LATROBE, Pa. -- When Arthur Smith was hired as offensive coordinator, it wasn't necessarily the sexiest pick. Some fans wanted some young hotshot from the Kyle Shanahan or Sean McVay trees who may -- or may not -- have all sorts of revolutionary ideas.
Regardless, Smith brings an impressive resume to the Steelers, including two phenomenal years as offensive coordinator in Tennessee, and not all that long ago. And, after seven practices in training camp at Saint Vincent College, it's clear to see that things will be different on offense.
And I mean that in the best way possible.
The first thing that should be music to anyone's ears who's suffered through watching the likes of Matt Canada's offense is this answer from Smith during his meeting with reporters after Thursday's practice:
"It's all going to play out. We just don't want to become obvious, right?" Smith said. "Every time that this guy's in this formation, we're not doing that. We need everybody involved. It'll be week to week with how we want to scheme it up. But, you can't become obvious."
After years of telegraphing plays, the Steelers seem to finally be catching up to the standard of running an actual NFL offense. And, with what I've seen in training camp thus far, there are standout differences -- even some things that can get anyone as excited as possible.
The first thing that's stood out in the two days of padded practices is the actual usage of a fullback, Jack Colletto. Now, Colletto was on the practice squad last season, but he wasn't used last season the way he's been used in training camp.
During Wednesday's practice, two reps of seven shots were won by running out of the old school I-formation, the first was an easy touchdown by Jaylen Warren and the second was the drill-winning score by Najee Harris. And in both instances, Colletto cleared a path to the end zone for his tail back. And in other reps, he's laid some impressive blocks, including a pancake of Mark Robinson.
Running out of the I-formation is such a change to this offense because, well, it just isn't something that's used all that often in today's NFL. Sure, Shanahan's offense heavily uses one, but there's still a lot of offensive minds that have different ways of scheming things up.
As Colletto would tell me after practice, using a fullback in the I-formation could be a distinct advantage for this offense because it's just not something off-ball linebackers are used to seeing nowadays:
"It definitely possesses challenges, especially with how you run it," Colletto told me. "When you're in the I, it's like, 'Which way are you going to go?' There's so much you can do off of it, and it's a lot more dynamic having somebody in the backfield, too. Because if somebody messes up or if somebody shoots a gap, then I'm there with space to pick it up. A lot of it's being able to be that clean-up crew if things were to happen."
Now, the Steelers aren't going to revolutionize the sport by bringing back the fullback or the I-formation. It's, at best, one of many ways to attack defenses. Smith was clear about that after practice, especially acknowledging that any fullback that's employed on the roster has to be able to contribute on special teams.
"If you’ve got a fullback that can help you and there’s a big picture involved. You don't live in a fullback I-formation, offset, but the advantage you have up," Smith said. "But, guys also have to help at other spots, so that is where you see the big picture coming from up here, the experience, so it's important. ... So, you’re just trying to figure that out. It may be some weeks just like we are talking about multiple tight ends, you might want to have fullback, if it gives you an advantage, but it also has to play into the big picture."
That's where Mike Tomlin and Danny Smith will chime in. There's just no spot on a 53-man roster for a guy who exclusively plays fullback.
Another wrinkle I've noticed are more running back screens. And, these don't look like the screens we've seen under Canada or even Randy Fichtner. Some of the plays include misdirection in which the play starts off with the quarterback selling to one side while the screen develops on the other side.
And, no matter how the screen is designed, the offensive linemen are usually out in front of the running back by the time he catches the ball. How many times in recent years have we seen linemen sprinting over to get in position after the running back had already caught the pass? It was terribly designed, terribly coached and, therefore, terribly executed. I'm not seeing that now.
Also, I've seen some really interesting things with formations. First, there has been a lot of multiple tight ends on the field. That comes as no surprise in an offense run by Smith. He loves the use of multiple tight ends.
"All these guys, they are finding out what their strengths are, how it fits the overall scheme, but it’s been fun," Smith said. "When you can play with multiple tight ends, guys that can do a lot especially on those early downs -- it has been a good camp for those guys."
But, it's not just your typical 12 personnel (one running back, two tight ends) or 13 personnel. I've even seen a five-wide formation with 13 personnel, having all three tight ends line up to the strong side of a 3x2 set.
Needless to say, that's new.
And, I've also noticed a couple of formations in which George Pickens and Pat Freiermuth have been stacked out wide, whether it be Pickens in front and Freiermuth behind or vice versa. With a tight end as talented as Freiermuth is as a pass catcher, little wrinkles such as these are much needed.
Obviously we can't deduce anything we've seen and try to draw up what Smith's playbook actually looks like. It's one week into training camp. This team is still eight days away from playing their first preseason game. The quarterback in "pole position" has yet to fully participate in a practice. We are far from getting a really good feel for any actual details of this offense.
What this team can do during this time is establish the overall identity of this offense. That includes installing the offense, but also includes the demeanor with which they carry out the plays that are called. The first padded practices of training camp have helped with that immensely.
"We established a little bit of our style of play (Wednesday) with things we have been working on," Smith said. "There’s some things you want to call and work on wearing pads. We want to be smart, both sides. It’s seeing the big picture, so days we have pads, we will change the schemes up a little bit. Then today, helmets, working some different schemes, but has been very pleased with picking up the nuances and really our style of play, and that was good, and then now you are pushing through Day 3. So not just physically, but mentally sometimes you see who can push through as you get into the dog days of camp. So, this is a huge week for us."
One thing that's very important throughout this whole process, perhaps more than anything else, is the buy-in from the players. They have to be sold on the vision Smith has for what he wants to do on offense. And, in a league that relies more on scoring than perhaps ever before, everyone believing in that vision is paramount.
Players aren't stupid. They see what other offenses look like. They see the different ways that great offensive minds scheme things up. Shanahan likes to use a lot of larger personnel packages. McVay's Rams utilized 11 personnel more than 94% of the time last season, with the thought that every single formation looks the same, so it's harder to telegraph what's coming.
In talking with a few different players about what stands out about this offense compared to the previous regime, including Nate Herbig, that same mentality came up unsolicitedly.
"Arthur's a heck of a play-caller, man," Herbig told me. "He makes everything look alike. You don't know where things are coming from. Formations look alike. We run three different plays out of this similar formation, misdirection, things like that. He does a really good job of marrying plays together, make the run look like the pass, and the pass look like the run. He's a heck of a play-caller. We just gotta give him all the credit."
As someone who loves to dig into the nitty gritty of offensive schemes and concepts, and how they are coached, that is music to my ears. And honestly, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise. Smith gets a bad rap for his three years as head coach in Atlanta. But, his two years in Tennessee were part of the time in which the wide zone system was tearing defenses apart. Smith earned the right to be thought of as one of the better offensive minds in the game, at least in the same realm as Shanahan and McVay during that time. That's why he got the job in Atlanta.
Now, I'm not about to make any bold predictions about this offense. After all, last year's preseason is a lesson to all of us that there is only so much stock to take into what happens on the fields at Saint Vincent College or in the meaningless three games in August. But one thing's certain: This looks like an actual NFL offense. For now, at least take some solace in that. When September comes, we'll see how much fruit it actually bares.
