The Pittsburgh Steelers dealt with an offense in recent years that was held back by bad quarterback play but also generic play-calling and poor play design by offensive coordinator Matt Canada. This offseason, the Steelers brought in an established play caller in Arthur Smith, who spent time as the offensive coordinator of the Tennessee Titans before serving as the Atlanta Falcons head coach for the last three seasons. While the Steelers haven’t had much on-field work, Phase Three of OTAs starts tomorrow, The Athletic’s Mark Kaboly said that word out of Pittsburgh is that players “absolutely love” Smith’s offense.
“What I hear coming out of the Steelers is that players absolutely love Arthur Smith’s offense. One told me that it is unreal. Going to be interesting to put eyes on it. First day of OTAs start on Tuesday. The Steelers will be on the field for practices for the next 4 weeks,” Kaboly wrote on Twitter.
It’s going to be interesting to see Smith’s offense in action. Although we obviously won’t get the full scope of things during OTAs, throughout the offseason we’ll get a feel for what Smith wants to do and how it could work in Pittsburgh. Given his past history, the expectation is a run-heavy game plan that might use multiple tight ends with duo and wide-zone concepts, but Smith has shown the propensity to get the most out of his quarterback too, as Ryan Tannehill had the best seasons of his career working under Smith in Tennessee.
The Steelers have Russell Wilson and Justin Fields in the quarterback room, and while both have struggled in some capacity in recent seasons, the hope is that Smith will be able to get the most out of them. With a two-headed monster in the running back room with Jaylen Warren and Najee Harris, the Steelers can utilize play-action with their game plan, something Smith likes to do, to try and set up Wilson for success, given that he’s the likely starter as things stand right now.
It’s obviously good news to hear that players love the offense, and after dealing with Canada’s offense over the past few years, any chance is likely a welcome one. Smith is someone who’s called plays for years and had a lot of success doing so, which makes it easy to get excited when you hear a positive report coming out about how the team feels about his offense.
We’ll get our first taste of the offense tomorrow when the Steelers are finally back on the practice field, and it’s going to be very interesting to see how the offense has evolved from past years.
