Have you ever wondered if NFL players monitor the media for what is being said about them? The answer probably varies from player to player, but some of it is unavoidable as friends and family may pass along various articles and headlines. Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith was asked if he reads or pays attention to the media and what they are saying about his players.
“The only time I ever feel the need to bring it up…A lot of these guys look at, they’re very in tune to what’s being said about them,” Smith said on Wednesday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN. “You know how it is. You’re in a one-on-one and somebody runs a choice route and you’re playing outside leverage trying to play the call and there’s 30 yards of grass inside…And it may have broken down, would be a sack, and it’s six Mississippi and he launches it, and they’re like, ‘Wow, what a good throw.’
“I mean, it’s all perspective. But if it affects a player, that’s the only time I’d ever bring it up to try to keep that perspective.”
So he only brings up media chatter on players if he finds it necessary to maintain proper perspective.
His example here was a quarterback who throws a beautiful pass that goes for a big gain and garners a bunch of praise in the media. These clips circulate on X and end up on ESPN and various other shows to illustrate how good a player looks in practice. But that doesn’t mean the Steelers necessarily viewed the play as a positive. The quarterback may have held onto the ball too long or went for an alternate read from what the Steelers were attempting to rep in practice. That is the context in which the coaches are evaluating players that doesn’t always translate to the media.
He didn’t single anyone out, but there have been a number of online clips circulating throughout camp of both Rossell Wilson and Justin Fields connecting on deep passes. Either way, it is interesting to hear a little about how players and coaches interact with the media throughout the course of a season. It is all just noise a lot of the time, but it is always important to keep perspective to not let the media narratives get you too high or too low.
The Steelers will experience this in overdrive toward the end of the 2024 regular season. HBO’s Hard Knocks will cover the team for the in-season version of the show and will be following all four teams in the AFC North. I would imagine a conversation or two will be had between the coaches and players once that is underway.
