First offseason move for Steelers must be to fire special teams coordinator Danny Smith

[hawaiiansteeler]

First offseason move for Steelers must be to fire special teams coordinator Danny Smith

By: Curt Popejoy | January 18, 2016

Now that the 2015 season is done for the Pittsburgh Steelers, there’s no time to sit around and feel bad for how the season ended. It won’t be long before the Pittsburgh front office has to start making some tough decisions about players and coaches.

In the coming days, we are going to get lots of news about players being signed to futures contracts, and plenty of speculation about which players will not be re-signed. However, there’s a real possibility that the bulk of the Steelers coaching staff will remain untouched. Nevertheless, there’s one coach that must go. And that’s special teams coordinator Danny Smith. Why? Here’s why.

On the season, the Steelers averaged 8.7 yards per punt return, which puts them right in the middle among the league’s punters. Steelers kicker Chris Boswell is No. 20 in the league in kickoff distance, and the team is No. 7 in terms of return yardage allowed. Is being a middling special teams unit the mark of a championship team? I’d say no.

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http://steelerswire.usatoday.com/201...e-danny-smith/

[Steeldude]

First move? Not re-signing Blake would be a great move.

[ALLD]

I would have fired him in Denver. Steelers realistically have 4 years left with Ben and no time to waste with consistent under performers. Not being prepared to block on punts and the horror stories watched during some returns do not justify Smith's return. If his ideas were Chris Rainey and Archer then they should dock a few paychecks too.

[86WARD]

I endorse this 100%

[SteelerFanInStl]

He should've already been gone.

[Hawkman]

Frank Beamer

[Steelman]

How Danny Smith still has a job is one of the more befuddling things about the Steelers organization.

He does have his supporters...or supporTER: Alex (Chidi29) Kozora. But he might be the only one I've seen that thinks he's a good coach. Apparently Smith is an enthusiastic guy, and I'm sure it's true. But this is a performance-based league. Nobody cares if you're enthusiastic, they only care if you show results. And the results speak for themselves, IMO.

[NCSteeler]

Our special teams are very average . I doubt that's enough to get Smith fired. Some of yall might be forgetting how bad things use to be, when every punt and every kickoff could easily end in a TD. Not to say we shouldn't be trying yo get better but that things are good enough that he will probably be retained


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[86WARD]

Our special teams are very average . I doubt that's enough to get Smith fired. Some of yall might be forgetting how bad things use to be, when every punt and every kickoff could easily end in a TD. Not to say we shouldn't be trying yo get better but that things are good enough that he will probably be retained


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Very average...may be generous...lol.

[tube517]

Frank Beamer

We can dream,can't we?

[ALLD]

Look what happened to the OL when the office admitted it had a serious problem and brought in Munch.

[steelerdude15]

Our special teams are very average . I doubt that's enough to get Smith fired. Some of yall might be forgetting how bad things use to be, when every punt and every kickoff could easily end in a TD. Not to say we shouldn't be trying yo get better but that things are good enough that he will probably be retained


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While our special teams may be average, has there been a lot of growth in the few years that Danny Smith has been the coach? I would say no. We still have a lackluster punt return unit even with Antonio in (which he should no longer return punts so we can reduce his risk of injury) and there are still a lot of stupid penalties like holding and block in the back that are being committed by that unit.

Also, our kick return unit has suffered and was horrid when Dri was back there. Stupid decision after stupid decision to run with the ball 7 or 8 yards deep in your own endzone should make a special teams coach sit the player down and tell them that if you're that deep, just down the ball.

Lets not forget how it seemed Markus seemed completely unprepared last week to return punts against the Broncos. While some of that is his own fault, it makes you wonder if he was even properly prepared to return punts during practice leading up to the game.