One of the challenges in practice for Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith is not allowing star edge rusher T.J. Watt to wreck his unit with the kinds of game-changing plays we see Watt make on a weekly basis.
In order to avoid that, Smith admits he has to scheme around Watt, which is certainly understandable. However, that leaves the star edge rusher "pissed" at times, the Steelers offensive coordinator revealed.
"I always joke with T.J., 'I'm not going to let you wreck practice today," Smith said on The Pat McAfee Show recently. "You don't want to be stubborn. Sometimes he gets a little pissed if we scheme around him, but I just say, 'Hey, I'm not going to be an idiot and just let you wreck practice.'"
That's a better approach than what some other teams do. The Las Vegas Raiders, for example, actually pull fellow star edge rusher Maxx Crosby off the field entirely so he can't wreck practice, head coach Antonio Pierce recently admitted.
“There are certain plays we want to see, and sometimes you’ve got to pull (Crosby) off on those plays to get the look for the offense," Pierce said. "I mean, he is that type of player now in his career where when he makes up his mind, he’s unblockable. And I think he understands that, and we understand that.”
At the end of the day, both approaches are two of the highest forms of compliments. But Smith's is the one that better equips an offense for the challenge of the regular season, when opposing teams aren't going to be pulling their best players off the field.