For the fan base, there’s a low bar regarding the performance of Arthur Smith in 2024. Most fans on the message boards probably would have taken a random guy at the bar over Matt Canada by the end of his Pittsburgh tenure.
But Smith is capable of exceeding these low expectations by quite a bit. He’s a proven coach around the league and has shown even early at training camp why that matters.
He’s already begun to win over the offense, especially Russell Wilson. And there’s confidence that he can best utilize the resources the Steelers have on that side of the ball with his play-calling style. The tight end depth the team has will likely get better utilized, and he could coax career seasons out of Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren.
But he’s also been a big help to the defense, at least so far at camp. Elandon Roberts shared his thoughts on Smith on the team-provided post-practice show today.
“Art be talking, Art’s always been a hard-nosed coach,” Roberts said. “He’s gonna talk a lot of stuff to you, but at the same time, I appreciate Art because he tells us defensively what he’s trying to do and the why to why he’s doing this and doing that. It’s preparing us for other teams and knowing when they doing these certain plays, this is the why behind it. It’s very complementary. Most definitely, that grit that emotion, and that toughness you see from the offense out there, Arthur Smith is the head leader.”
It’s great to see that Smith is not only explaining to the offense why he is doing specific things but making sure he gives his defense the context too. It’s a huge advantage to know what your opponent is thinking proactively, instead of having to just guess and react to the given situation.
Smith isn’t an expert on every single type of offense, but he’s so well-versed in his run schemes that he’s going to be giving this defense new information at least in that aspect. Even seasoned veterans like Roberts are getting something out of his coaching style.
If this team is going to compete, it’s going to be because of its defense. That unit will likely be the driving force to win the games. But if Pittsburgh is going to break through the 10-7, first-round playoff loss ceiling established last season, Arthur Smith is going to have to help the offense raise the ceiling.
