Arthur Smith may take the UNC job

[Avoid_Lloyd]

It just makes no sense. Tomlin let Arians do what he wanted. Tomlin let Haley do what he wanted. Fitchner too. But all the sudden he has decided to mirco manage the offense? Do you think, just maybe, the offense we see has more to do with the talent they have had then Tomlin sticking his nose in? Would have you opened it up with Kenny Pickett or Mitch Trubisky? He did a bit with Rudolph last year. Now, if you want to criticize him for picking Pickett, or playing him or Trubisky over Rudolph, ok, fair game. But I think he just did what gave them any chance to win. As for this year, it's a new offense for everyone involved, and it's limited by young players on the OL, lack of a #2, and a running back who just isn't explosive. Again, he deserves criticism perhaps for starting Harris over Warren, or not getting Williams more involved, but I just don't see it as him meddling in the offense.

Tomlin had Ben in his prime then and even he couldn’t have gotten away with going with the plodding sad mess of an offense we see now back then. When Ben got on the backside of his career Tomlin took total control of things

Look at the cap spending now: heavily slanted to the defense that he been above average when it needs to be great : Tomlin owns that too

 

[Black & Gold Bleeder]

 

[MT~Forged]

It just makes no sense. Tomlin let Arians do what he wanted. Tomlin let Haley do what he wanted. Fitchner too. But all the sudden he has decided to mirco manage the offense? Do you think, just maybe, the offense we see has more to do with the talent they have had then Tomlin sticking his nose in? Would have you opened it up with Kenny Pickett or Mitch Trubisky? He did a bit with Rudolph last year. Now, if you want to criticize him for picking Pickett, or playing him or Trubisky over Rudolph, ok, fair game. But I think he just did what gave them any chance to win. As for this year, it's a new offense for everyone involved, and it's limited by young players on the OL, lack of a #2, and a running back who just isn't explosive. Again, he deserves criticism perhaps for starting Harris over Warren, or not getting Williams more involved, but I just don't see it as him meddling in the offense.

First and foremost you have to look at the years of offensive “production” and ask, “what is the common denominator?” The ONLY thing that has been common is Tomlin himself. He is the HC and determines the philosophy of how the team plays, period, end of story. Is he calling the plays during the game? He is not, but he has determined how the offense is configured and what type of offense and game plan they deploy each game. If he says they will not pass over the middle, they won’t. If the plan is to use TE’s almost exclusively as blockers, and decoy routes, guess what they do? The OC’s are tasked with running the desired offense, some have been better, some worse at it.

THE huge outlier in the last 15+ years was Big Ben. He was able to extend plays past the point where they failed, making something out of nothing. You also won’t convince me that he did 50% of what he was told. I do believe that he might have called what they wanted, but he made way too many changes, way too often to believe the plays were run as called. Since Ben, NO ONE has had the juice to do what they want. Most were too young, and the rest were just trying to prolong their collection of paychecks. Ben had way to much clout to try and pull him to modify his at the line changes. Tomlin would have been run out on a rail if he would have tried to force his “authority”.

 

[Hines field]

Also seem to remember towards the end. Our offense struggled mightily with Big Ben. Until we went no huddle at the end of the games and Ben started running the offense and all of a sudden we moved the ball. Removed Tomlin from the play calling equation.

 

[stillwright]

It just makes no sense. Tomlin let Arians do what he wanted. Tomlin let Haley do what he wanted. Fitchner too. But all the sudden he has decided to mirco manage the offense? Do you think, just maybe, the offense we see has more to do with the talent they have had then Tomlin sticking his nose in? Would have you opened it up with Kenny Pickett or Mitch Trubisky? He did a bit with Rudolph last year. Now, if you want to criticize him for picking Pickett, or playing him or Trubisky over Rudolph, ok, fair game. But I think he just did what gave them any chance to win. As for this year, it's a new offense for everyone involved, and it's limited by young players on the OL, lack of a #2, and a running back who just isn't explosive. Again, he deserves criticism perhaps for starting Harris over Warren, or not getting Williams more involved, but I just don't see it as him meddling in the offense.

