{"id":31051,"date":"2025-05-07T13:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T13:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/31051\/"},"modified":"2025-05-07T13:00:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T13:00:10","slug":"arthur-smith-breakdown-how-did-the-steelers-personnel-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/31051\/","title":{"rendered":"Arthur Smith Breakdown: How Did The Steelers’ Personnel Change?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers have a full year with offensive coordinator Arthur Smith at the helm. We\u2019ve already looked at the goals he and the offense achieved \u2013 and the ones that failed.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Today, we\u2019ll look at the Steelers\u2019 offense from a usage perspective. Changing from Matt Canada to Smith meant a radically different philosophy and construction of the offense from a personnel standpoint. Using data collected via our Clayton Eckert, here\u2019s the shift in personnel groupings from 2021 through 2024.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the numbers:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And here\u2019s the key takeaways:<\/p>\n

\u2013 As expected, the Steelers\u2019 use of 11 personnel<\/a> (three wide receiver sets) fell. Dramatically. Smith\u2019s offenses have often been among the least-heavy when it comes to 11-personnel, a staple of most NFL offenses and definitely of Pittsburgh\u2019s the last several years. From 2021-2023, they sat no worse than 69-percent in a season. In 2024, that number fell to 52-percent.<\/p>\n

\u2013 In its place came a lot of 12 and 13 personnel, two and three tight end sets. Under Smith, 12 personnel saw a 9-percent increase while 13 personnel jumped up by 10 points. In 2021 and 2022, the two full years under Matt Canada, 12 personnel wasn\u2019t used at all.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Usage is one thing. Effectiveness means more. That\u2019s where Arthur Smith had problems.<\/p>\n

Despite having the NFL\u2019s second-highest rate of 13 personnel, it\u2019s easily the least-successful grouping of anything Pittsburgh\u2019s run over the past four years. League-wide in 2024, the Steelers\u2019 34-percent success rate out of 13 ranked just 21st.<\/p>\n

Those numbers can\u2019t continue. Pittsburgh can\u2019t be the second-highest in a grouping and rank bottom-third.<\/p>\n

Given Smith\u2019s long-standing use of 13 personnel, I\u2019d expect Pittsburgh to continue heavily using it in 2025. It must be more efficient and successful.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Under Smith, the only successful grouping that ranked above league-average was 12 personnel. Appropriately, it had the 12th-highest usage and the 12-best success rate. Unless Pittsburgh can find a strong third tight end, last year rotated between MyCole Pruitt and Connor Heyward, relying more on 12 personnel might be a better path to take.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Overall, Smith\u2019s groupings were the most balanced the Steelers have had in years. Even without the data, Pittsburgh was a heavy 11-personnel team under Randy Fichtner and during the late 2010s under Ben Roethlisberger. This is a stark change but an expected one given Smith\u2019s track record. Ultimately, no matter the style or philosophy a coordinator has, results are what matters. Smith needs to show improvement there, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers have a full year with offensive coordinator Arthur Smith at the helm. We\u2019ve already looked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[4829,7,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-31051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-arthur-smith","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","14":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114466680208742446","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}