His playcalling has been great and russ and him look like they're completely in sync with what to do offensively. I love how we're using dual TE sets, how we're using max protections to give russ plenty of time to take shots down the field, i love the power running game with pulling guards out in space to move dudes and i love the redzone playcalling too. My favorite plays that we do are when we have guys pick opposing defenders so that we can scheme a guy open quick to convert td's or 3rd downs consistently which is just great playcalling. Smith has been a MASSIVE upgrade over matt canada and this offense with russ under center has looked the best it's been in yearsssss since probably the ben and todd haley days where we scored at will.

26 comments

  1. Also love how we’re putting our qb UNDER CENTER!!! We never used to do that under matt canada and now we’re doing it alot with russ and both the running game and passing game are benefiting massively from doing so. We’re consistently taking shots down the field off of it and defenses are consistently having too keep light boxes in there to defend the deepball against us which allows najee and warren too feast. 

    I also love how with smith calling plays russ has several options to go too every single play whether it’s deep, intermediate, or using his checkdown meaning he almost always has 1 option to go too because of how the play is designed too work. If there’s no one deep then look for pat, darnell, van, austin, pickens etc intermediate or short. And if there’s no one intermediate or short then check it down too najee or warren and pick up 5 yards or so on a checkdown and keep the downs manageable. It’s just really good play design too have alot of options and plays that scheme dudes open consistently and smith has been cooking with russ and the offense is putting up close to 30 a game with these two.

  2. Totally agree

    Cannot believe the groupthink on this guy was so bad

    He is an extremely capable OC. He might have been a poor HC (or had you know terrible QBs) but his OC record is pretty impressive

  3. There’s a lot of people in the NFL that should not be head coaches. He’s one of them. He’s an incredible OC.

  4. Dudes been crushing it. I hope we can keep him for a while the same way the Chiefs hang onto Spags

  7. He is the exact OC we want. A run heavy guy who is gonna then set up some nice play actions to take some shots down the field. We also then went out and got a QB who also likes to run play actions to set up shots downfield

  8. IDK I really miss having 6 straight series of run, run, pass in a row and not getting our first 1st down until the 3rd quarter

  9. I’ll say one thing: I don’t love the amount of 2nd & 10 run plays he calls. BUT I checked and our average EPA on run plays on passing downs (1st & 10, 2nd & long, 3rd & long) is 0.05 (as of Week 9, didn’t check what it was after the Commanders game), so it’s not really hurting us too bad, but it’s also not helping us a ton either. So like, I give him a solid B+ grade as our OC so far this season.

  12. People were quick to judge him before seeing him with the starting QB he thought he was going to work with heading into the season. When you watch All-22 film from the first few games, players were actually getting open, but Fields didn’t see them or took off running before the play could develop

  13. I still have a small issue with the playcalling here and there, but seeing the BS that gets called around the league and where we came from, i am happy to have Arthur Smith as OC.

  15. Idk if it’s actually related but my marriage has never been better having him as OC 🤷🏽‍♀️

  18. I’m a Bears fan and follow the Steelers since you guys picked up Justin.

    Must be nice to root for a competent franchise lol.

  20. A sign that Arthur is having a decent year? Annie Agar isn’t roasting him in her weekly TikToks now as much as she did last year. I think she’s brought him up maybe once this season when I swear he was a weekly character last year.

  21. The most unnoticed/unappreciated part of his hiring is that it’s like having a 2nd HC, because he is legitimately a HC.

    You know what made Munchak so great? He was a HC as well.

    When you have someone like that, it frees you to do other stuff. Tomlin made a lot of mental errors under pressure in the past, and it was always when he had a weak/unpredictable staff underneath him.

    We are seeing peak Tomlin (and I just saw a submission saying Coach Of The Year and I agree) because he’s able to focus on making the key decisions. He’s not behind the 8-ball…ever.

    Smith calls a nice game and while Russ can be beaten, he’s not out there beating himself. Meaning, we’re not beating ourselves.

    I will give props to Dallas and Indy. They hung in there and beat us. I’m okay to lose like that. This is a different team than prior years, because we’re in literally zero danger of beating ourselves.

    I’m afraid Smith will get poached to a HC position again and Omar’s aggressiveness is because we have a short window with him, but if we keep him, we are perennial contenders, even without Russ. Because we have unleashed the Tomlin.

  22. I think the offense is only going to keep getting better and better – this season and beyond – as all the players continue to learn his system and he adapts based on the personnel.

  23. I agree, loved the hire. He is definitely a great fit here and happy to have him.

    That being said, a freaking taxidermied owl would have been an upgrade to Matt Canada.

  24. It is so refreshing to be able to tell there was consideration to the decision and you can think through the thought process, even if you’d come to a different conclusion on what play would be best in x, y, or z situation. Putting players in a position to succeed with their skillsets is so important and we’re seeing that.

    I do wish Pickens, for instance, would be more consistent with his effort. Something I think The QB School makes a good point about is his weird release stutterstep thing where he is starting slow and then bursting, which is a weird timing for a QB expecting a sprint crosser through the middle.

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