Arthur Smith willingly adapting to change in his 2nd year as Steelers offensive coordinator

Arthur Smith learned countless lessons from his late father, FedEx founder Fred Smith, the ability to adapt being chief among them.

Smith doesn’t credit his father’s business acumen that made him a billionaire as the reason he’s able to embrace change in his job as Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator.

It was Fred Smith’s time spent as a member of the Marines Corps and his service in Vietnam that made for invaluable lessons.

“When it comes to adapting to circumstances, (Marines) take pride,” Arthur Smith said. “He used to tell me the only constant in life is change. Another quote was, ‘You may hate change, but you’ll loathe extinction.’

“I’ve always tried to pride myself in that and not be a rigid thinker.”

Smith has taken his father’s messages to heart in his second year with the Steelers. He oversees an offense that has lost four skill position starters and five overall from the team that suffered a 28-14 wild-card playoff loss at Baltimore in January.

Out are Russell Wilson, Najee Harris, George Pickens and Van Jefferson. In are Aaron Rodgers, DK Metcalf, Jonnu Smith and two new members of a running back trio – Kenneth Gainwell and rookie Kaleb Johnson.

Changes were deemed necessary after the Steelers finished the season on a five-game losing streak. The offense, which was ranked No. 10 in the NFL in points and No. 14 in yards following a 10-3 start, finished No. 16 in points and No. 23 in yardage.

During that five-game skid, the Steelers averaged just 14.2 points. To remedy that, the Steelers replaced Wilson with a quarterback five years older in Rodgers, who turns 42 in December. They traded for a top receiver in Metcalf, then shipped their 2024 leading pass catcher to Dallas less than two months later.

Harris and Jefferson exited in free agency. Gainwell, formerly of the Super Bowl champion Eagles, is among the group that will share running back duties. The hole at No. 2 receiver, which arguably was the offense’s biggest weakness in 2024, was partially remedied by the acquisition of Jonnu Smith in a trade with Miami.

All the while, Arthur Smith looked internally and realized he needed to change, too.

“It’s part of your leadership role,” he said. “There are too many people in any industry who have a victim mentality. When things don’t go right, they never look at themselves. This is a team sport. There are always areas to improve, and I always start with myself. That’s why year after year I’d try to adapt. I’ve made some mistakes, but you learn from it and get better.”

Among the new pieces brought into the system, only Jonnu Smith had a prior relationship with his offensive coordinator. Rodgers knew a little about Arthur Smith because of the lengthy time each had in the NFL. They also are about the same age.

“I joke with him that I’m going to have to find new material because he’s of my era,” Smith said. “Some of my jokes still work. He gets the movie references. He’s got 20-plus years of experience, so as we collaborate some of those things allows you do to way more. That’s one of the things you want.”

Rodgers is appreciative of Smith’s willingness to adapt to the players the Steelers have acquired in the offseason, himself included.

“I like his flexibility,” Rodgers said. “Arthur is not rigid in what he’s doing. He wants to tailor the scheme to the personnel that he’s got. … We’re trying to find what guys do best and implement that into the offense. I love that about Arthur, so we’re going to keep doing that.”

The Steelers led the NFL in multiple tight-end formations last season, and they reinforced the position by adding Jonnu Smith to a group that includes starter Pat Freiermuth and backups Darnell Washington and Connor Heyward. Arthur Smith already has used a package during training camp in which four tight ends have taken the field on the same play, with Jonnu Smith lining up in the backfield.

“If the defense is going to play something we’re not comfortable with matchup-wise, we’re not going to do it,” Freiermuth said. “But if we can in four tight ends or three tight ends and we have an advantage schematically, we’re going to run it. I think he does a great job of doing that.”

Multiple tight end formations is one attempt Arthur Smith has made at alleviating the loss of Pickens, who was traded to Dallas in May for draft capital next season.

“That versatility is going to give us flexibility, and that’s going to be a problem for other teams,” Jonnu Smith said. “That’s how we are assembling this thing. It’s a selflessness aspect that goes into it. Playing these positions and learning these positions that you may not be what you’re used to doing in the past … we’re all working toward the big goal, and we know what that is.”

The pursuit of an elusive playoff victory that dates to the 2016 postseason hasn’t gotten off to the smoothest of starts in training camp, and perhaps that is to be expected given all of the new players on offense. In the first week of camp, the offense struggled at times in team periods and has yet to put together consecutive dominant days against the defense. One of the growing pains occurred Friday when the first-team offense, with Rodgers under center, couldn’t get a first down in a two-minute session.

“Nobody is getting frustrated,” Metcalf said. “We’re all trying to grow together, work together. It’s a steady stream of information from the meeting room onto the field. Everybody is open to communication and criticism.”

Circumstances forced Smith to alter his playbook several times in the run-up to training camp. After all, Rodgers didn’t officially join the Steelers until June, and the trade for Jonnu Smith added another dynamic to the offensive mix.

“You prepare for it,” Arthur Smith said. “We talked about it in March and decided there were a lot of things we wanted to change. We had a Plan A if Aaron was here, which I felt confident about, but you also have to prepare the other way.”

At running back, the Steelers had a ready-made starter in waiting in Jaylen Warren. Gainwell was signed because of his pass-catching ability and his work on third downs in Philadelphia. General manager Omar Khan used a third-round pick on Iowa runner Kaleb Johnson.

“We have more chess pieces,” Smith said. “Kenny G is a versatile chess piece. You can go to more two-back stuff. … We have strength at certain positions. The depth in our tight end room, certainly our running back room, we made an investment in DK, Calvin (Austin) is taking another step. We’ll see what Roman (Wilson) and those other guys do. Robert Woods is a veteran.

“We’ll see how it shakes out.”