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: Up
Reasoning: The third-year tight end looks set to return from a hamstring injury that has robbed him of most of the season that has come to pass thus far. Still on the Reserve/Injured List, he has practiced the past two days, graduating to full participant on Thursday, He is possibly on track to return to the starting lineup on Sunday.
It’s frankly hard to talk about how much of an impact TE Pat Freiermuth can have as he appears set to return to the starting lineup. The reality is that he only caught eight passes for 53 in his four games played before suffering a hamstring injury. Two of those catches were touchdowns, granted.
The thing is, without him, the Steelers have largely abandoned the tight end position, as well as the middle of the field more generally, in their passing game. The only realistic chance of seeing this improve is by getting Freiermuth back on the field and building that rapport with QB Kenny Pickett that began to heat up at the end of last season.
The veteran tight end injured his hamstring in the Steelers’ 30-6 loss to the Houston Texans in Week Four, and he hasn’t seen the field since. Coming out of the bye week to follow, he did make an attempt to return from injury but only served to aggravate the original ailment.
The promptly landed him on the Reserve/Injured List, and now they’ve had to do without him for five games. But the Steelers opened his 21-day activation window now, Freiermuth returning to practice on Wednesday. He worked on a limited basis that day but was able to practice fully yesterday.
Naturally, the team is being cautious in bringing him back, not wanting to risk a second aggravation, but at least until further notice, it appears that he is trending in the direction of returning and playing this week.
Even if he does return this week, it’s hard to surmise how the Steelers will divide the work at tight end. Darnell Washington sees a lot of time on the field as a blocker even if he rarely sees a pass. And they have begun leaning more on the run game, in which area the rookie is the superior player. But finally getting a compelling two-tight-end set up and running wouldn’t be anything to complain about, surely.
