Steelers OC Arthur Smith wants to build offense around strengths of Aaron Rodgers, DK Metcalf

Three teams in the NFL ran the ball more frequently than the Pittsburgh Steelers last season. One quarterback attempted more passes than Aaron Rodgers.

As he prepares for his second season as the team’s offensive coordinator, Arthur Smith would like to find a workable balance between the two extremes. He wants the Steelers to have a successful running game, and his track record indicates he favors a run-heavy approach. But Smith also wants Rodgers to readily use a right arm that has accumulated the seventh-most passing yards in NFL history.

That is particularly true given the offseason acquisition of wide receiver DK Metcalf, who has averaged more than 1,000 receiving yards a season in his six-year career. The Steelers traded for Metcalf to give the offense an established No. 1 receiver and rewarded him with a $150 million contract.

“You don’t bring Aaron in here and sign DK to all that money to bring them in to go run the wishbone,” Smith said Wednesday before the second day of Steelers’ minicamp. “You play to the strengths of your team.”

Despite being 41, Rodgers will be one of those strengths, Smith said, and not just a steward of the offense as he hits the twilight of an NFL career that is entering its third decade.

Smith said it is reasonable to expect Rodgers to build off his late-season stretch for the New York Jets last season. Although the Jets finished with a 5-12 record in Rodgers’ return from an Achilles injury, he threw 18 touchdown passes and four interceptions after a Week 7 loss to the Steelers.

“The guy is still throwing the ball at an extremely high level,” Smith said. “You’re talking about one of the greatest passers in the history of this game. Not many guys have thrown the ball like Aaron Rodgers.”

The Steelers turned to Rodgers after the Russell Wilson experiment lasted one season with the franchise again failing to get past the first round of the AFC playoffs. The Steelers let Wilson test free agency and pursued Rodgers after Justin Fields signed with the Jets.

Wilson’s chance of returning were hurt by a season-ending five-game losing streak in which the offense sputtered. The offense never topped 17 points during that skid, and Wilson reportedly was frustrated about being unable to change plays at the line of scrimmage.

Smith referenced the alleged riff Wednesday, even calling it a “hot-button issue.”

“We never fundamentally changed,” Smith said. “We schematically shifted when we went from Justin to Russ (after Week 6), but the operation never changed. The narrative that we (were not) calling plays at the line, I don’t know the history of that. I know what we did in ’24. We didn’t. … Our issue at the end of the year is we didn’t give enough.”

After his first workout with the Steelers on Tuesday, Rodgers said he will have input into the plays that Smith calls and expects their run-pass philosophies to be aligned.

“I’m going to learn the offense this summer,” Rodgers said. “If there are things I like that I’d like to have in the offense, I’m sure Arthur is going to put it in. He knows how to call a game. I know how to get us in the right spot depending on what is called.”

Any comparisons of the 2024 offense to the one Rodgers will run could be moot based on the number of personnel changes that have taken place in the offseason. Along with Rodgers, the Steelers have a new No. 1 receiver in Metcalf, a potential starting running back in rookie Kaleb Johnson and two new tackles to anchor the offensive line.

“We’ve evolved every year,” Smith said. “You have to, sometimes out of necessity. I’ve had a lot of different quarterbacks with a lot of different skill sets. Our job as coaches is to play to the strengths of your players.”

Until this week, Metcalf arguably was the only one on the roster with any experience catching passes from Rodgers. And that took place in a private workout at the end of March in southern California.

“How quickly he releases the ball and me getting off the line of scrimmage fast stands out,” Metcalf said. “His playmaking ability after a play breaks down or the way he contorts his arm a different way to get the ball out is unique. He’s going to help not only me, but the other receivers and tight ends in the offense.”