Pittsburgh Steelers OC Arthur Smith isn’t necessarily any great lover of the wide receiver position. Historically, he uses tight ends at a far higher rate than most of the rest of the league, and that has held true during his seven-game run with the Steelers so far. As a former head coach, though, he is mostly glad he doesn’t have to think about personnel acquisition anymore.
The talking heads have been talking about the Steelers trading for a wide receiver for months. That is not without good reason as they have made serious overtures for some big names. But with the trade deadline approaching, they are running out of time to give Smith another weapon. What are his thoughts, as a former head coach whose team traded his best receiver before his first season?
“That’s not my role anymore to really worry about that or be involved. It was in a previous stop”, Smith said via transcript provided by the Steelers’ media relations department. “You got new guys every day, trying to develop guys. I just focus on who’s up this week. What is the plan for the guys, back in a week or two. Return to play. Whoever Mike [Tomlin] and Omar [Khan] send my way, I’ll coach ’em up”.
We can probably add that every coordinator of a team actively trying to add to a room says these things. All one can do, especially in public comments, is focus on the players they have. Right now, Arthur Smith has Scotty Miller and Van Jefferson and Roman Wilson. I’m sure Mike Tomlin and Omar Khan want to add to the Steelers’ receiving corps. But unless or until that happens, that’s not Smith’s concern.
“I don’t worry about that other stuff. It’s irrelevant. It’s like wasting energy” Smith said about the possibility of the Steelers trading for another receiver. “Overall the group, like I said, we just need to continue to get better and improve. That’s real. That’s every day. Like I said, Monday night they’ll have a whole new set of problems against arguably one of the better fronts in the league”.
The Steelers have two weeks and one game to make a decision. After playing the New York Giants on Monday night, they head into their bye, with the trade deadline after that. With Russell Wilson just entering the starting lineup, that makes the evaluation process a little more difficult.
And it doesn’t help that they have basically been unable to evaluate Roman Wilson, their third-round pick. At the very beginning of training camp, he was looking like he could potentially start for the Steelers. But an ankle injury has robbed him of nearly all developmental time, and now he has a hamstring injury.
So I’m not sure if the Steelers even know if they need to trade for a wide receiver or not. The most plausible “big” names are already off the board. And ultimately, is it even worth it for the Steelers this year? Would a Cooper Kupp or DeAndre Hopkins make them Super Bowl favorites?
