Steelers OC Arthur Smith: Only thing that matters is my current job

Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith spent a long time coaching in Tennessee, but he said on Thursday that he's not spending any time pondering the prospect of returning there in 2026.

The Titans have requested permission to interview Smith for their head coaching vacancy. Smith was a Titans assistant under multiple coaches from 2011-2020 and used a two-year run as the team's offensive coordinator as a stepping stone to the head coaching job in Atlanta.

Smith insists that the prospect of a second chance to run a team during a return to Nashville is not something that he's spending any time thinking about with the Steelers set to host the Texans on Monday night.

That's not something I'm going to focus on because the only thing that matters is my current job," Smith said, via Teresa M. Walker of the Associated Press. It's like trying to tell people all the time, I'm living the present. If you have perspective, you have life experiences, you're wasting time worrying about the future if you deal with that. . . . Anything's like that's a distraction."

Smith won't be able to speak to the Titans or anyone else until after Monday's game. If the Steelers win, he'll have to choose whether to shift his attention long enough to throw his hat in the ring.