The Pittsburgh Steelers, under Arthur Smith, will probably borrow one big concept from Kyle Shanahan’s offense.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have climbed the Sean McVay tree after signing Arthur Smith. Given how they developed their run game schematics after their loss to the Rams and the general interest in the entire tree, it is not shocking. Smith has ties to that, having worked with the Titans in 2018 under Matt LaFleur.
Even if he will have to change to return to Tennessee’s level of play, Smith does something that both McVay and Kyle Shanahan like doing.
Smith possesses some of the league’s lowest split times, which helps his offense blend in with the McVay tree, at least in part. On occasion, wide receivers will be on the hip of tight ends or tackles. That’s the truth, however when used properly, it’s an intriguing philosophy. Instead of attacking fortifications from the outside in, as other spread formations do, Smith assaults them from the inside out. That is not to say that the two mindsets cannot coexist, but for now McVay and Kyle Shanahan are leading the way. They work out of these compressed splits, perform group sets, and stacked looks. The 49ers ran more plays from shortened settings than any other club.
That makes great sense given Smith’s play-action style and his desire to attack in the space between the numbers. However, in order to pull it off, you’ll need some hosses who can dig out safeties and block in the run game. Teams will almost definitely go into one-high shells and roll the additional man into the box to account for in the run game because of the reduced splits.
To do that and to inspire the skilled guys in that room to put up their best effort, Pittsburgh will require a phenomenal blocking receiver. To Smith’s credit, a lot of the brightest minds are heading in this direction, but he must figure out how to change while following their lead.
Many max protection shot plays from such splits will be seen to cause chaos and traffic. Once more, it’s not as well-executed as Shanahan or McVay, and it more closely resembles their 2019 or 2020 lineups than their current one. But, Smith’s firing from the Falcons has given him the motivation to update and modify his plan. It remains to be seen if he will examine other transgressions that are comparable to his own and change. Should he succeed, it wouldn’t be too far for his offensive to adopt schematic tendencies.