Ben's last year he was not able to audible.....until the 4th quarter and Ben did what Ben does. Passing game was changed to short conservative plays. Probably because Tomlin wanted to limit TOs because of our "elite" defense he believes we had/have. Offense has the look of being the exact same type of plays now for years. Sure talent might play onto that. Who is bringing in the talent and letting it go though? I truly wonder what the % is for us running on 1st down over the last 4 or 5 years. On 2nd down. We have been bringing the most vanilla offense in football year in and out. Yes. That has Tomlin's fingers ALL over it.

 

[SojournerSteel]

I saw Smtih had a year that they scored touchdowns on 74% of their red zone trips in Tennessee to lead the league.

Smith can do it, but will Tomlin allow him to do it?? This year our number of TDs in red zone trips is 44%…I was surprised it’s even that high

Smith must see the writing on the wall here by now: forever constrained by Tomlin to lead a mediocre offense at best. I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see him bounce to North Carolina.

Arthur has to execute Tomlin's "vision" of offense.

 

[Drink IRON City]

^^^^^^ THIS^^^^^^^


Ben played Ben and was dang good at overcoming Coach Tomlin playing Tomlin.

Those 7 come from behind victories in his last season are definitely a portion of support for the above arguement.


Salute the nation

 

[Lloyd]

I would seriously consider it. You will never convince me that the last number of OC’s have had free reign to implement what they wanted, and they ALL decided to run the exact same system, with virtually the same results.

YEA, THEY ALL INDEPENDANTLY DECIDED TO RUN OFFENSE THE SAME WAY WITH THE SAME RESULTS, MEDIOCER MIKE NOT EVEN A FACTOR.

 

[Black & Gold Bleeder]

 

[bigben]

We were told all offseason Smith is an offensive genius that was better suited to playcalling than being a (failed) head coach.

Smith has an upgraded O-line
QB's are both huge upgrades over Kenny.

What has he done for the running game he was supposed to "unlock"
Najee Harris 3.9 ypc 3Td
Vs
Najee Harris (canada) 4.1 ypc 8TD

Jaylen Warren 4.0ypc 1TD
Vs
Jaylen Warren (Canada) 5.3 ypc 4Td.

Boswell has kicked more fieldgoals than 2023 in the first 11 games and will break a career high in 2024.

Not to mention 30 year old Derrick Henry looks better than he did at 24/ 25 with Arthur Smith.
Tomlin is a big part of the problem but Arthur Smith ain't helping the matter.

 

[stillwright]

Hate? Nah....Disappointment is more of what I feel.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

Ben's last year he was not able to audible.....until the 4th quarter and Ben did what Ben does. Passing game was changed to short conservative plays. Probably because Tomlin wanted to limit TOs because of our "elite" defense he believes we had/have. Offense has the look of being the exact same type of plays now for years. Sure talent might play onto that. Who is bringing in the talent and letting it go though? I truly wonder what the % is for us running on 1st down over the last 4 or 5 years. On 2nd down. We have been bringing the most vanilla offense in football year in and out. Yes. That has Tomlin's fingers ALL over it.

That, plus the OL wasn't very good. People saying that Ben was throwing in 2.5 seconds, well yeah, because the DL and LB's were in his face in 2.4.

 

[Drink IRON City]

Hate? Nah....Disappointment is more of what I feel.

I hear yaz stillwright, disappointment is a real thing. We all like winning and this Un-defeated season thing, when it first started would bide us over till the next season. We always felt like we had a shot in the early stages. Fast forward to current and it’s easy to look back and say WhoAley shiit, Groiundhog’s day again.

Dang straight that’s disappointing, and as long as this has been going on, many have lost faith as well.

I still have HOPE, I’m very patient and loyal so I hope this season can end a few steps up from normal.


Salute the nation

 

[diver]

First and foremost you have to look at the years of offensive “production” and ask, “what is the common denominator?” The ONLY thing that has been common is Tomlin himself. He is the HC and determines the philosophy of how the team plays, period, end of story. Is he calling the plays during the game? He is not, but he has determined how the offense is configured and what type of offense and game plan they deploy each game. If he says they will not pass over the middle, they won’t. If the plan is to use TE’s almost exclusively as blockers, and decoy routes, guess what they do? The OC’s are tasked with running the desired offense, some have been better, some worse at it.

