Coming off a tough 2023 season, at least from an offensive standpoint, the Pittsburgh Steelers needed to change things up on that side of the football in a major way.
After firing former offensive coordinator Matt Canada ahead of a Week 12 matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals last season, the Steelers found some level ground with running backs coach Eddie Faulkner and then-quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan holding down a co-coordinator role for the Steelers.
But that wasn’t going to be good enough for the 2024 season.
Hiring the former Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator and Atlanta Falcons head coach was called the best move of the Steelers’ offseason by The Athletic’s Mike Sando Thursday morning.
“The Steelers finally have a coherent vision on offense following Arthur Smith’s hiring as coordinator,” Sando writes. “Smith, the first established coordinator the Steelers have employed on offense since Todd Haley’s final season in 2017, arrives after the organization basically failed Kenny Pickett and others on offense in recent seasons. This has to be a major upgrade.”
As Sando points out, the Smith hiring was the first time since Haley that the Steelers went outside of the organization to get an established, respected offensive mind. The last time they did that, it worked out quite well with Haley calling the shots offensively.
Though it won’t be the same style as Haley was, which was a wide-open passing game with a lot of shotgun, the Steelers are expecting similar results from Smith’s offense It will feature pounding the rock with standout running backs Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren, while utilizing the play-action passing game with quarterback Russell Wilson or Justin Fields.
Pittsburgh wanted to very clearly play a certain way last year offensively, but it didn’t have the right coordinator in place to play that way. Now, with Smith in the fold, not to mention with a rebuilt offensive line, two new quarterbacks and a running game that was downright dominant late in the 2023 season, all the pieces are in place for the Steelers offensively to be able to play that style of football they want.
As Sando says, they have that coherent vision on that side of the football.
It took them awhile to get there, but they’re finally there. Now it’s time to see if that coherent vision can lead to success offensively in 2024 and beyond.
