The Pittsburgh Steelers are dealing with a lot of turnover this offseason, both on their roster and within their coaching staff. The biggest coaching change has come with Arthur Smith being named the new offensive coordinator, called in to replace the ineffective Matt Canada from 2023.

Some scoffed at the decision to bring in Smith, but the reality of the situation is the Steelers liked a lot about Smith, not all of it being his ability to coach the Xs and Os of the game. In fact, Mike Tomlin spoke about how he loves coaches who have head coaching experience on their resumes and how it gives him someone to bounce ideas and concepts off of during the season.

“There’s an advantage for me. 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,” Tomlin said last week at the annual NFL meetings in Orlando. “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 and in some of those more subtle things that might not be interesting to you all, but necessary things from a head coach perspective.”

Smith is coming off a less-than-stellar stint with the Atlanta Falcons, but has had a lot of success as a play caller when he was a part of the Tennessee Titans organization. The fact Tomlin has faced him a lot in past years only adds to the team’s intrigue to bring him onboard as their next play caller.

“First and foremost, I’ve competed against him over the years. You know, we’ve had some battles against Tennessee and then obviously we played him when he was in Atlanta,” Tomlin said. “I respect his approach to 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 also I got close relationships with some people that 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 Munch (Munchak), for example. And so, you know, 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.”

Consider this a glimpse into how the Steelers view the offensive play caller role on the team, and also how they show value to coaches who have experience at the professional level. With all that being said it does make you wonder why they decided to not just hire Matt Canada in 2022, but also to retain his services in 2023. That will be a question to answer another time, but the team is looking forward to what Smith brings to the team in many ways in 2024.

Be sure to stay tuned to SCN for the latest news and notes surrounding the Steelers as they prepare for the rest of the 2024 offseason.