Maybe some Pittsburgh Steelers followers thought Mike Tomlin employed Arthur Smith to say, “Please, take this off my plate”. When you’ve got been a Steelers fan lengthy sufficient, although, you have to be ashamed of your self. Due to course Tomlin has his arms all around the offense, as he does in all places else.
The Steelers introduced Arthur Smith in as a result of he match the tradition Mike Tomlin and the Steelers have constructed. In the end, Smith serves at Tomlin’s behest and adheres to no matter philosophical strictures he places into place. Traditionally, wanting the Killer Bs period, that has been a conservative strategy. And even the beat writers are uninterested in it.
“That’s the strategy he believes in and continues to make use of”, Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Submit-Gazette wrote in a chat of Tomlin’s conservative offensive philosophy, which has been constant throughout coordinators as much as and together with Arthur Smith. “I’ve all the time acknowledged the Steelers might usher in Sid Gillman as their offensive coordinator and so they’d nonetheless win video games 17-13 or 23-16”.
A fast historical past lesson on Sid Gillman. You might have heard the title earlier than, however he’s most well-known for serving to to modernize the sport. His emphasis on the vertical passing recreation is a direct ancestor to the explosive offenses we see as we speak. And like all offensive revelation, his groups racked up factors earlier than defenses might reply. He had a top-10 scoring offense for 15 consecutive seasons as a head coach, and virtually all the time high 5.
Clearly, Dulac is poking enjoyable at Mike Tomlin for suggesting that his conservative strategy might even neuter an aggressive Gillman offense, which Arthur Smith definitely doesn’t make use of. However the Steelers have ranked twenty first or worse in scoring for the previous 4 years.
Since taking on the Steelers job in 2007, Tomlin has solely had 5 top-10 scoring offenses. 4 of them got here within the coronary heart of the Killer Bs period, when he lastly let his hair down. Ben Roethlisberger’s elbow damage in 2019 was the transformative second right into a extra conservative strategy.
Tomlin’s overarching precedence, which he emphasizes with Smith, is ball safety. Each group desires to guard the soccer, after all, however the Steelers restrict dangers greater than most. At the very least, they’ve up so far, however his most conservative interval coincides with poor quarterback play.
Might he lastly change course as he positive factors belief in Justin Fields to take calculated dangers? Mike Tomlin as soon as fired “no threat it, no biscuit” Bruce Arians. Everyone agreed that it was the fitting transfer on the time, however that’s principally as a result of the Steelers’ offensive line was terrible.
Requested why Arthur Smith’s offense bears so many resemblances to these of earlier Steelers coordinators, Dulac wrote, “As a result of Mike Tomlin is the pinnacle coach who units the philosophy”. However actually, ought to anyone be stunned? When you’ve got a secure head coach who performs at a baseline of expectation yearly, you’re not going to get many radical adjustments. You’re going to get variations on a theme, and Smith is one among them for Tomlin. He nonetheless has his personal persona, however like all coordinator, he has to suit it into his head coach’s imaginative and prescient.
