The Pittsburgh Steelers have long been a wide receiver-dominant passing game, as are most teams. That’s not to say that they haven’t had very important contributions from the other skill positions from players like Heath Miller, Le’Veon Bell, Najee Harris, and Pat Freiermuth. But the 2023 roster may present the most dynamic tight end room the team has had in a long while.
It helps that they have actually drafted at the position, selecting one in each of the past three years. That includes their first picks earlier than day three of the draft since 2007, with Freiermuth a second-round pick in 2021 and most recently Darnell Washington a third-round pick in 2023.
Veteran wide receiver Allen Robinson II believes the group will be a significant component of the passing offense this year, and of the offense in general, both in terms of skill set and physical attributes. Co-hosting on SiriusXM Radio this week, he noted of Washington that he has a history of playing with some bigger contributing tight ends like Marcedes Lewis and Julius Thomas.
“Then you have guys like Pat ‘Muth, who’s an ascending player himself and who can make a lot of plays”, he added. “Connor Heyward as well. He’s a guy who’s a playmaker in that tight end room who can create mismatches for linebackers and safeties. When you have a lot of guys that you can plug and play to create mismatches, that’s exactly what you want”.
Freiermuth has had back-to-back seasons of 60-plus receptions to begin his career, and one can reasonably expect him to better those numbers in 2023 with the quarterback position settling down around a second-year Kenny Pickett under center.
He and the 2022 first-round draft pick were slowly but surely building a rapport over the course of the season, which was most often highlighted in key moments late in the year. As for Heyward, his playing time was limited last year, but not his chemistry with Pickett, who was his draft classmate.
Washington, the rookie, comes into the league with a reputation of being primarily a blocker. However, while he himself was a bit down on his own route-running abilities coming out of spring practices, other observers had a more positive review of what he might be able to contribute in that area.
How it all plays out and on what timeline remains to be seen, of course. There has been a recent storyline building about Washington possibly being brought along slowly, even beginning his career as a healthy scratch. While the team has dressed as few as two tight ends before, we can’t forget about Zach Gentry, who could still make the roster and whose presence would complicate the rookie’s opportunities to contribute.
While Freiermuth should be in for a career year, I do think we can expect Heyward to play a bigger part in the offense in 2023, at least going by how everybody seems to be talking about him. Could he ultimately be a Kyle Juszczyk-type player, a fullbackish position guy who can both carry the ball and run routes as a legitimate receiving option? Now that would be a genuine mismatch problem.
