The Pittsburgh Steelers hired Arthur Smith as offensive coordinator to install his system here. This much is true of any coordinator is a coordinator in anything more than name. But Aditi Kinkhabwala (I know, I know…) suggests that there’s more to it than that. In short, he doesn’t have as much pull in Pittsburgh as he might have had elsewhere or had previously.
Asked about Smith’s offense in Pittsburgh on 93.7 The Fan recently, she said, “I think that that’s more a question of, what [are] Mike Tomlin, and maybe perhaps to some degree what Art Rooney [II] dictating? I think that, as opposed to, this is a person who has complete autonomy to be a scientist in the lab. It’s, you have to fit the philosophy of what the organization wants”.
For an organization whose head coach is Mike Tomlin, this isn’t exactly implausible. Tomlin has his fingers in everything, and he’ll be the first person to tell you that. Just because he hired an offensive coordinator who has a seemingly clear identity doesn’t mean he’s relinquishing anything. The Steelers and Tomlin hired Smith because they believe that he can do what they want him to do.
Sure, they hired some depth players he worked with (some for only part of one season), but the Steelers are not turning the Steelers into the Falcons, or even the Tennessee Titans. If they run the ball a lot this season, that’s because Tomlin and Rooney want to, not because Smith wants.
After all, the Steelers turned over their entire quarterback room after he agreed to take the job. I’m not sure that many offensive coordinators have faced that situation in the past. When he took the job, he surely had no idea he would be calling games for Russell Wilson. But now that’s arguably the biggest task on his plate—because Tomlin and the Steelers say so.
“If you are fitting personnel, then perhaps the most important piece of personnel to fit is Russell Wilson”, Kinkhabwala said. “And when did Russell Wilson have the most success? In Seattle, when he had arguably a top-three defense of all time and a great run game. And you can take advantage of that pretty deep ball and what he could do because that wasn’t option No. 1”.
For as much grief as former offensive coordinator Matt Canada took (and deserved), he wasn’t operating in isolation. Sure, he spent most of his time during games locked away in a booth. But as has been widely suggested, he took directives from Tomlin broadly about how to run the offense. From that perspective, not just for retaining Canada, you can argue that he deserves blame for the results.
And so this year he has new quarterbacks, a new coordinator, new receivers, new offensive linemen. He’s surrounded himself with new ingredients as he tries to concoct a more appetizing product. Ultimately, Tomlin is the chef in this kitchen, and Smith will have to cook how he wants, with his recipe.