THE huge outlier in the last 15+ years was Big Ben. He was able to extend plays past the point where they failed, making something out of nothing. You also won’t convince me that he did 50% of what he was told. I do believe that he might have called what they wanted, but he made way too many changes, way too often to believe the plays were run as called. Since Ben, NO ONE has had the juice to do what they want. Most were too young, and the rest were just trying to prolong their collection of paychecks. Ben had way to much clout to try and pull him to modify his at the line changes. Tomlin would have been run out on a rail if he would have tried to force his “authority”.

Idk. Ben was just special. Is it deeper than that at the end of the day? Bradshaw was special. It took 25 years or whatever it was to get to Ben. I hope it doesn't take that long to find the next one. But the point is that these guys were special, gifted players. Maybe it wasn't about Tomlin trying to reign it in and Ben going off script, defying the coach. It was just Ben being Ben. Why does it always have to be some conspiracy?

 

[diver]

Ben's last year he was not able to audible.....until the 4th quarter and Ben did what Ben does. Passing game was changed to short conservative plays. Probably because Tomlin wanted to limit TOs because of our "elite" defense he believes we had/have. Offense has the look of being the exact same type of plays now for years. Sure talent might play onto that. Who is bringing in the talent and letting it go though? I truly wonder what the % is for us running on 1st down over the last 4 or 5 years. On 2nd down. We have been bringing the most vanilla offense in football year in and out. Yes. That has Tomlin's fingers ALL over it.

I've said this before, but I think the audible thing is so overrated. I saw an interview with Peyton Manning, and he claimed the audible thing was overrated. But to be specific to Ben, I remember over the years he come up to the line and start calling out shiit. You think..."He's audibling, this is gonna be big!" The announcers would say he's audibling. There would be pointing. Blue 52 and things like that. Your all excited, and then the play would go off and...pfft! Not much. You started to not get excited when you'd see all that. The guys I watch Steeler games with it kind of became a joke. I'm not sure Ben was some kind of great guy for audibling. Don't mistake audibling for his ability to make something out of a play.

We are gonna have to agree to disagree. I'm just not buying this idea that the same guy who let Ben do what he did was secretly the second coming of Ground Chuck. The Rooney's let the coaches coach. If that was what Tomlin really is he would have instituted that with Ben, and the Rooney's would not have gotten in the way. Again, I think it has been more lack of explosive talent as of late. Now, Tomlin is to blame for a lot of that. I think he has just been playing the hand that he has dealt himself.

 

[MT~Forged]

We were told all offseason Smith is an offensive genius that was better suited to playcalling than being a (failed) head coach.

Smith has an upgraded O-line
QB's are both huge upgrades over Kenny.

What has he done for the running game he was supposed to "unlock"
Najee Harris 3.9 ypc 3Td
Vs
Najee Harris (canada) 4.1 ypc 8TD

Jaylen Warren 4.0ypc 1TD
Vs
Jaylen Warren (Canada) 5.3 ypc 4Td.

Boswell has kicked more fieldgoals than 2023 in the first 11 games and will break a career high in 2024.

Not to mention 30 year old Derrick Henry looks better than he did at 24/ 25 with Arthur Smith.
Tomlin is a big part of the problem but Arthur Smith ain't helping the matter.

Smith is not the decision maker. He is being tasked with making Tomlin’s crappy offensive game plan work, whether he wants to or not. If Smith were the HC AND OC, then it would be a different story. The O that he is Running isn’t the same as the last two stops for him.

 

[stillwright]

I've said this before, but I think the audible thing is so overrated. I saw an interview with Peyton Manning, and he claimed the audible thing was overrated. But to be specific to Ben, I remember over the years he come up to the line and start calling out shiit. You think..."He's audibling, this is gonna be big!" The announcers would say he's audibling. There would be pointing. Blue 52 and things like that. Your all excited, and then the play would go off and...pfft! Not much. You started to not get excited when you'd see all that. The guys I watch Steeler games with it kind of became a joke. I'm not sure Ben was some kind of great guy for audibling. Don't mistake audibling for his ability to make something out of a play.

