A phone call from Mike Tomlin to interrupt Arthur Smith's vacation from Dubai to the Maldives in early January started to turn the wheels for Smith's return to the NFL as an offensive coordinator.
Once he returned stateside from that vacation 7,000 miles away, Smith made sure to return that call and hop on a flight from New York to Pittsburgh to interview for the Steelers' vacancy. After all, he had a few key influences encouraging him to make Pittsburgh his next home -- Mike Vrabel, Mike Mularkey, Ken Whisenhunt, Dick LeBeau, Deshea Townsend, Nick Eason, and Lou Spanos to name a select several -- as Smith noted all of them "swear by this place" of which they once resided.
The Steelers hired Smith weeks after the Falcons fired him in early January. Smith had a successful run as a coordinator in Tennessee followed by three underwhelming seasons as the Falcons' coach but, as he said before Tuesday's mandatory minicamp on the South Side, he is only interested in moving forward in getting acclimated at a place that he feels he is a perfect fit for.
"When Mike called me, funny how timing and life works, I wanted this job and I wanted to learn from Mike, what this place means," Smith said. "If you like the history of this game and the way that the Rooneys have done business here, I've gotten to know Omar (Khan) over the years through the league meetings, and certainly Mike, that was very appealing. It's rare when you have a guy that's been in one spot and the success he's had, someone that's older and has done it for a longer time, it's someone you can learn from that has, really, a shared belief, so, really, it was a home run for me. Things don't go your way and then a door opens and I couldn't ask for a better situation."
It's a familiar position in new territory for Smith, who has a completely new quarterbacks room to work with. In turn, that quarterbacks room in and of itself is new to Pittsburgh along with Smith. The Steelers sent off Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph and brought in Russell Wilson, Justin Fields and Kyle Allen in part of an effort to reverse the course of one of the NFL's worst offenses over the last five seasons.
Wilson said the versatility of Smith's offense makes it unique.
"He's called a lot of plays, been in some huge moments, big playoff games and moments and everything else," Wilson said of Smith. "His ability to communicate. We spend a lot of time together, me and Arthur Smith and (quarterbacks) coach Tom Arth as well and the quarterback room and everything else. I think the best part about our relationship, too, is his knowledge of the game and how he communicates. I think that's always the key. All of the stuff that we have in and the plethora of stuff that we're working on is already great (for) how far we're along already."
Smith said the transition is made easier because all of the quarterbacks are coming into this offense with a fresh slate, just as Smith is coming to Pittsburgh with a fresh slate.
"If you get a job like this and there's a guy that's been here 10 years and the have a certain way of doing things, you're new," Smith said. "But we're all new and that's been fun going back and looking at film and stuff all three of those guys have done at previous stops, stuff I've done at different stops with different quarterbacks."
Wilson has obvious pedigree from his time in Seattle, but Fields presents a bit of a wild card to the Steelers' quarterbacks room. Wilson, 35, and Fields, 25, are each entering contract years and the organization could opt to groom Fields as the quarterback of 2025 and beyond, should he choose to re-sign after this pseudo-redshirt year. Smith reiterated Tomlin's stance that Wilson is in "pole position" as the Steelers' starting quarterback for 2024, but Smith is laying the groundwork with all of his quarterbacks including Fields.
"With all the quarterbacks, we're working," Smith said. "... We're excited to have the opportunity to work with them. Justin's got a great mindset. For a guy that's had a lot of individual success and certainly had some flash plays that we've all seen and some dynamic play making. Whether it's Russ, him, Kyle, or John Rhys (Plumlee), all these guys, we're constantly working to enhance fundamentals."
The Steelers have finished inside of the top 20 in points just once in five seasons, and they have been inside of the top 20 in total yards in zero of the last five seasons under Randy Fichtner, Matt Canada and the interim duo of Mike Sullivan and Eddie Faulkner.
Smith is hoping to reverse that course. In 2019 and 2020 under Smith, the Titans finished 10th and fourth, respectively, in scoring offense while finishing 12th and second, respectively, in total offense. The Titans lost to the Chiefs in the AFC Championship following that 2019 season, and they bowed out to the Ravens in the Wild Card after the 2020 season.
Tomlin said the key for Smith to bring this current unit together by the time the team convenes in Latrobe is "taking advantage of the days."
"I just like the energy and detail that he brings, the competitive spirit that he brings," Tomlin said. "It creates a really good environment. He's doing a really good job of selling his system of football to the players, increasing the level of understanding. He loves to coach. I'd imagine it's refreshing for him to get focused on a certain component of the job again. It's a lot to be excited about."
The Steelers have their duo of Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren returning to shoulder carries at running back. Smith said there will be plenty of carries to go around to the two.
But, a good deal of speculation has risen about depth at wide receiver behind George Pickens. The Steelers traded Diontae Johnson to Carolina but brought in veterans Van Jefferson, Scotty Miller and others via free agency and drafted Roman Wilson in the third round to go along with Calvin Austin. Smith is not too concerned about a potential lack of depth behind Pickens.
"It's all subjective," Smith said. "Things happen during the season. I'm thankful right now that I get to go back and coach the players. I'm thankful, grateful for my previous stop, but now I just dive in. They have conversations but it's not my responsibility. Things happen. Guys get injured the first play of the game and you have to have a contingency plan. That's our job. The ball's going to get kicked off every Sunday -- now it's Wednesday -- at one o'clock or on Christmas or whenever they tell us to play, but you better have depth and you're always working consistency and you're always looking for improvement, and so we'll deal with every circumstance thrown our way."
Smith urged it's not difficult to make that transition back to coordinator and especially so under someone like Tomlin, who was signed to a three-year contract extension Monday afternoon.
"If you don't have an ego or are insecure, you need to recalibrate and look at things you can learn," Smith said. "You've got a coach like Mike to learn from and certainly this place and the way they've done -- I got some calls from different spots -- there's just so much shared history and appreciation that I have. Even going back, I got to work with (Buccaneers assistant) Tom Moore. He was always in my ear when I saw him in Tampa. The only time I've seen Tom not look old was when you go back and look at those pictures on the wall (at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex) and Tom talked about studying Chuck Noll. People swear by this place. Mike Mularkey played for Chuck and worked here for Bill Cowher. I couldn't have asked for a better situation and just studying Mike and the Steelers and what they're about I feel like it's a perfect fit."
