburgh does enjoy a favorable schedule for the next three weeks, with next Sunday being at the Joe Burrow-less Bengals, followed by home games against the lowly Cardinals and Patriots. So we shall see.

Elsewhere in the NFL, Tom Brady? Not a fan.

"I think there's a lot of mediocrity in today's NFL. I don't see the excellence that I saw in the past," Brady said during an appearance Monday on "The Stephen A. Smith Show."

Brady, who retired earlier this year after a record-setting 23-year career, cited numerous reasons for his evaluation of the game, including coaching and player development.

"I think the coaching isn't as good as it was," Brady said. "I don't think the development of young players is as good as it was. I don't think the schemes are as good as they were.

"The rules have allowed a lot of bad habits to get into the actual performance of the game. So I just think the product in my opinion is less than what it's been."

Perhaps surprisingly, Brady lays as much blame for this situation on the rules restricting acceptable defensive play as offensive ineptitude.

"I look at a lot of players like Ray Lewis and Rodney Harrison and Ronnie Lott and guys that impacted the game in a certain way — and every hit they would have made would have been a penalty [today]," Brady said. "You hear coaches complaining about their own player being tackled and not necessarily — why don't they talk to their player about how to protect himself? ... We used to work on the fundamentals of those things all the time. Now they're trying to be regulated all the time.

"Offensive players need to protect themselves. It's not up to a defensive player to protect an offensive player. A defensive player needs to protect himself. ... I think a lot of the way that the rules have come into play have allowed this — you can essentially play carefree and then if anyone hits you hard, there's a penalty."

When the GOAT speaks up, people should listen, especially since Brady is anything but a bitter old man railing against the kids as compared to how it was when he played decades ago. An example bearing out his observations is the November 20 rematch of Super Bowl LVII, in which the Philadelphia Eagles exacted revenge by defeating the Kansas City Chiefs 21-17. Granted, it was raining throughout the game, thus turning this clash of the titans (no, not Tennessee) into a splash of the tiptoers through the puddles. However, the field held up well, and both quarterbacks threw reasonably well. It was a disappointing game quality-wise, primarily because the Chiefs’ receiving corps couldn’t make a catch to save their lives. When you have an offense led by Patrick Mahomes, and you have scored a total of one second-half touchdown in four straight games with none in the past three, that’s bad football.