The NFL draft is the culmination of a 12-month calendar of work from the personnel department. The information gathering process begins in spring practices and exhibition games in college and lasts all the way up until the final setting of the big board in the days leading up to the draft. The coaches hop into the process late, so it is crunch time from the end of the season until the first day of the draft. The Pittsburgh Steelers have some new faces in the room, including offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.
“We as coaches kind of get on a moving train after the season ends in an effort to be a component of the evaluation process,” Mike Tomlin said Monday during a pre-draft press conference posted on the Steelers’ YouTube Channel.
That moving train is perhaps a little bit harder for new coaches in the organization to hop on. Every team does things a little differently, so being the new guy in the building can present its own set of challenges.
The last couple OC hires have been internal promotions, so they already had a feel for the Steelers’ process. With Smith being external, he had that extra challenge of getting up to speed to make sure he can help leave his stamp on the evaluation process for what he wants in his offensive system.
“He’s been a big component of it as all the coaches have,” Tomlin said of Smith’s role in the process. “We respect opinions…we just think opinions are a major component in terms of us coming to Steelers decisions and so it’s perspective. It’s people’s opinions and it’s communications and evaluation meetings in an effort to find common ground. And he’s been a big component of that and has done a nice job of really infusing himself into it immediately.”
Smith brings the added benefit of being an experienced NFL coach. He was the offensive coordinator in Tennessee for two seasons prior to being the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons for three years. He has seen how other teams approach the process and can lean on that experience to bring a new perspective to the Steelers’ draft conversations.
He was pretty active on the pro day trail, with stops at Georgia, Clemson, Michigan, North Carolina and Duke. There are several talents from those schools with the potential to become Steelers over the first two days of the draft and beyond.
Changing offensive philosophies means changing the model of what types of players they are looking for to make the most of the new system. That can mean making tough decisions on players currently on the roster as well as what types of players they will target in the draft.
“I think when you have a change, you always have to have the discussions,” GM Omar Khan said. “Some hard discussions have to happen and we’ve had those.”
Possibly included in those discussions could be deciding what to do with the players already on your roster. An example of that from this offseason could be trading away WR Diontae Johnson. If he doesn’t fit into the mold of what they are looking for at the position, then that could be a possible factor in their decision to ultimately move on.
In just a few days from now, we will have a much better picture of the impact of Smith’s offensive philosophy on the team-building process. Part of that is likely to include beefing up the offensive line for what is expected to be a run-first offense featuring RBs Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren, as well as the legs and mobility of the new quarterbacks on the roster. At the receiver position, look for a guy who brings a competitive edge as a blocker, which can help turn 5-yard gains into 20-yard gains.
