In the first six games of the 2023 season, the Pittsburgh Steelers haven’t gotten much production out of the tight end group, which looked rather loaded on paper coming into the year.
In the first six games, Steelers tight ends have just 128 yards receiving on 16 catches, good for just 8.0 yards per catch. Pat Freiermuth, who is currently on Injured Reserve with a hamstring injury, has just eight receptions for 53 yards but has found the end zone twice. They’re rather limited in the passing game, and that shows in the yards per route run average from Pro Football Focus.
According to the Y/RR from PFF, all three Steelers’ tight ends that have run routes this season are below 1.0 yards per route run on the season. Heyward leads the Steelers’ tight ends with 0.93 yards per route run, while Freiermuth sits at 0.55. Washington checks in at just 0.16.
Ugly numbers.
For quarterback Kenny Pickett, who spoke to the media Wednesday from the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on the South Side, the lack of usage of the Steelers’ tight ends is more gameplan-related than anything having to do with their talents.
“Yeah, I think that’s all gameplan related and what we see, what we think we can get them on, what we don’t think will work. We wanna get everyone touches. Obviously, we have talented guys everywhere,” Pickett said to reporters Wednesday, according to video via Steelers.com. “We know what we have on the outside, but you know, Connor [Heyward] and Darnell [Washington] do a great job as well. Rodney’s [Williams] getting up and he’s doing some good things too.
“So a lot of guys that can help us, we just gotta figure out what spots they need to be in.”
With Freiermuth out, the excuse of trying to figure out who fits where and does what best can’t exactly be used by the Steelers when it comes to the tight end room because even when Freiermuth was healthy he was barely utilized. He had just 13 targets in four games after being talked about as a key focal point in the passing game in the middle of the field for the Steelers in Year Two under Pickett.
Heyward has had some opportunities in the passing game since taking over for Freiermuth in recent weeks, hauling in three passes for 23 yards against the Baltimore Ravens in Week Five, and then adding two receptions for 23 yards against the Los Angeles in Week Seven, nearly scoring on a well-designed play-action pass in the red zone.
Washington just isn’t getting much work as a receiver. He has just one catch, which came in Week Four on the road against the Texans.
For some of the issues being gameplan related, it’s strange that Pickett says that because Week Seven was a real opportunity for the Steelers to utilize the tight ends against the Rams, who allowed the most receiving yards on the year to tight ends through the first six games. Instead, only Heyward had receiving yards against the Rams from the position, gaining 23 yards.
Whatever the reasoning is behind the lack of production from the tight ends in the passing game, the Steelers need to figure it out — and fast. There’s so much talent at that position that is largely going to waste.
