On Dec. 11, ESPN’s Dan Graziano reported that Arthur Smith would likely need to wait until after the 2025 season before receiving serious head coach interest. Since that report, the Steelers have yet to win a game, but NFL teams remain intrigued by Smith, and Graziano reported in his news and notes column on Friday that Smith is likely to be a head coaching candidate and get interviews during this coaching cycle.
“A few weeks back, I said I thought Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith would have to wait another year before getting head-coach interviews again, but it sounds like he might get a couple of looks on this year’s cycle after all. The work Smith has done with Pittsburgh’s patchwork quarterback situation this season has been impressive,” Graziano wrote.
Arthur Smith has gotten good football out of Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, with the latter playing some of the best football of his career through the Steelers’ first six games of the season. Wilson has rebounded nicely from his stint with the Denver Broncos, but turnover issues have plagued him over the last few games. Still, Smith has made two quarterbacks who were acquired for pennies look like viable starters and made Pittsburgh’s offense a heck of a lot better than it has been over the past few seasons.
Given his prior head coaching experience, it won’t a surprise if Smith is once again a candidate. He went 7-10 each of his three years coaching the Atlanta Falcons and took the Steelers job last offseason after getting fired by Atlanta. With the Falcons, Smith wasn’t given much quarterback talent to work with and was never able to build a team that could truly compete. But he’s done a nice job rebuilding the Steelers’ offense and teams may think that Smith can have some success in his second chance as a head coach.
Three teams currently have head coach openings in the Chicago Bears, New Orleans Saints and New York Jets. The Jets had interest in hiring Arthur Smith as an offensive assistant last offseason but he opted to join the Steelers instead, so that’s a potential spot where he could get an interview. There will surely be other openings next week, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Smith mentioned as a candidate with a few open vacancies and have him take a few interviews.
Smith turned down the opening at the University of North Carolina, which eventually ended up going to Bill Belichick. He said he is happy in Pittsburgh, but the chance to run an NFL team again might not be an opportunity he wanted to pass up. It would leave the Steelers in the unenviable position of hiring an offensive coordinator for the second offseason in a row, and the next few weeks are going to be interesting to see if Smith ends up leaving.
