Ex-Falcons HC a Hot OC Candidate, Do Steelers Make Sense?

As it becomes clearer who the Pittsburgh Steelers are looking at for their offensive coordinator job, it’s also becoming obvious they are casting a wide net. From Zac Robinson to Kliff Kingsbury, those two names are quite different. But so would former Falcons head coach Arthur Smith, who was fired in Atlanta but had plenty of success with the Tennessee Titans before accepting that job.

In that stint, Smith led the Tennessee Titans to their highest-scoring season ever on the offensive side of the ball while guiding players such as Derrick Henry and Ryan Tannehill to career years. Smith’s last victory as the Titans’ offensive coordinator came against the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Divisional Round, where the Titans ran the ball to a 28-12 victory and their last AFC Championship birth.

But the idea of Smith at least drawing interest from the Steelers became far more likely when Dianna Russini released a report that Smith has interest from more than seven teams about joining their staff as the offensive coordinator. Considering there are only eight openings for offensive coordinator, one would have to infer that the Steelers might be on that list.

When you look at Smith’s philosophy, it makes sense. He uses a lot of 12 personnel and loves working with multiple tight ends in his offense. More than that, they operate under center a ton and work off play action to try and make things easier for the quarterback. Of course, the drawbacks to Smith are well on record.

His inability to get the ball to his best playmakers in Atlanta, like Bijan Robinson, Drake London, and Kyle Pitts, became stories during his rocky tenure with the team. That would spark his infamous ‘fantasy football’ rant.

“Let the fantasy guys worry about that,” Smith said. “We’ve got to clean some things up. We can all be better in our spacing, and targets is the most misunderstood thing in the National Football League.”

Smith has experience working with quarterbacks with limitations like the Steelers would boast, which is a plus. But the inability to feed playmakers in Atlanta is the first question to be asked in any scenario. But sometimes, guys are just excellent coordinators and bad head coaches. The verdict on Smith is not out there yet, and his stint as offensive coordinator with the Titans was prolific and successful.

As with most of these candidates, there is an associated risk, but Smith’s underlying scheme and ideas would help Pittsburgh’s quarterback situation. It’s just how much of the limitations in Atlanta were placed on the offense by him rather than the poor quarterback play.