The Pittsburgh Steelers are right where we are: sitting at home being mad. Although they managed to make the playoffs in 2023, they lost in the first round. It has now been seven years without a postseason victory, the longest drought in franchise history. The question is what to do next.
The first step is always taking stock of what happened and what is left. That’s part of the exit meeting process, in which coaches meet with each player. They discuss the season and their expectations moving forward—and potentially their role within it.
While we might not know all the details about what goes on between head coach Mike Tomlin and his players during these exit meetings, we do know how we would conduct those meetings if they were let up to us. So here are the Depot’s exit meetings for the Steelers’ roster following the 2023 season.
Player: Pat Freiermuth
Position: TE
Experience: 3 Years
It was a weird year for TE Pat Freiermuth. He only received more than five targets in three games played out of 13, including the playoffs, even though he played over 500 combined snaps. The good majority of that featured him running routes as an eligible receiver.
By year’s end, he caught just 32 passes for 308 yards and two touchdowns. And his two touchdowns came in the first three weeks of the season. He has been limited to just two touchdowns in each of the past two seasons, in fact, after scoring seven times as a rookie.
The quality of quarterback play is a factor in that. Right now, he is primarily playing with the single worst quarterback of experience in throwing touchdowns in NFL history. That would be Kenny Pickett, who has the lowest touchdown percentage among all quarterbacks with 500 or more pass attempts.
Yet there was that nine-catch, 120-yard game against the Cincinnati Bengals. it was as if a lightbulb had gone off, the Steelers suddenly remembering out to use him. Maybe remembering to use him in the first place.
He drew 11 targets that game. The only other time he drew eight or more was in the Wild Card loss to the Buffalo Bills. He finished that game with five catches for 76 yards, the only other time he recorded 50 or more yards on the season.
It’s a striking contrast to the year before. In 2022, he averaged 11.6 per catch on 63 receptions for 732 yards. That represented a sizeable improvement in efficiency from the previous season. And in actuality he remained consisted in the yards-after-catch department, but his air yards per target dropped. What he didn’t drop was a single target all season.
On the other hand, he did weather criticism for his poor blocking efforts. But he improved upon that over the course of the season as well. Chris Hoke said that he and the rest of the tight end room “improved drastically” in that area in the final weeks. But can he block well and catch well simultaneously—not perhaps on the same play, but in the same game? It may be too late, at least in terms of cashing in, since he is already due for an extension, entering the final year of his rookie contract.
