With the Pittsburgh Steelers sitting at 7-2 heading into Week 11, all is well in the city of Pittsburgh... perhaps except for the black and gold's offensive coordinator's marriage.
Head coach Mike Tomlin made a strong—and at the time heavily criticized—executive decision to switch quarterbacks from Justin Fields to Russell Wilson after Week 6. Since then? The Steelers have gone 3-0, are scoring just over 30 points per game, and have watched Wilson throw six touchdowns to just one interception. Wilson's success can be attributed to long nights spent with coordinator Arthur Smith.
#Steelers OC Arthur Smith spends so many hours w Russell Wilson he makes sure to FaceTime his wife to prove where he is on a Friday night pic.twitter.com/Qdn0LgKrmo
— 93.7 The Fan (@937theFan) November 14, 2024
"We spend so many hours (together) that sometimes my wife FaceTimes me to make sure I'm not somewhere on the South Side," the offensive coordinator joked on Thursday afternoon. "'I'm really in my office, there's Russ!' We're here on Friday nights talking through those situational things."
While Smith's head coaching tenure with the Atlanta Falcons (with just a 21-30 record) left much to be desired, it's hard to question his success as an offensive coordinator. In fact, the job he's done in Pittsburgh this year has landed him on SI's Conor Orr's list of 27 potential head coaches heading into next season.
"Arthur Smith, the former Atlanta head coach, was 21–30 in three years with the Falcons during a time of roster tumult," wrote Orr. "The team had to sit on massive dead-cap hits following the losses of program stalwarts such as (quarterback) Matt Ryan and (wide receiver) Julio Jones. Smith’s quarterback for a majority of his time was former University of Cincinnati standout Desmond Ridder. Now in Pittsburgh, Smith is at the helm of a dramatically improved Steelers offense that has won games with both Justin Fields and Russell Wilson."
For now? Smith's likely just worried about getting to 8-3. The Steelers host the Baltimore Ravens this Sunday at 1 p.m. at Acrisure Stadium.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Steelers OC Gives Funny Marital Admission About His Time Spent With Russell Wilson.
