Jonnu Smith has spent a lot of time playing for Arthur Smith, and the duo will pair up again with the Steelers this season. Pittsburgh just acquired him via trade, signing him to a one-year, $12 million contract along the way. While Arthur Smith no doubt influenced the decision, though, they didn’t do it for him.
Still, he had a major influence on Jonnu Smith’s career, in several different ways. He served as Smith’s position coach in Tennessee his first two seasons, then two as offensive coordinator. A bit down the line, Arthur Smith traded for him as the head coach in Atlanta, and only his firing prevented a continuation of that relationship at that time. Now after a one-year hiatus in Miami, the boys are back in town—a different town, but they’re back, nevertheless.
“I took over again my third year, and that’s when I caught fire”, Jonnu Smith told former teammate Terron Armstead. “Now Arthur Smith is the OC at this time, and I’m getting real comfortable and I’m making plays out of the backfield. Just basically proving myself to be a No. 1 guy”.
To start his career, Smith played behind veteran TE Delanie Walker, around whom he modeled his game initially. Arthur Smith coached both of them, then served as Jonnu’s coordinator in 2020. That year, he caught 35 of 44 passes for 439 yards and 3 touchdowns. The next year, he caught eight touchdowns for Smith, who thereafter left for a head coaching opportunity with the Falcons.
Jonnu Smith signed with the Patriots, meanwhile, but things didn’t work out there. Seeing an opportunity, Arthur Smith traded for him after two years, in 2023. “I just wanted to be in a good situation”, the tight end said. “We’re basically primarily 12 personnel and it’s me and Kyle Pitts and I caught about 50 balls that year. Just under 600 yards and 33 tuds”.
At the time, those were career numbers for Jonnu Smith, other than the touchdowns. But then the Falcons fired Arthur Smith, and he started to worry. He told Armstead about the candid comments he had with the new regime.
“The first thing I did was I said to myself, I do not want to be in a situation like I was in New England”, Smith recalled. “I told them, ‘If you don’t see me as playing in a role as Arthur Smith did or more, just show me the respect and let me go’”. By the end of February, they honored his wishes and released him.
While Jonnu Smith didn’t follow Arthur to the Steelers, who by then was already their offensive coordinator, he found an opportunity in Miami that proved ideal. In Mike McDaniel’s offense, he caught 88 of 111 targets for 884 yards and 8 touchdowns.
The only problem is, the Dolphins didn’t want to pay him based on his production. It reached a point at which it was clear Jonnu Smith would have to go somewhere else to see compensation mirroring his numbers, which opened the door for a trade. And that opened the door back to Arthur Smith, probably the most influential coach in his NFL career.
First as tight end coach, then as offensive coordinator, then as head coach, Arthur Smith has nurtured Jonnu Smith going on a sixth season now and in a third different city. Even if he won’t have the same prolific numbers as last year, he knows he is in good hands.
