Tim Benz: Steelers' reported hiring of Arthur Smith is as logical as it is uninspired

The Pittsburgh Steelers’ reported decision to hire Arthur Smith as offensive coordinator makes total sense.

That’s not entirely a compliment, mind you. But it does make total sense.

Credit the Steelers for being extremely pragmatic. Somehow, in one hire, the organization has managed to be thoroughly logical in its thought process yet entirely uninspired in its execution.

Kinda like the last seven seasons, now that I think of it.

In a word, the hiring of Smith is predictable. Indisputably … predictable.

In fact, your reaction to the hiring of Smith as the Steelers’ new OC is likely a good gauge of what type of Steelers fan you tend to be.

If you aren’t thrilled with the hiring of Smith, you probably start most conversations about the Steelers by saying, “This team hasn’t won a playoff game in seven years!”

If you’re a Steelers fan who is applauding this hire, you’re probably the kind of fan who tries to end every Steelers conversation by saying, “Mike Tomlin has never had a losing season!”

What the hiring of Smith indicates, in my eyes, is a commitment to more of the same — just with the hope of doing the same thing a little better.

Emphasis on “hope.”

Here’s what we know about Smith during his time as an assistant in Tennessee.

• He was a quality control coach on both sides of the ball who ended up coaching tight ends and the offensive line before becoming an offensive coordinator.

• His offense finished 10th in the NFL in points per game in 2019. With star running back Derrick Henry carrying the load, Tennessee wound up with 138.9 rushing yards per game, third best in the NFL. In 2020, only Baltimore had a better rushing attack, as the Titans put up 168.1 yards per contest. The club was fourth in points at 30.7. Henry had 3,567 yards rushing over those two seasons.

• Quarterback Ryan Tannehill had a passer rating of 110.6 over those two years and was 18-8. He had a 55:13 touchdown to interception ratio. He made the Pro Bowl in 2019 when his 9.6 yards gained per pass attempt led the NFL. Tannehill also led the NFL in passer rating in 2019 (117) and was fifth in 2020 (106.5).

• That offense featured a future Hall of Famer in Henry, along with Tannehill, Taylor Lewan, A.J. Brown, Ben Jones and Roger Saffold, who all made Pro Bowls at some point in their careers. The team went 9-7 in 2019 and won two playoff games. In 2020, the team went 11-5 and lost its only playoff game to the Baltimore Ravens.

Here’s what we know about Smith as a head coach in Atlanta from 2021-23.

• His teams went 7-10 all three years. (Did you know Arthur Smith has never had a winning season?)

• During his last two years in Atlanta, the Falcons finished third in rushing attempts at 522 in 2023 and first with 559 in 2022. They were 26th in pass attempts in 2023 (530) and 31st in 2022 (415) — even though those teams combined to lose 20 games.

• In 2022, Falcons quarterbacks threw just nine interceptions (tied for the third-lowest total in football).

• He was ripped in Atlanta for not getting enough out of young offensive skill position players such as Bijan Robinson, Drake London and Kyle Pitts. And his offense couldn’t maximize a depth-chart-challenged quarterback position.

To recap, over five years as an NFL offensive coordinator or head coach, Smith’s teams operated with a ground-oriented, efficient-passing, ball-security approach that opened up based on run-game success. When he has established Pro Bowlers, he succeeds. When he has young skill position talent, he has some trouble figuring out how to unlock them. His career record over those five seasons is 41-42. Four of those seasons have ended without a playoff win.

Wow! It’s almost like he was born to be a Steelers coach. This is destiny, folks. It was just meant to be.

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Smith will try to turn Pickett into Tannehill, Najee Harris into Henry, George Pickens into Brown, and Pat Freiermuth into Jonnu Smith. He might even lobby to sign Tannehill if Mason Rudolph goes elsewhere.

Was an interview process even necessary? I guess not. After all, long shots Thomas Brown and Jerrod Johnson (neither of whom have been coordinators) were the only other candidates interviewed.

It’s almost as if Smith got fired in Atlanta and, the next morning, sent a text to Tomlin simply saying, “S’up, Coach T?”

Then, Tomlin replied with a heart emoji and the words, “Arthur, do you have the other half of this amulet?”

Yes, that team on the North Shore you were recently told is feeling a sense of “urgency” to finally end its playoff-win rut is so “urgent” that it:

• Is about to reinstate its benched quarterback into a starter’s role

• Is about to give the head coach an extension

• Has already extended the defensive coordinator

• Is now hiring an offensive coordinator with exactly the same principles the team has operated with for the past five years

Welcome to town, Arthur. You’ll fit right in. Let’s just hope you do better than the last guy. It’ll be hard to do worse.

Given the way this team has operated of late, that’ll probably be good enough.

Listen: Former WTAE sports anchor Jon Burton, now of News Channel 5 in Nashville, joins Tim Benz to discuss what Arthur Smith’s offenses were like in Tennessee.