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Steelers Hiring Arthur Smith as new OC

It will be interesting to see if the OL coach gets fired soon. It's hard to say if Meyer is good or not. He was tasked with getting the OL to execute Canada's jumbled mess of an offense. No real focus. OL play improved later in the year without Canada. Arthur Smith at least has a clear plan. I'm sure he'll watch the tape and decide if Meyer can teach what he plans to install.
 
Hey, at least Arthur is consistent! Never lost more than 10 games in a season.

TeamYearRegular season
ATL20217100.4123rd in NFC South————
ATL20227100.4124th in NFC South————
ATL20237100.4123rd in NFC South————
 
It was made extremely clear that this was Tomlin's guy. He hired him. The media very much approves. The fans are luke warm. Let's say it goes poor......AGAIN. What will it take for Tomlin to be held accountable for his decisions. Law enforcement seizing his hard drives?
 
steelhurt said:
Something that bothers me that the Steelers only interviewed three candidates when they said they were going to cast a wide net in their search.
I know Zac Robinson turned them down and didn’t even bother with an interview and instead signed with the Falcons.
I have to wonder if guys like Klint Kubiak and Brian Greise just weren’t interested in coming here, otherwise why would you not at least talk to them.
Both coaches interviewed with the Saints last week.
Idk something seems not right here. I wouldn’t call this casting a wide net with Jerrod Johnson who never called a play in the NFL or Thomas Brown with very little experience calling plays.
Only Zac Robinson had real experience and of course Arthur Smith.
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Kubiak interviewed with the saints? Didn't know he could until his team's season ended
 
SteelerSask2 said:
It was made extremely clear that this was Tomlin's guy. He hired him. The media very much approves. The fans are luke warm. Let's say it goes poor......AGAIN. What will it take for Tomlin to be held accountable for his decisions. Law enforcement seizing his hard drives?
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The biggest fail was the search process. Like the Haley hire they interviewed a whopping three candidates. Including the worst OC in the NFL. Omar's search should be the standard approach.
 
slashsteel said:
The biggest fail was the search process. Like the Haley hire they interviewed a whopping three candidates. Including the worst OC in the NFL. Omar's search should be the standard approach.
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We don't know if other candidates weren't even interested in being interviewed. We don't know if Kubiak wants either, he might be aligning for a HC job this very season, with the Seahawks or Commanders .
 
I cannot speculate who turned them down. I am saying Arthur Smith is Tomlin's guy. He owns him. Anyone think Mike Vrabel is a ****** coach. I do not. But you are responsible for your hires. This one needs to work out. They should have been replacing Tomlin himself. Another botched OC hire should end him.
 
Something like 7 or 8 teams were interested in him... he absolutely was one of the better names on the market. Its a clear indicator they really want a strong running game.

Coryea said:
It's a QB league, he's better than what we have, but just seems like a guy that's going to run alot of 2 TE's conservative Tomlin offense. Hopefully I'm wrong, beat writer from Atlanta just said Smith can not develop QB's.
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Several things:
A. Im pretty sure nobody in atlanta actually knows anything about pro football.

B. He had 3 years there. People who think 3 years is a reasonable amount of time to find and develop an NFL star qb dont know football... see section A.

C. Here are Tannehill's stats
Bear in mind Smith was his OC in 19 and 20 ...

D. In Atlanta, he had the following QBs
The rotting corpse of Matt Ryan....
Marcus Mariotta, inconsistant season killer...
A recycled Josh Rosen, who posessed a fantastic arm, the brain of a fruit fly, the work ethic of a rock, and the world's 3rd most punchable face...
A couple no name jorneymen...
And Desmond Ridder, a guy everyone knew was a multiyear project with great talent, but absolutely raw AF who the owner demanded to play way before he was ready.

E. The OC can put a system in place to make a good QB better or hide flaws in a lesser one, but really the Qb coach probably does tge most development... Ben wasnt developed by Whiz... Bruce arians, the wr and defacto Qb coach taught him the NFL ins and Outs.. Whiz set up a scheme that sheltered him as he grew... thats what an OC does...
 
Litos said:
We don't know if other candidates weren't even interested in being interviewed. We don't know if Kubiak wants either, he might be aligning for a HC job this very season, with the Seahawks or Commanders .
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I am sure there was other possibilities out there. The hire was a fairly quick one. We do know how long the GM process took.

Sure a few could have said not interested.

Don't think I can buy into it was an indepth process.😉
 
I'm sure everyone recalls when Willie Parker was complaining about the state of the Steelers running game. Tomlin came up with "Every morning I walk past 5 Lombardis not 5 rushing titles."

He's lived by that ever since and we've all witnessed the Steelers getting softer and less physical on both sides of the ball. I get the sense that since Colbert retired and Khan and Weidl have taken over, Rooney has given them the mandate to go back to old time Steelers smash mouth football.

Last season for the first time in a long time the OL was addressed. Even though it wasn't as good as some hoped, it was a step in the right direction. Hopefully they keep on that path and further improve the lines on both sides of the ball for next season.

I say all this because I think the hiring of Smith is just another step in getting back to Steelers smash mouth football. At least I hope it is. Hiring some pass happy, west coast OC would have been a massive step towards sinking us even further imo.
 
TDX27 said:
Run-run-pass-punt. Sound familiar? LOL.
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Ground and pound is about being physical. At least to me. Canada ran way to many misdirection plays. And very little play action. Smith will have play action.

The result may have been run-run-pass-punt but it certainly wasn't ground and pound.
 
