The Pittsburgh Steelers have officially found their new offensive coordinator. The Steelers are expected to hire former Atlanta Falcons head coach Arthur Smith, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reports. The Steelers initially interviewed Smith on Sunday, closing in quickly on the experienced play-caller, who’s reportedly drawn interest from plenty of teams around the league.
Experience calling plays was one of the top qualities that HC Mike Tomlin expressed a desire to chase in their search for an offensive coordinator in the post-Matt Canada era, and they’ll get just that with Arthur Smith, who called plays for the Falcons during his tenure as head coach, as well as two seasons with the Titans before being hired as a head coach.
Smith’s three-year tenure with the Falcons wasn’t an overly successful one, going 7-10 in each of those seasons, with those offenses (despite their talented cohort of skill position players) never ranking better than 15th in the league in offensive yardage or scoring.
Still, Smith was quite successful in his tenure as an OC with the Titans, designing an incredibly successful run game around star running back Derrick Henry, which set up efficiency in the passing game that could suit the type of offense Pittsburgh deployed in the post-Canada era.
