Steelers Insiders Indicate Hiring Of Arthur Smith Comes Complete With Double Edged Sword For Mike Tomlin

The Pittsburgh Steelers have made it official: Arthur Smith is the new offensive coordinator. He was the only candidate the team interviewed that met the criteria Mike Tomlin and Art Rooney II publicly deemed necessary to be hired by the organization. The die is cast. Fans have to hope for the best from a new OC who agreed to keep virtually all of the offensive staff responsible for Pittsburgh’s worst offensive ranking in their 90-year history.

The announcement of a popular fan-favorite target, Klint Kubiak, reportedly agreeing to become the New Orleans Saints offensive coordinator, should cause some indigestion in Steeler Nation. Kubiak did not even merit an interview by Tomlin and was ignored as an option by the organization. The promised change by Tomlin at this point looks to be an offensive coordinator who has been tasked to merely tweak the current failed offensive scheme. 

Steelers' Mike Tomlin Can Still "Be A Great Coach" But Ownership Needs To Help Him To Do It

On Friday, Andrew Limberg and Jeff Hathhorn published an article on 93.7 The Fan about Tomlin’s hiring of Smith. It has been suggested by multiple members of the media that the Steelers were not adequately supporting Tomlin by saddling him with poor assistants. Aditi Kinkhabwala suggested that the organization step in and help surround Tomlin with competent coaches to save him from himself. Limberg and Hatthorn are not convinced that, left to his own devices, Tomlin made the right choice.

“The Steelers wasted a season,” the article states. “Sure, they made it to the playoffs, but they still don’t know what they have in Kenny Pickett. In the past [Ben] Roethlisberger had the talent to drag the Steelers into the playoffs, and when they had Antonio Brown and Le'Veon Bell, win a playoff game or two. They have a talented running back tandem in Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren, which is what Smith excels at; there is a big question mark at quarterback.”

Some media members have pointed out that Smith is not very good at developing quarterbacks. It is an assumption based on the performance of the Atlanta Falcons quarterbacks over the last three seasons. Smith did have success with Ryan Tannehill in 2019 and 2020 as a veteran quarterback who had failed with the Miami Dolphins, but reached his full potential with the Tennessee Titans. It is not necessarily fair to blame the new offensive coordinator for his inability to turn Desmond Ridder into a franchise quarterback. 

"Running the ball well will win you games in the regular season, but if the Steelers want to win a playoff game for the first time in over seven years, they’ll need to have a successful passing game," the article continues. "Tomlin’s last two offensive coordinators have been a disaster. Randy Fichtner, his plays would be called out by the other team’s defense leading to Roethlisberger having to take over and bail the Steelers out. That was followed by Matt Canada, who was heavily criticized by local and national media, and for good reason. At times, they couldn’t seem to get out of their own way."

Canada and Randy Fichtner had the luxury of falling back on Roethlisberger's talent for improvisation. It is the precise attribute that Kenny Pickett is missing, and it caused many of his problems in Canada's system. Pickett has engineered multiple fourth quarter comebacks during his time as the starting quarterback. It is why many fans are hoping that he can evolve into a viable starting quarterback. It may be false hope, mainly because it is apparently a feature, not a bug, that forces the Steelers' signal-caller to engineer dramatic comebacks in one-score games. 

"Tomlin doesn’t have Big Ben to change the plays if Smith’s offensive play-calling goes south; he doesn’t have Canada to blame," the dual authors conclude. "Owner Art Rooney II said the hiring of Smith is 100% on Tomlin. Tomlin has put it all on Arthur Smith. If it doesn’t work, he won’t be around to hire the next OC."

The authors have correctly surmised that Rooney’s affirmation that his head coach retains complete autonomy to pick his assistants could backfire on Tomlin. One of the most despicable talking points from commentators like ESPN's Mike Greenberg and CBS Sports' Kinkhabwala is that the Steelers' head coach bears no responsibility for his coaching staff's shortcomings. 

Pro Football Talk founder Mike Florio often parrots that the Steelers hierarchy does not take credit for anything, so it is hard to assess blame when things go wrong. The Steelers' owner has publicly proclaimed that Tomlin is fully responsible for this higher and, therefore, will shoulder the blame if it doesn't. Based on his track record, he should have asked for help.  

What do you think, Steeler Nation? Has Tomlin lost the cloak of invisibility the organization has provided him for years? Please comment below or on my Twitter/X: @thebubbasq. 

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