The Pittsburgh Steelers made a concerted effort to improve their offense this offseason, and that began with the hiring of Arthur Smith as their offensive coordinator. Smith had a lot of success as the Tennessee Titans’ offensive coordinator before becoming the Atlanta Falcons’ head coach, and now he’ll look to lead Pittsburgh’s offense to new heights. With Russell Wilson and Justin Fields also acquired this offseason, there’s been a lot of talk about their fit in Smith’s offense, and Smith said that there’s a lot the two do that fit, but they’ve also adapted to Wilson and Fields’ strengths.
“We’re not so rigid; every year I’ve tried to adapt. We have our core beliefs, there’s things that they’ve historically done well that we try to enhance, and there’s other things that we’ve put in that really fit our overall personnel and the way we want to play going into the season,” Smith said in an interview with Missi Matthews of Steelers.com. “They’re really good play extenders, certainly they can change the launch points, which gives you an advantage, they’re not sitting there as a statue in the pocket.”
Smith also praised the work ethic of both Fields and Wilson and how it’s helped them elevate others.
“They bring a professionalism and a work ethic…they’re bringing guys along, and that’s been exciting as well,” he said.
Even analysts who aren’t fans of Wilson, like Mark Schlereth, think that he can be a fit with Smith, and Fields’ fit in Smith’s offense as a mobile quarterback and someone who Smith can scheme to his strengths was called “perfect” by former GM Randy Mueller. Smith was able to get the best years out of Ryan Tannehill during his time in Tennessee, and I like Smith’s philosophy of abiding to a few core principles but also being willing to adapt to the personnel he has.
No two quarterbacks are the same, and while they might have some of the same strengths and weaknesses, you can’t just use a one-size-fits-all all scheme for offenses across the league. Fields and Wilson have a number of strengths, with one of the biggest the ability to use their legs and extend plays, as Smith noted.
The ability for them to use their legs, and also throw the deep ball, are two things that Smith can implement more of in his offense to play to the strengths of his two quarterbacks. It sounds as if he’s working with them and finding the things that work for them while staying true to the principles of his offense.
It’ll be interesting to see if Wilson and/or Fields can turn their careers around under Smith, and there’s definitely some hope that will be the case given what Smith’s been able to do with similar quarterbacks. It’s going to be fun to see how the offense looks this season, and I have little doubt it will be a massive upgrade over what the Steelers were doing under Matt Canada.