We are gonna have to agree to disagree. I'm just not buying this idea that the same guy who let Ben do what he did was secretly the second coming of Ground Chuck. The Rooney's let the coaches coach. If that was what Tomlin really is he would have instituted that with Ben, and the Rooney's would not have gotten in the way. Again, I think it has been more lack of explosive talent as of late. Now, Tomlin is to blame for a lot of that. I think he has just been playing the hand that he has dealt himself.

Fields stated when the play is a run and they stacked 9 plus guys in the box that he wasn't a loud to audible to a pass. Only change the run to a degree. Possibly what side to run to. Teams know this from watching film. Running on 1st down what seems like 99% of the time is also picked up on film. We have to run one of the most vanilla pro offenses ever ....to todays standards. Shouldn't be hard to let your qb do a few audibles(to pass) when the opposing team stacks the box. Or a crazy thought......mix up what you do on 1st down. Come out in a game a throw heavy on 1st. Give teams something else to see. Meh. Just my take. Our HC has been doing this a long time. I am sure he knows best.

 

[Drink IRON City]

Fields stated when the play is a run and they stacked 9 plus guys in the box that he wasn't a loud to audible to a pass. Only change the run to a degree. Possibly what side to run to. Teams know this from watching film. Running on 1st down what seems like 99% of the time is also picked up on film. We have to run one of the most vanilla pro offenses ever ....to todays standards. Shouldn't be hard to let your qb do a few audibles(to pass) when the opposing team stacks the box. Or a crazy thought......mix up what you do on 1st down. Come out in a game a throw heavy on 1st. Give teams something else to see. Meh. Just my take. Our HC has been doing this a long time. I am sure he knows best.

Many defenses have claimed that this offense is by far the easiest to defend against. Many teams D-players have said, right after games this exact thing.

It’s scheme over players and that is seen by the square peg / round hole. Not putting players in win positions instead putting them in scheme positions.


Salute the nation

 

[BLITZ]

Fields stated when the play is a run and they stacked 9 plus guys in the box that he wasn't a loud to audible to a pass. Only change the run to a degree. Possibly what side to run to. Teams know this from watching film. Running on 1st down what seems like 99% of the time is also picked up on film. We have to run one of the most vanilla pro offenses ever ....to todays standards. Shouldn't be hard to let your qb do a few audibles(to pass) when the opposing team stacks the box. Or a crazy thought......mix up what you do on 1st down. Come out in a game a throw heavy on 1st. Give teams something else to see. Meh. Just my take. Our HC has been doing this a long time. I am sure he knows best.

I would wait for a heavy snow game. then come out passing

 

[stillwright]

I would wait for a heavy snow game. then come out passing

I am sure that is the plan.

 

[Avoid_Lloyd]

Cute. You’re right I HATE the fact the Pittsburgh Steelers haven’t won a playoff game since 2016 and hold the head coach who has massive amounts of control over player acquisition, game planning, and coaching staff selection primary responsible, guilty as charged

And your defense of no playoff wins in 7 years and justification for retaining the head coach responsible for that is?

 

[speedicut]

That darn Tomlin

 

[diver]

44 points. Wilson had 414 yards. Since Tomlin controls everything, did he control any of that? Or did they lock him in his office for the week?

 

[Avoid_Lloyd]

44 points. Wilson had 414 yards. Since Tomlin controls everything, did he control any of that? Or did they lock him in his office for the week?

Garbage clock management and undisciplined personal fouls kept the game in doubt till the end-Tomlin controls that

Do you think they beat the Chiefs or Bills in the playoffs with those unforced errors that the head coach should be cleaning up?

How many head coaches still have a job not winning a playoff game since 2017?

Has Tomlin done a good job this year if we don’t win a playoff game?

 

[diver]

Garbage clock management and undisciplined personal fouls kept the game in doubt till the end-Tomlin controls that

Do you think they beat the Chiefs or Bills in the playoffs with those unforced errors that the head coach should be cleaning up?

How many head coaches still have a job not winning a playoff game since 2017?

Has Tomlin done a good job this year if we don’t win a playoff game?

Hey, look, I agree with you on all that. I just don't agree with the idea that Tomlin meddles in the offense or wants a turtle offense.