Arthur Smith has shown he can turn around a quarterback’s career. In Tennessee, he took Ryan Tannehill from first-round bust to Comeback Player of the Year. In Pittsburgh, he showed he could make Justin Fields a better player than what he showed in three years with the Chicago Bears. Russell Wilson was a different story, a Super Bowl winner and one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks in his prime, his goal by signing with the Steelers was to show his career could offer a strong final chapter.
In stretches, it has worked. But there were apparently some hard conversations along the way. As shared by SI’s Albert Breer before Thursday night’s kickoff against the Cleveland Browns, Smith and Wilson have had plenty of heart-to-heart talks.
“A huge part of this [success] has been getting buy-in from Russell Wilson himself,” Breer said on the Amazon pregame show. “And that’s happened through Smith and Wilson having a series of very hard, honest, one-on-one conversations. Away from the other players, away from the other coaches.”
Breer didn’t detail when those conversations took place or their exact nature. But whatever was said has shown dividends A calf injury shelved Wilson until Week 7 before Mike Tomlin made the controversial decision to start him over Justin Fields despite Fields posting a 4-2 record as his replacement.
Wilson has cooled off after a hot start but even in last night’s loss to the Browns, he finished 21-of-28 for 270 yards and one touchdown. He led a Pittsburgh comeback they couldn’t close out and has still put up overall passing numbers others in the post-Roethlisberger era have struggled to do.
Smith was a critical offseason hire, and just as important was the Steelers overhauling their quarterback room. Pittsburgh went away from unproven NFL coordinators and internal promotions as it had done with Randy Fichtner and Matt Canada. The Steelers didn’t consider any of their internal options — interim offensive coordinator Eddie Faulkner and play caller Mike Sullivan didn’t even receive interviews — and hired Smith weeks after being fired by the Atlanta Falcons. Smith has brought stability and identity to the offense and produced the Steelers’ best offense in years.
Russell Wilson and Arthur Smith will try to do something the Steelers haven’t done in years: win a playoff game. That will be the ultimate measure of the team’s success. With lesser quarterbacks and coordinators, they’ve still been able to remain playoff relevant and make the AFC Wild Card round. Getting past it has been the Steelers’ obstacle. Wilson and Smith will try to get them over the top.
After the Browns’ loss, there might be some more hard conversations with Wilson and everyone else on offense.
