Arthur Smith has shown he can turn around a quarterback’s career. In Tennessee, he took Ryan Tannehill from first-round bust to Comeback Player of the Year. In Pittsburgh, he showed he could make Justin Fields a better player than what he showed in three years with the Chicago Bears. Russell Wilson was a different story, a Super Bowl winner and one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks in his prime, his goal by signing with the Steelers was to show his career could offer a strong final chapter.
In stretches, it has worked. But there were apparently some hard conversations along the way.