Steelers OC Arthur Smith Named Dark Horse for Jets HC Job
Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith turned down the North Carolina head coach position, but he’s expected to receive strong consideration from several teams during the NFL head coach cycle in January.
One of those teams could be the New York Jets. Rich Cimini of ESPN believes the Jets have some level of interest in Smith.
“He’s kind of a dark horse candidate,” Cimini said on his “Flight Deck” podcast.
Smith was in the running for the Jets HC position in 2021, but the organization hired Robert Saleh instead. Smith went on to take the head coaching job in Atlanta.
NFL insider Dianna Russini also revealed in The Athletic this summer that the Jets talked to Smith about a role helping Nathaniel Hackett. Essentially a de-facto OC position.
Smith rejected the offer, however, because the Jets were not clear about the role, according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. Smith also wasn’t all that interested. The opportunity to coach with Mike Tomlin and be a part of the Steelers organization was more appealing to Smith.
During his media availability this week, Smith touched on how Tomlin has made him a better coach.
“A lot. I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of great mentors. You know, he [Mike Tomlin] is another Hall of Fame coach that I’ve had the chance to work for,” Smith said. “Joe Gibbs being another one. Good mentors. You constantly learn and evolve. I mean, not just Mike, too, it’s this whole organization. It’s different here. It’s unique. It’s a credit to a lot of the people and the way this thing has been built and the way this organization goes day by day about their daily business. It’s an awesome climate, culture, whatever you want to call it. And that’s from the top down.”
After three seasons of posting a 21-30 record, Smith was let go by the Atlanta Falcons following the 2023 season. He went 7-10 in each of his three seasons in Atlanta. Smith was hired by Tomlin and the Steelers on Feb. 2
At the NFL owner’s meetings in March, Tomlin explained what he saw in Smith that made him so favorable to what Pittsburgh has at quarterback and with their offensive personnel.
“First and foremost, man, I’ve competed against him over the years,” Tomlin said of Smith. “We’ve had some battles against Tennessee and then obviously we played him when he was in Atlanta. I respect his approach, the ball, 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 and then I also got close relationships with some people who were really significant in his development and helped him establish some things that he strongly believes in, guys that I’ve had an opportunity to work with like much for example, and so it was really a great deal of comfort and beyond comfort. It was a great deal of excitement in terms of bringing him on board.”
The Steelers currently rank 10th in points per game (24.7), which is a big improvement from last year’s 28th ranking (17.8). There’s no doubt about, Smith has been a huge upgrade compared to Matt Canada. He’s also rejuvenated Russell Wilson’s career.
With the work that he’s done in Pittsburgh this season, Smith’s second head coaching opportunity could come sooner rather than later.
Read This Next
