As offensive coordinator, Bruce Arians was 55-25 with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He began his tenure two years before Mike Tomlin was hired head coach, and they together brought the franchise its first Super Bowl since 1975. Pittsburgh had set the record for the most Super Bowl wins at that time.

But owner Art Rooney II went the distance only with one of those coaches, firing Arians in 2011.

“That was stupid,” Chris Simms said on Pro Football Talk on May 21. “It was one of the biggest mistakes of the organization’s tenure. That was a dumb move. They took away one of the greatest quarterback offensive minds in the sport.”

“Bruce Arians got shoved out because he was a little too close to Ben Roethlisberger,” Mike Florio said. “And I think somebody in the organization higher than Mike Tomlin thought it was a little bit too cozy between coach and quarterback.”

Arians had originally joined Pittsburgh during the Bill Cowher era as a wide receivers coach. After Mike Tomlin was hired, he was promoted to offensive coordinator. Since then, Roethlisberger has gone on to have the best years of his career. The Steelers evolved from a traditionally run-heavy offense into one of the league’s more aggressive passing attacks.

That offense began shaping around Roethlisberger; Arians was credited with letting Ben be Ben. He gave the quarterback more freedom at the line of scrimmage and greater control within the offense. While the production was undeniable, it involved playing a brand of football that the Steelers were historically not known for.

Arians ‘no risk-it, no-biscuit’ philosophy pushed the Steelers towards a dangerous cliff many times. He used to push Roethlisberger to make risky plays, where the odds were mostly not great. And, Arians rolled out a very pass-heavy offense, and refused to make more conservative, safe calls. During the Super Bowl victory parade, someone yelled at the coach to get a fullback on his roster. Arians replied, “Never!”

Art Rooney spoke about his frustrations with the Steelers’ offensive philosophy at that time.

“I think Mike and I certainly agreed coming off the season that we need to run the ball more consistently to get to where we want to get to,” Rooney said to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at that time. “We need to figure out how to get better [at] running the football.

“Overall, we need to have a better commitment to the running game,” he said to The Beaver Times. “I’m not sure if we had that commitment the past year.”

During the Super Bowl season, the Steelers’ rushing yards total (1,690) was the tenth-least in the league. There are active running backs who have come close to making that number alone in a single season.

The Steelers ultimately chose to move on from Arians and replaced him with fired Kansas City Chiefs HC Todd Haley, who has created productive offenses for the team. But the franchise has not returned to a Super Bowl since Arians’ departure.

But the now-Tampa Bay Buccaneers executive has no complaints.

Bruce Arians would always remain loyal to his quarterback

Arians’ strategy had begun to irk the franchise, as he refused to shift his loyalty from Roethlisberger. He’d even push the quarterback to risk taking big hits with his bold play-calling. During the Super Bowl victory parade, the former Steelers OC was booed by the crowd.

Eventually, the Steelers decided not to renew his contract in 2011. He had no plans of changing his Roethlisberger-centric strategies.

“Got fired in Pittsburgh because I was too loyal to Ben [Roethlisberger],” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2021. “If that’s a problem, you’ve got the problem. I don’t have a problem. I get very close to my quarterbacks.”

As head coach of the Buccaneers, he had the same rapport with Tom Brady. When Arians retired in 2022, there were a lot of rumors about the quarterback forcing him to make that decision. But Arians doubled down and refuted all of them, claiming he and Brady had a great off-field dynamic.

Arians’ reliance on pass-heavy offenses continued at Tampa Bay, too. In 2022, they had the least rushing yard total, having run the ball for only 1,308 yards. However, his bold strategies somehow brought his team wins. Today, he gets to look back at not two Super Bowl victories too, because of that bold mindset.