New Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith says he’s eager to get to know quarterback Kenny Pickett.
Although there’s no guarantee that Pickett will be handed the starting job in 2024, Smith sounds like he expects to be building an offense around the 2022 first-round pick who opened the 2023 season as the starter.
“There’s a relationship that’s got to be built between me and Kenny. That’s so paramount between the play caller and the quarterback,” Smith told Missi Matthews of Steelers.com.
Smith was the Titans’ offensive coordinator in 2019 and 2020 and then the Falcons’ head coach from 2021 through 2023. He says he and head coach Mike Tomlin are a good fit for what they want their offense to be.
“There’s a certain identity we want to have,” Smith said. “Any offense I’ve been a part of it’s going to be physical, we want to win on the line of scrimmage, it’s also about playing to our strengths, create explosives, we want to have a very smart unit.”
Pickett hasn’t shown enough yet to instill a lot of confidence that he can be the quarterback who runs that unit. After a disappointing 2023 season for the Steelers’ offense, Smith has a big challenge ahead of him.
