Smith brings rare, fresh perspective to the remodeled offense

Since he became head coach in 2007, Mike Tomlin has rarely ventured outside his own staff to find an offensive or defensive coordinator. The lone exception was 12 years ago, when he hired Todd Haley to run his offense.

Otherwise, all his coordinators were either inherited from Bill Cowher’s staff (Bruce Arians and Dick LeBeau) or promoted from within (Keith Butler and Teryl Austin on defense, Randy Fichtner and Matt Canada on offense).

That changed this year, though, when he hired former Atlanta Falcons head coach Arthur Smith to be offensive coordinator.

Not only did Tomlin hire a person who had experience running an NFL offense — his topstated priority — but as an added benefit, he added a former head coach to his staff. And with two new quarterbacks in tow, he likes the idea of starting fresh.

“I’m just excited about being uncomfortable,” Tomlin said. “It’s good to have that anxiety or that urgency that’s associated with not knowing. And so, that’s the benefit that you get sometimes when you bring in someone new.”

Tomlin, though, knows this about Smith:

When he was the offensive coordinator for two seasons in Tennessee (2019-2020), the Titans ranked near the top of the league in a number of categories, including points per game.

They ranked third in total touchdowns (52) and yards per play (6.1) in 2019 and were tied for second in total offense (396.4 yards per game) and fourth in scoring (30.7 points) in 2020. In both seasons, led by Derrick Henry, the Titans finished no worse than third in rushing offense, averaging 153.3 yards per game in that stretch.

Smith doesn’t have Henry anymore, but he does have a similar type of power back in Najee Harris, who has rushed for over 1,000 yards each of his first three seasons. And he has Jaylen Warren, who has averaged 5.1 yards on 226 rushes the past two seasons.

“I have a lot of respect for the work that he did in Atlanta and also the work that he did in Tennessee,” Tomlin said during the recent NFL owners meetings in Orlando, Fla. “And I think that’s what created the comfort. I see his personality in his tape, and it’s not something that he has to buy into in terms of being a Pittsburgh Steeler.

“That was one of the reasons why we pursued him. His football vision and things that he values are in line with ours.”

Then he added: “His values are very evident in looking at his tape and they are aligned with things that we value: controlling the game through our bigs and building from there.”

When he was hired, Smith thought his quarterbacks would be Kenny Pickett and, more than likely, Mason Rudolph, whom the Steelers wanted to re-sign as an unrestricted free agent.

But that all changed when nine-time Pro Bowl quarterback Russell Wilson agreed to sign with the Steelers. His arrival led to the trade of Pickett, who was unhappy with the decision, which led to the trade for Justin Fields.

All of a sudden, a new offensive system has two new quarterbacks.

More unknown, but more excitement.

“Their skill set fits into the vision of what we’re trying to get done,” Tomlin said. “And so, I’m excited from that perspective.”

At one point, Tomlin had three other former head coaches on his staff — Haley, LeBeau and Mike Munchak in 2014. In 2022, he had former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores as a senior defensive assistant.

Now he has another with Smith, who was 7-10 in each of his three seasons with the Falcons.

“There’s an advantage for me,” Tomlin said. “I love having the ability to bounce ideas off of people, and not necessarily things that are directly related to the team or game plan or strategy, the things that you would initially think. But more subtle things — calendar, best practices, things that happen over the course of 12 months in an effort to search for and find a winning edge.

“That has proven to be very beneficial to me in the past and I’m excited about having that this time around with Arthur, and that’s something that I’ve been talking to him openly about. My time with Munch [Mike Munchak], my time with Todd Haley, for example, was really beneficial.”