BREAKING NEWS: Arthur Smith’s offense the Steelers.
How would Arthur Smith’s offense look on the Steelers?
Pittsburgh The Pittsburgh Steelers are anticipated to appoint former Atlanta Falcons head coach Arthur Smith as their next offensive coordinator following a fast hiring process overseen by head coach Mike Tomlin.
He was chosen by the Steelers from a group of three interview candidates that included former offensive coordinator Thomas Brown of the Carolina Panthers and quarterback coach Jerrod Johnson of the Houston Texans.
Smith fulfilled the requirements that Tomlin said at his press conference at the end of the season: he was an outside hiring, he has served as an offensive coordinator in the past, and his resume indicates that he can implement an offensive philosophy with the players the Steelers already have on their roster. His lackluster tenure in Atlanta, which included three straight 7–10 seasons marred by criticism over the use of his finest players, infuriated some Steelers fans right away.
However,
“I believe we have a concept of how we want the offense to be designed for the Steelers,” owner and president Art Rooney II stated on Monday. “Lead with that, please. It is somewhat necessary to have a coordinator that feels confident in their ability to work with this roster and achieve success because you cannot make drastic changes to it over night.
“Someone who can work with this squad and accomplish what’s kind of already constructed here, in terms of the roster and some of the skill sets that we have, and who believes in that. That, I believe, is what we’re searching for.”
Despite the fact that his time in Atlanta doesn’t exactly support it, Smith’s body of work and his training under Steelers alumni Mike Munchak and Ken Whisenhunt
Without Henry, though, Smith was as successful on the ground as 2022 Falcons fifth-round selection Tyler Allgeier had a spectacular rookie campaign, rushing for 1,035 yards. Following a dismal 2021 season in which they finished 31st in rushing yards and 27th in rushing touchdowns, Smith’s Falcons finished that year ranked third in rushing yards and 10th in rushing touchdowns. The Falcons also placed ninth in terms of rushing yards per game and fifteenth in terms of rushing touchdowns in 2023. In contrast, the Steelers finished 11th in rushing touchdowns and 13th in rushing yards in 2023.
With an average of 2.32 yards after contact per rush in his first two NFL seasons, Allgeier was second in yards after contact only behind Henry. That is encouraging for Najee Harris and
But in 2023, Smith will need to come up with a more potent running back duo scheme than his current one. Smith received a lot of flak in his last season with the Falcons for using first-round running back Bijan Robinson inconsistently. Despite having a great deal of skill, Robinson only managed two 100-yard running performances during the season, both of which occurred in the opening month. Despite playing 68% of the offensive snaps, Robinson only had 86 targets and 214 run attempts. Allgeier, on the other hand, saw action on 32% of offensive plays, with 186 rush attempts and 23 targets.
Harris, who closed the season with back-to-back 100-yard games for the first time in his career, was helped by the two-back scheme, according to Rooney.
“I’m feeling better.”
Smith’s influence on the quarterback is one area that isn’t nearly as evident; Tomlin has previously stated that this was a “significant” factor in the coordinator search.
“This game is quarterback-driven, offenses are quarterback-driven,” Tomlin stated, “and so their expertise in that area is a significant component of the search from my perspective.”
Smith managed two of quarterback Ryan Tannehill’s greatest seasons before taking over in Atlanta. In addition to the Titans’ 2019 AFC Championship Game loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, Tannehill’s career-best 9.6 yards per attempt and 13.6 yards per completion earned him a single Pro Bowl selection. Tannehill passed for 13 touchdowns to wide receiver A.J. Brown’s 55 touchdowns with weapons like tight end Jonnu Smith and wide receiver A.J. Brown.
In a similar vein, Henry had two outstanding seasons during that time, running for 2,027 and 1,540 yards, respectively, and winning the 2020 AP Offensive Player of the Year award.
Smith did not have the same luck with his quarterbacks in Atlanta, despite replicating some of his success on the ground. Following the 2021 season, the Falcons moved on from Matt Ryan and selected Desmond Ridder two rounds after the Steelers chose Kenny Pickett. After replacing Marcus Mariota in four games as a rookie, Ridder had a terrible second season and was benched twice for Taylor Heinicke in the middle of a 2023 season in which he had 17 interceptions. In his second season, wide receiver Drake London also failed to advance, catchingMaking the most of Pickett and using players who can make an impact in the passing game, such wide receiver George Pickens, will be among the primary goals of the next offensive staff. Although Smith didn’t demonstrate any signs of becoming a quarterback whisperer while in Atlanta, the Steelers still have some choices. They might choose to bring in Tannehill as a temporary solution at the position, or they could choose to bring in a great position coach who can help Pickett grow, someone like Johnson, who they interviewed for the offensive coordinator post and who plays a significant role in C.J. Stroud’s success. As Pickett matures, Tannehill, a free agent, may improve the Steelers’ offense thanks to his experience in Smith’s scheme. However, the Steelers have also
Charlotte, North Carolina In 2005, Lizzy Canales discovered what others had known for a long time, in between watching her husband sell cowboy boots, work in commercial real estate, organize music at his parent’s church, and even consider the ministry that his father and grandfather made their life’s work.
Dave Canales was destined to be a football coach. He was in his second year as the offensive coordinator at his high school in Carson, California.
Lizzy says, ‘I believe you’re extremely excellent at this,’ after two years. In an interview from June 2023, prior to his first season as the offensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Dave said, “We can take this as far as you want to go.”
David Tepper, the owner of the Carolina Panthers, reportedly saw the same issue in
Pete Shinnick, the coach at Towson University, who coached Canales at Azusa Pacific in college, stated, “This is the perfect guy to get Young back to that level that we saw in college.” “I have no doubt that Dave will take him apart, show him where he is, what happened, where he can go, and what he can accomplish.”
Smith concurred; he was awarded Comeback Player of the Year in 2022.
“Man, he’s going to do wonders,” he said. “It will be encouraging because he will enter with the appropriate attitude and energy.”
Few coaches have had a greater impact on Canales than Pete Carroll, the longtime Seahawks coach who lured Canales to Seattle from USC in 2010.
He’s among the men that we
Canales’ first goal is to fix young people, but not with magic tricks. Carroll taught him to be aggressive and play to his players’ strengths. Carroll was more concerned with scoring points than he was with winning games.
During a Week 16 press conference in Tampa Bay, Canales declared, “I’m never going into a game saying we’re going to pound the rock, or we’re going to spread it out and rip them.” “I try to ask myself, ‘What are they giving us today?'” before the game.
Last season, the Panthers struggled with scoring. With 13.9 points per game, they were tied for lowest in the NFL with New England. In terms of yards per game (265.3), they were likewise lowest in the league, and Young concluded
