Now that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2023 season is getting underway after the team finished above .500 but failing to make the postseason last year, we turn our attention to the next chapter of Steelers football and everything that entails. One thing that it means is that some stock evaluations are going to start taking on more specific contexts as we get into the season, reflecting more immediate plusses and minus rather than trends over long periods. The nature of the evaluation, whether short-term or long-term, will be noted in the reasoning section below.
Player: TE Pat Freiermuth
Stock Value: Down
Reasoning: Due to return this weekend from a hamstring injury, TE Pat Freiermuth’s body had other ideas. He appears to have aggravated the injury during practice and is set to miss Sunday’s game, and possibly longer.
The Pittsburgh Steelers seemed to be in a good place on the health front coming out of the bye week. They were due to get all of their injured starters back minus DL Cameron Heyward, with a full complement of skill players on offense.
While they are looking to get WR Diontae Johnson back, however, they will have to wait a little while longer for TE Pat Freiermuth. The third-year veteran, having missed time with a hamstring injury, aggravated it this week and has been ruled out for tomorrow’s game against the Los Angeles Rams.
While he and the offense haven’t exactly been prolific this year, Freiermuth does have two of the five touchdowns they have scored so far as an offense. It was anticipated that his role in the passing game would expand as the season wore on.
That can’t happen from the trainer’s table, however. It was previously reported that he could miss additional time beyond this week following the injury aggravation. That wouldn’t be a surprise, given the nature of soft tissue injuries, though the reality remains to be seen.
Truth be told, the rest of the tight end group really didn’t do much without him the week before last, at least in the passing game. He is their receiving tight end, though Connor Heyward could offer a bit in that regard. It’s still too early to say exactly who rookie Darnell Washington will be as a player.
In three of the four games in which he has played so far this season, Freiermuth has been held to single-digit yardage. He caught two passes for a total of five yards over the first two weeks of the season, though that included a three-yard touchdown. He had three catches for seven yards in the game in which he was injured.
Yet he posted 60-reception seasons in each of his first two years in the league. He scored seven touchdowns as rookie, and posted over 700 yards receiving in 2022. He has already matched his touchdown output from a year ago with two scores, but is currently on pace for about 200 yards and in the vicinity of 30 catches.
