The Tennessee Titans had been without an offensive coordinator for almost two weeks, after Matt LaFluer left town to become the head coach of the Green Bay Packers. Titans fans were shocked. The Sean McVay disciple, who Mike Vrabel patiently poached away, was supposed to solve the franchise’s offensive woes by saving their franchise QB. After a season of average results, there were no real concerns that LaFluer had earned a head coaching gig. Titans fans held onto hope that LaFluer could improve in his second year as a play-caller. Unfortunately, Green Bay became the team that will get to see if he improves (for the record, I think he’ll do just fine). Immediately, Titans Twitter started to frantically search for the next OC. From pulling Gary Kubiak out of his comfy office job to finding Sean McVay’s 8th grade best friend, people were desperate to find the best man for the job. This search needed to be concluded in 24 hours in order to be successful according to fans. Mike Vrabel and Jon Robinson were in no hurry. This shouldn’t have been a surprise to any of us. Just last off-season, Vrabel took about a week and a half to find LaFluer. They were never going to rush this decision. It just isn’t there style. Deep down, I think Vrabel and Jon Robinson knew who the right man for the job was all along. There was no reason to rush the process because the man for the job was already working for them. Insert Arthur Smith.
Arthur Smith is not the sexy pick, nor is he the guy that will “win you the off-season”. ESPN’s NFL Live will probably spend about 1 minute on him and will move on to the next topic. That’s okay though. The Matt LaFluer hire was all of those descriptions above, and we’ve now seen how that turned out. The most popular guy is not always the right guy, and Mike Vrabel knew that. It’s imperative to get the right guy this time. The Titans are at a pivotal moment in their franchise’s history. After going 9-7 for three straight years, the franchise needs to take that next step or risk getting trapped in the dungeon of NFL mediocrity. The bigger storyline may be the direction the franchise is going to take regarding the QB position. I won’t belabor you with a detailed breakdown of the Marcus Mariota situation (there’s plenty of articles here on our website and podcasts that can provide you with that information) but essentially if Mariota continues to regress, like the last two years, then it will be very difficult for Jon Robinson to hand him the keys to the franchise. This is all to say that next season is huge for the Titans, specifically for the Titans offense. With LaFluer leaving, things were not looking good, but this could honestly be a blessing in disguise.
In order to understand this hire, it’s important to first understand who Arthur Smith is. Smith played college ball at North Carolina. He went directly into coaching as a graduate assistant, after his playing days at North Carolina. He became a defensive/quality control coach for the Washington Redskins and then served as an administrative assistant/defensive intern at Ole Miss in 2010. Mike Munchak brought him to Tennessee as a defensive assistant/ quality control coach in 2011. Most of you are getting a little concerned that the new OC has not coached on the offensive side of the ball. The concern for Smith would be warranted. Thankfully, he switched to an offensive assistant position in 2012 and worked his way up the ladder until he became the TE coach in 2015 under Mike Malarkey. He had been the leader of perhaps the best position group on the Titans for the last three years. Now he begins his next mission as OC.
There are a few things that jump out to me right away from his resume. One, is that he isn’t some hotshot guru that got his tutelage from a Shanahan, Andy Reid, or Sean McVay. I honestly find this to be a good thing. This shows that he’s had to work for everything he’s gotten. This is not to say that some of these other assistants didn’t earn their promotions, but their connections made it much easier and progressed faster as a result of them. Smith has earned his promotions off of his merit. He’s one of the most well-respected coaches on staff at Tennessee and around the league. He put his time in and worked his way up. The second thing that jumps out to me is that he’s just a football coach. Some of you may be thinking that I’m pointing out of the obvious. What I mean by this, though, is that the man just understands the game. He was asked to do many different jobs with different position groups and coaching staffs. He’s excelled in all of his roles no matter what. He’s not a guy who’s been pigeon holed into just coaching quarterbacks or creating a passing gameplan. He’s very versatile, which is valuable in any coaching position. It’s been reported before that as a quality control coach in the past, Smith was asked to breakdown film and create scouting reports on teams and players and coaches raved about his ability in this department. There’s a reason he was kept on staff through Munchak all the way to Vrabel. That makes me feel pretty good about his ability to breakdown opposing defenses and create a gameplan.
I spoke before about how respected Smith is inside NFL coaching circles, but, perhaps even more important, is how he is respected and praised in the locker room. There has been an outpouring of support from tons of Titans players. This may not mean a whole lot to some of you, but it means something. The guys trust Smith because he’s been there with them. He’s been there longer than most of the players on the roster. He’s going to know their strengths and weaknesses better than almost anyone else. He also has the advantage of learning from 4 different head coaches and staffs. Hopefully, he has picked up things that were successful from each regime while also learning from their mistakes. Because of his time spent in Tennessee, Smith offers what few other candidates could. Continuity. This offense will have had 4 different play callers in 5 years starting next season. That’s absurd I don’t care how talented you are, that much turnover is difficult to handle. Having to learn new plays, verbiage, and flow of offense each off-season can be crippling to player’s developments. This has been all too much the case for Marcus Mariota. So, it was imperative for the Titans to find a coach that would be able to use some of the things that were used in the last few years. Being able to start this off-season with some familiarity will do wonders for this team. Another plus with Smith is that no matter how good he does next season, because he does not have any hot connections yet, there’s a good chance he will be back next season if all goes well. In today’s NFL, if you can keep a young, talented coordinated for more than a year or two, you’re blessed so Titans fans should be grateful if that is how things play out.
Now, Smith is not perfect by any means. He has yet to call a play on either side of the ball. We don’t know if he can work with quarterbacks. He’s also not an offensive guy through and through which will bother some people. Here is the thing, though, he has worked extremely hard at every stop he’s made. He impressed enough people to survive a change in management as well as 4 different coaching staffs. Matt LaFluer even tried to get him to come to Green Bay with him to become the OC. That has to mean he’s doing something well. He has the full support of the locker room and should have a great feeling about his players abilities. He also seems to fit Vrabel’s style of play and leadership. Being physical and outworking everybody else. He just seems to love football. All of this means nothing, however, if doesn’t know how to call plays and manage a game and I understand that. Calling plays is totally different than coaching a position group or scouting. He’s probably not going to be a natural at it at the very beginning, but neither was LaFluer. I’m going to go on the record now and say that he will probably be a better head coach than coordinator, if he ever gets the chance, because of his leadership and player development abilities. That doesn’t mean he I don’t think he will be a successful coordinator it just means that he displays certain qualities that are prevalent in many successful head coaches. For now, though, he’ll have to succeed as an offensive coordinator, and we won’t have a resolution to that question until the season starts. In the time being, however, I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt.
All Hail King Arthur!
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