Litos said:
We don't know if other candidates weren't even interested in being interviewed. We don't know if Kubiak wants either, he might be aligning for a HC job this very season, with the Seahawks or Commanders .
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Exactly.
troymania said:
Smith is a very solid hire. Very good OC, but a terrible HC. He will get the most out of our offensive line and our RB room. Nothing like Canada. Lots of play-action.
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Yes. This is a positive overall for the offense the Steelers want to run. Lack of play action, especially with our offensive philosophy, was borderline criminal
 
SteelerFan448 said:
I honestly never know what Tomlin wants to do on offense. The front office built a power run team last year and Tomlin didn't act like it during training camp and most of the season. They should've hit the ground running given how well they ran at the end of the 2022 season. Smith fits the bill from the front office perspective. I do have some faith Tomlin won't meddle a whole lot. You don't do that when you hire a former head coach as an OC.
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Dick Lebaue (sp) says hi.

Tomlin will find a way.

The only thing to stop him would be that Rooney layed down an ultimatum of how this should go or your job will be gone.


Salute the nation
 
Litos said:
Kubiak interviewed with the saints? Didn't know he could until his team's season ended
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I heard they changed the rule in 2020 but yes he and Brian Griese interviewed with the Saints last week.
 
SteelerFan448 said:
I honestly never know what Tomlin wants to do on offense. The front office built a power run team last year and Tomlin didn't act like it during training camp and most of the season. They should've hit the ground running given how well they ran at the end of the 2022 season. Smith fits the bill from the front office perspective. I do have some faith Tomlin won't meddle a whole lot. You don't do that when you hire a former head coach as an OC.
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Well you wouldn't think you'd meddle with a HOF DC that had one of the best defenses ever in 2008, and consistently had a top ranked defense, but that didn't stop Tomlin from meddling in the defense when LeBeau was here. The fact Randy and Canada's offense looked almost identical tells me Tomlin was highly involved there too.
 
madinsomniac said:
In Atlanta, he had the following QBs
The rotting corpse of Matt Ryan....
Marcus Mariotta, inconsistant season killer...
A recycled Josh Rosen, who posessed a fantastic arm, the brain of a fruit fly, the work ethic of a rock, and the world's 3rd most punchable face...
A couple no name jorneymen...
And Desmond Ridder, a guy everyone knew was a multiyear project with great talent, but absolutely raw AF who the owner demanded to play way before he was ready.
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Should we use this as an excuse for our coaches too? You could insert our QB’s name in every scenario there.
I say this in fun……but it’s also pretty well true too.
 
I am neither thrilled nor pissed off about this hire. The best I can hope for, I suppose.
 
steelcan58 said:
I'm sure everyone recalls when Willie Parker was complaining about the state of the Steelers running game. Tomlin came up with "Every morning I walk past 5 Lombardis not 5 rushing titles."

He's lived by that ever since and we've all witnessed the Steelers getting softer and less physical on both sides of the ball. I get the sense that since Colbert retired and Khan and Weidl have taken over, Rooney has given them the mandate to go back to old time Steelers smash mouth football.

Last season for the first time in a long time the OL was addressed. Even though it wasn't as good as some hoped, it was a step in the right direction. Hopefully they keep on that path and further improve the lines on both sides of the ball for next season.

I say all this because I think the hiring of Smith is just another step in getting back to Steelers smash mouth football. At least I hope it is. Hiring some pass happy, west coast OC would have been a massive step towards sinking us even further imo.
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Simple fact is we don’t have the QB’s or OL to run a high flying west coast offense. Upgraded running game to take some pressure off KP may be the way to go.
There are a bunch of VERY good QB’s in the AFC so we’re not getting to a SB any time soon regardless.
 
Confluence said:
At first blush, not the innovative young passing game guru, but better than a couple of the other names interviewed, and in line with Steeler commitment to run. Hopefully they also bring in a passing game guy to help the WRs be productive.

And Munch. That would be phenomenal!
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My wife asked me what I thought. I said this would be like going shopping for a new car. You leave your house thinking you're in the market for a sports car or pick-up truck, but come home with a minivan. Not that it's necessarily bad, but not exciting or fun.

Mike T was only going to look at someone with a run first mentality. Smith's time in Tennessee showed he could be very good with that. Najee is no Derrick Henry but Derrick Henry wasn't Derrick Henry until Smith took over the offense. And Tannehill was considered a bust before Smith. Both Henry's and Tannehill's best statistical seasons were with Smith was Tennesse's OC. And I don't want to judge an OC based upon his performance as a head coach, I'd rather judge him based upon his performance as an OC. Dick Lebeau wasn't a good head coach but was a good DC.

That said, I still don't have high hopes for Kenny Pickett. I just haven't seen anything in his 25 starts that leads me to believe he's got the potential to be a high level starting QB. And this hire just shows that Mike T doesn't really want to change his ways. 2024 is going to look at lot like the last 3-4 years from the aspect the Steelers are going to try to make games ugly and win via a 17-13 type rock fight. So expect another season of games coming down to the wire... and another season of 8-10 wins and being in contention until week 18 with a ceiling of a first round playoff loss and a floor of 7-10. Not good, not bad, just meh.
 
Ron Burgundy said:
Simple fact is we don’t have the QB’s or OL to run a high flying west coast offense. Upgraded running game to take some pressure off KP may be the way to go.
There are a bunch of VERY good QB’s in the AFC so we’re not getting to a SB any time soon regardless.
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Yep, we basically hired a mechanic to squeeze a couple more horsepower out of our Chevy Malibu.
 
Walt said:
My hope for change/improvement from the Fichtner/Canada era....

1. 3rd & 2 is not an automatic passing situation
2. No empty backfield on the goal line
3. No 3rd & 1 or 4th & 1 runs out of shot gun
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I would also add...
1. More Play action
2. more 20's packages
3.trade 18
 
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