The big Steelers news of the week so far is Gerry Dulac’s report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Arthur Smith didn’t allow Russell Wilson to change plays at the line of scrimmage late in the season, seemingly culminating with the team’s five-game skid to end the year. The change reportedly came after Wilson’s best game of the season, a Week 13 win over the Cincinnati Bengals where he threw for 414 yards, and on The Fan Morning Show on 93.7 The Fan, former NFL general manager and Steelers executive Doug Whaley said that it’s telling how the organization operates. Whaley said that the organizational run-first philosophy is more important than putting players in a position to succeed.
“You don’t like it, and you put handcuffs on him and you go on a five-game skid,” he said. “I think it’s pretty obvious that the organizational philosophy trumps, right now, putting the players they have on their roster in positions to win.”
Whaley also said he thinks the Steelers could’ve won at least two games down the stretch if Wilson had more freedom.
The Steelers have always been a team that wants to run the ball frequently and successfully, and Smith’s philosophy from his time with the Tennessee Titans and Atlanta Falcons dovetails with that. Late in the season, with defenses worn down, is usually when teams can find some success on the ground, but Pittsburgh’s run game struggled late in 2024.
Some of that had to do with the defenses the Steelers went up against, but if Smith really handicapped what Wilson was able to do at the line of scrimmage and continued to run the ball with limited success down the stretch, it is a case of not putting the players in the best position to succeed, and not just Wilson.
It limits what Wilson can do as far as reading defenses pre-snap and checking to a look that might be better. That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to do to a Super Bowl-winning quarterback who had been playing well until that point. It also hurt the ground game because teams could sit on the run, knowing that the Steelers were looking to pound the rock.
It’s hard to make sense of the whole thing. Taking away Wilson’s ability to change plays after his best game isn’t in the best interest of winning. Not changing the team’s philosophy after hitting a rough patch and not going back to what had worked isn’t smart, either. It’s a decision that could factor in what the Steelers do at quarterback next season, as if they’re really focused on running the ball, Justin Fields is the better option than Wilson.
While Wilson has stated he wants to return, Whaley questioned why he’d want to return to an offense where he doesn’t have the freedom to change plays. Former NFL LB Bart Scott said the same thing on ESPN’s Get Up this morning. It’s a fair question posed by both, and it will be interesting to see what winds up happening this offseason with the Steelers’ quarterback situation.
