Cameron Heyward Responds to the Steelers’ Interview with the Recently Fired Head Coach for Open Coaching
Defensive lineman Cameron Heyward talked about who he wants the Pittsburgh Steelers to hire as their next offensive coordinator. Former manager Arthur Smith was not included on Heyward’s short list. But the defensive lineman still had positive things to say about Smith’s chances of landing in Pittsburgh as the team’s offensive coordinator.
“If you look at what he did at Tennessee with Derrick Henry, I think he won MVP when he was there,” Hayward told his running mate Hayden Walsh on The Not Just Football podcast on Jan. 29. “[Ryan] Tannehill played really well that year.
“It was definitely very successful. I know he was fired last year because he wasn’t very successful and things weren’t going well. But is good.”
Smith was the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons from 2021 to 2023. The team went 7-10 in all three seasons.
Smith previously served as the offensive coordinator of the Tennessee Titans in 2019 and 2020. Steelers interviewed the attack with Arthur Smith.
On January 28, Tom Peliceron from the NFL said he was interviewed as a coordinator. Then the team reported the end of the interview on account X (previous Twitter). The Falcons have struggled offensively with Smith as their head coach. In two of the three seasons, Atlanta ranked 26th in scoring. Additionally, the team has never finished a season better than 17th in rushing yards under Smith.
Smith’s biggest mistake in Atlanta was moving third-round quarterback Desmond Ridder. The signal caller went undrafted after Kenny Pickett in 2022, and Ryder had 12 interceptions and 12 sacks in 15 games in 2023.
But despite the quarterback and overall offense issues, Smith has put together a strong running game for Atlanta. The Falcons finished the 2022 and 2023 seasons with a top-10 offense.
In 2022, he ranked third in rushing yards and fourth in rushing yards. Tennessee’s running game gave Smith the opportunity to work with the Falcons. Under Smith, the Titans offense ranked third in rushing yards in 2019 and second in 2020. Also in 2020, the Titans ranked second in total yards and fourth in scoring.
Tannehill led the NFL in rushing with 9.6 yards per attempt in 2019 with Smith as the offensive coordinator. Then Tannehill owned the best NFL season in 2020 with 3819 meters with 33 meters and 7 meters in 2020.
As he wants to build Tannehill’s development and development experience, Sports Smith is called “Good Grin” in Boleras. Hayward poked fun at Steelers prospect Kliff Kingsbury.
With Smith interviewed, the Steelers have three other candidates for the offensive coordinator role. Depending on who the fans believe, there could be a fourth. NBC Sports’ Peter King said in an interview with 93.7 The Fan on Jan. 23 that the Steelers plan to talk to another former NFL head coach in Kliff Kingsbury. From 2019 to 2022, Kingsbury coached the Arizona Cardinals to a 28-37-1 record. But two days later, Jerry Dulak of 105.9 The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said:
Walsh expressed his satisfaction that Kingsbury was not considered as a candidate. The podcast host joked that a trainer is only offered a job because he looks good.
Heyward had another reason why Kingsbury shouldn’t be Pittsburgh’s next coordinator. “He coached Pat Mahomes and they didn’t win anything,” Hayward said.
Kingsbury was Mahomes’ head coach at Texas Tech from 2014 to 2016. Despite having Mahomes at quarterback, Kingsbury led Texas Tech to a 16-21 record.
But Hayward stopped taunting Kingsbury. “That’s probably fine, so I’ll shut up.”
